Tag: Ozzy Osbourne

I can develop my brooding potential.

Sara Mazariegos

Last Saturday, we spent some much-needed time with friends. I had the idea that, since so much stressful stuff was going on, it would be good to have fun with our friends instead of going to see a movie. We went to Spirit Halloween and Barnes & Noble, and got margaritas. It was really nice. Then we played a Lord of the Rings escape room in a box with one of our friends. It’s good to be reminded that, though the world can be awful, we still have people in our lives who care about us and help us feel better.

Luis and I went on a zoo date on the 14th. We mostly looked at the coatis, fennec, and sand cat. We love the small mammals the most. He likes the sand cat because she reminds him of Boo. 😄 She even has a cat tree and multiple beds like a spoiled house cat who doesn’t wish to be petted. I wish I could have a coati. I made noises at them and they came to me. Then we got fancy Middle Eastern food. I had something called Koosa which is a stuffed squash, with rice and vegetables inside. I’d have it again. I love trying new places in the area.

We were originally planning to see Spinal Tap II but I’m not so sure if it’s worth our time, and it also looks like it’s already left our movie theater. It seems to be relying too much on cameos. I know the original had cameos, but not Paul McCartney and Elton John types of cameos. We’ve watched a few mock interviews with Spinal Tap to promote the movie and it just feels… not the same. It’s nice to see them again, but they’re not as funny.

Speaking of something not as fun… We finished watching The Osbournes the other day. The last two episodes are weird and not interesting. I didn’t know it ended with a Dr. Phil episode. We checked out Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour because we wanted to see more Osbourne stuff, and it’s pretty cute. Plus, it’s educational! I like that they like history so much. It’s a lesser-known fact about Ozzy Osbourne that he was a big fan of World War II history. I have no idea why they chose to end their successful reality show in such a boring way when he was certainly not a boring person. None of them are!

For this week’s writing progress report, I’ll be sitting at 78K words by the end of the day. Eking my way towards the happily-ever-after. There’s still a lot of cute stuff happening in the story, and I’m looking forward to finishing it so I can read it and work on making it better (after a break!) One thing that will be interesting is how I’ll go about editing my long-windedness. 😅 I notice it happening while I’m writing, but it’s how the words come out! I talk like it as well, so it’s not like I’m trying to stretch the word count like a college essay cheater. There’s going to be a fair amount of tightening happening when I edit, as well as getting rid of redundant sentences. Knowing the problem is part of the solution.

“Oh, now you’re saying that I’m redundant. That I repeat myself. That I say things over and over.” – Dr. Frasier Crane, Cheers

Can you help me occupy my brain?

Sara Mazariegos

Luis and I attended the annual Esther Day Virtual Party on Sunday. Esther Day is a birthday celebration of Esther Earl, a Nerdfighter who died of thyroid cancer when she was sixteen. When asked how she wanted to be remembered, she said she would like everyone to take the day to celebrate platonic love and saying “I love you” to people who you might not say it to as often as you want or should; maybe it makes you feel a little uncomfortable because it’s not said as often. It’s a really sweet way to celebrate Esther and her family and the people we love in our lives. It’s just nice. It’s a nice hug of a day.

Do you want a personal example of how kind John Green is? He and his wife Sarah were guests in the virtual party livestream, and he did a Q&A like he often does, because he loves to answer questions and offer “dubious advice.” Luis has been anxious about home repair stuff, as I think I’ve mentioned here, so I casually asked John if he has any advice for dealing with the anxiety. John not only gave us some advice—watch YouTube videos on home repairs (which we can’t really do for our roof, ha.)—he also took the time to give us a shout-out like, “Sara and Luis! We’re fully invested in their marriage.” Which made us both very touched and smiley for the rest of the livestream. And so now, when we’re stressed about home repair stuff, which of course we will keep being stressed about but it’s normal and it will be fine, we can think about John’s shout-out and words of advice, which boil down to us not being alone. 💚

Luis’s birthday is this Saturday! We were originally going to have a birthday party for him because it’s a Saturday and how convenient, but it’s unfortunately a Saturday in summer so all our friends are busy*. But we’re going to see The Naked Gun which is a remake of one of his favorite movies, and we’re going to a restaurant he really likes, and I’m going to make the weekend all about him and what he wants. That’s my other gift to him this year. (I also got him a Switch 2 back in July, which he’s been playing every day since I told him he needed it and we rushed out and got it.) We also also might go see Inter Miami play DC in a few weeks, if we can muster up the enthusiasm since Messi probably won’t play. Busquets will still be there! And De Paul! And Alba! And Suarez! Plenty of fun players, but no one’s as cool as Messi, so we’ll see about that.

We’re still thinking about Ozzy Osbourne. Luis is a big fan, so he’s been showing me all kinds of stuff and playing songs for me. We started watching The Osbournes because I figured it would at least be amusing. It was my idea. It’s fun to learn about the family. It’s definitely silly, but it’s also kind of sweet in a weird way. They had way, way too many dogs and didn’t really know how to take care of them. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

My writing is still going well. I can see how the story plot is progressing as planned, which is very exciting. I’m almost to 50K words. I was looking through my calendar the other day and realized it won’t be long until I’m finished with this draft. September 26th is my goal end date, and that’s not so far away now.

I wish there was a word to describe how good it feels when everything seems to fall into place.

* We are still going to have a party with friends, it’s just not going to be on his actual birthday.

It’s symbolic, of course.

Sara Mazariegos

There are currently three major news stories in the U.S.: the Epstein client list, the Coldplay cheater cam, and Colbert losing his show because CBS is spineless. I’m so angry on Stephen Colbert’s behalf, as many other people are. Legions of people have come out in support of him, which is nice to see. I hope he finds a better avenue for his show, but it sucks too because a lot of his staff are going to lose their jobs. It’ll be easier for him than for them.

A fourth major news story happened yesterday while I was getting ready to leave work. Ozzy Osbourne died, only a few weeks after his big farewell concert with Black Sabbath. 😢 I wasn’t a huge fan or anything, but I still shed a few tears. Especially when Puddles Pity Party did a tribute when he opened at the concert yesterday. He sang a slow ballad version of “Crazy Train” with a photo of young Ozzy on the screen behind him, and my face was wet.

Puddles Pity Party was otherwise funny, and unique. He opened for Weird Al. We saw Weird Al for the second time! The last time we saw him was 9 years ago. We were so close this time! Center Row F, so maybe 10 rows from the stage. I didn’t need to watch him on the screen this time, which is always awesome. The show was different, but it had many of the same songs and video clips from last time. It’d be difficult not to; as Luis pointed out, it’s not like he’s been in a hundred new TV shows and movies since 2016. He did a big medley of all the classic songs. His costume changes and use of media are impressive. When he did “White & Nerdy” I briefly worried he might Segway off the stage, but he didn’t. He’s a professional.

I went to bed an hour late last night because of Weird Al. I’m groggy, but it was worth it.

On Saturday, Luis and I got food poisoning. Typical me, I then spent the next two days being paranoid about it, but I got over it within 24 hours. We’re going to avoid the place that made us sick, though, just to be safe. The worst thing about it, at least in my case, was that it came out of nowhere. I was fine one minute and then–. Bodies can be the worst sometimes. Then again, bodies are like that in order to keep us alive…

Speaking of being sick*, we saw Eddington, the new movie starring Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix, and Emma Stone (she’s not in it that much.) It’s… certainly a movie. It’s a very long, confusing movie. I’m not sure what Ari Aster’s message was supposed to be. It felt oddly timed. I prefer Midsommar and Hereditary. The acting and cinematography were good, but the writing was ehh. Disappointing. I thought the promotional campaign with the Tiktok-esque stuff was more interesting.

I’ve read quite a few articles and social media posts about Gen Z not liking sex scenes in novels and movies. It’s a turn-off for them, pun intended. In my opinion, sex scenes are necessary and expected in romance novels, at least the ones that are widely popular. That’s not to say they have to be heavily graphic or anything, but sex is one way of becoming intimately close with a partner, so it’s a way for the romantic leads to bond. It shouldn’t be the only way they bond, but it’s realistic and natural. If done well, sex scenes can even be cute.

I err on the side of cute. I do my best to always make them cute. There are no “throbbing members” to be found in my novels, I promise. And the scenes move the plot forward and matter to the characters, they’re not just in there because romance = sex. That’s such a shallow way of viewing both romance and sex.

Sorry. Rant over. Until next week.

* It makes sense if you see it, but I’ll also just tell you: there’s a lot of Covid stuff in it.