Tag: Snow

The seasons changed, times are strange.

Sara Mazariegos

Bloody Weather. I know I’ve been complaining about this a lot, but the ice/snow is STILL HERE. Thankfully it’s melted a little, bit the massive piles at bus stops and around sidewalks are sticking around. I told Luis he will probably be waking up with me and helping me get onto the bus for at least the rest of this week. Hopefully by this coming weekend, the warmer temperatures will finish the job and things can go back to normal.

I do love having some extra time with him in the mornings, though. I will miss that. It’s my personal Extra Magic Hours*. My coworkers were singing his praises when I told them he’s been helping me. It’s always my goal to get people to join the Luis fan club, because he’s great.

Stuperbowl (I’m original.) You know what I don’t like? American football. Fortunately for me, Luis is not a fan either. He much prefers soccer/futball, and I’ve become a fan as well. So we didn’t watch any of the Superbowl last weekend, except for maybe ten minutes before the Bad Bunny Halftime Show.

The performance was so fun and I loved that it told a story about Puerto Rico and Latin American culture. He even threw in a mention of Canada! He included all of North America. It was pretty cool. I know at least one person who got teary-eyed watching the beautiful representation of Latin culture, especially in this crazy time we’re currently living in. Maybe, just maybe, this will get people talking about issues in a more nuanced way.

Podcasts but as videos. Like the general populous, I enjoy listening to podcasts. The trouble is, I have a difficult time paying full attention to them, because I am usually working or writing when I listen to them. So when a bunch of the popular ones (Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, etc.) started releasing video versions of them, I was ecstatic. I much prefer consuming YouTube videos. So I’ve been watching the podcast videos during my lunch breaks at work. One thing that’s nice about them is that, if I have to look away for any reason, it’s totally fine because they’re meant to be listed to! What a concept. They’re also long enough that I can watch one episode over the whole week’s worth of lunch breaks.

I’m truly an exciting person. Eh, I’ll go outside for my lunch breaks when it stops being arctic outside. Maybe. Didn’t do it last spring/summer, but maybe this year.

14th on the 14th! I’m so excited about our dating anniversary plans. Last week, I looked at the calendar to see the latest updates—Luis made dining reservations—and, in a combination of excitement and sleepiness, I forgot I’d looked ahead on the calendar and thought it was already next weekend. This made me briefly panic because the Project For Awesome starts on Friday, and I thought I’d missed it!

I highly doubt I’d be able to miss it. I follow too many helpful accounts, and I have it all on my calendar. Just have to remember what day it currently is. 😅

The Metro is getting work done this weekend, and traveling on the Metro is part of our celebration (we met at a stop, after all) so we’re going to brave the long travel in order to enjoy the experience as planned. Then we’re going to explore the place we met; we haven’t been there for longer than a few hours in at least a decade. I love the story of how we met. Which leads me to…

Writing update. I’m starting to feel the familiar feeling that I don’t need to rewrite my Nerdfighter story. Instead of starting completely over, I just need to tweak it. I’ve been working on a big rewrite, and it was a massive overhaul. The characters were different, much of the plot was different… and I started wondering if it’s really better or if the earlier version I had was totally fine, it just needed some big edits. What I’d been working on started to feel a lot more cynical than intended. I wish I could have an unbiased reader read the first chapter of each version and tell me which one’s better. I’m too biased. But I feel like, in this case, writing what I know helps the story and makes it more unique.

I can’t help it that our true love story is already pretty perfect. It doesn’t need revision. It just needs some higher stakes, and I’ve found them.

* This might be a sign I go to Disney too often… Nah.

Time keeps on slippin’ into the future.

Sara Mazariegos

Snow anxiety. I think it’s difficult for people who aren’t in the U.S. northeast to understand the icy, slippery mess we’ve been dealing with. Giant ice-covered mountains of snowcrete stood at the bus stops and on crosswalk corners for days, unable to be removed because they were so packed and stuck together and heavy. Luis helped me each morning by coming with me to the bus stop and helping me get on without slipping. A nice lady at the bus stop also gave me a hand, which deserves mentioning. But the prospect of going out into this awful situation each day was giving me such anxiety. I wasn’t sleeping well, worried about the mess I’d have to penguin-walk through the next day, and I was having a hard time thinking about anything else.

I told my coworkers how I was feeling, and they were so nice and understanding. One of them even said I was brave for speaking up about it, because many of the others didn’t experience any of this crazy winter storm so they aren’t even thinking about how it could be affecting us.

Fortunately, the sun during the day helps melt things and it’s supposed to become warmer soon. Not soon enough, but soon.

I didn’t get mail at the office all last week.

SNOW UPDATE: The snow is still around and Luis still goes to the bus stop with me to help me get safely on the bus, but it’s not as dicy to walk around, at least. I received a bunch of mail at the office, so that’s good. I’m looking forward to not seeing these snow piles everywhere. He’s probably going to be coming to the bus with me every day this week and into next week, by the look of things. It is nice to have him keeping me company. I’m spoiled.

What’s next for Colbert. As you probably know, if you’ve been reading my site for a while, I’m a big fan of Stephen Colbert. Luis got me to really pay attention to him, so he’s a comedian we’ve been able to share. I’m sad that he is losing The Late Show soon—actually, we’re all losing it because CBS is completely cancelling the show, not just firing him (the dicks)—and I wonder what’s next for him. I’m sure he will not completely go away, but I wonder if he will continue doing political satire or if he’s ready for something else. He is an actor, after all. He could go to Broadway for a while. Write a book. Write a nonfiction treatise on J.R.R. Tolkien. Whatever he wants to do next, I am excited to consume it.

That came out weirdly. But you know what I mean. I want to watch it, read it, hear it, etc. Experience it.

Okay, moving on before this gets too silly. I have a more serious topic to discuss.

Rob Reiner & Catherine O’Hara. I started reading As You Wish, Cary Elwes’ memoir about making The Princess Bride. The forward was, fittingly, written by Rob Reiner. There’s so much of him in that book, and you can tell how much Cary Elwes and the others in the cast just loved him. I’m still very sad about what happened to him. I asked Luis for a copy of The Princess Bride for an anniversary present, since I really want to reread it. A lot of people have been quick to point out that Rob Reiner didn’t write that book. He’d be one of them, too. But he had a massive hand in the movie version, and it’s as wonderful and faithful to the story as it is because of him.

To add insult to my already injured heart, Catherine O’Hara passed away last week. I’ve been a fan of hers since Nightmare Before Christmas when I was little, without knowing who she was yet. She’s in so many things I love, including Christopher Guest movies and Schitt’s Creek. It still doesn’t entirely feel real. When I saw the news online, I shouted, “No!” at my screen.

And it struck me that poor Chris Guest lost two close friends within two months. 😢

Comfortable tenses. I’ve started writing an updated version of the Nerdfighter story that I’m still trying to get to a publishable novel form. The tense my brain hit the ground running* with is present, which I’ve enjoyed playing around with recently. I’ve noticed a lot of romance novels use present tense these days. It’s a tense that makes sense. Hopefully my brain won’t forget about it and start using past tense. That has happened before, and it creates all kinds of confusion when I’m editing.

A lot of writers stress about which tense to use. I think you should write in whichever way you’re comfortable with. And if you’re working on a draft, there’s nothing preventing you from changing your mind and changing tenses. It’s the same with point-of-view, though that can be even more annoying to edit. Finding all the “I”s and changing them to “he”s or whatever.

Write in a way that makes you feel comfortable and true to yourself. After all, cleaning it up is for the editing phase.

* I don’t recommend letting your brain hit the ground

No time for revolving doors.

Sara Mazariegos

Commuting in DC. I love living in the DC area and being able to take reliable buses and Metro trains everywhere. Luis and I don’t own a car (I can’t even drive, and he dislikes driving) and we don’t need to. We save so much money by not having a car, and the time spent waiting for buses or trains is comparable to the time spent sitting in traffic for drivers.

That being said, having to stand for all or nearly all of the commute is exhausting and I always get bummed because it means I can’t read while I ride. (First World Problem, I know, but still.) The other morning, the train was full of people and slow because of single-tracking and I had to stand the whole time. I briefly felt a panic attack coming on, but luckily I was able to get a seat before it got bad. I felt hot and like I might faint or be sick. That doesn’t usually happen to me. Thankfully, it’s not usually so packed I have to stand in the morning.

“It’s gonna snow again.” We heard for at least a week that it was going to snow from Saturday night through Monday morning. I went from thinking, “Oh man, I might have to work from home” to “I’m definitely going to have to work from home” to “I might have to take it as a snow day if the power goes out.” It also ramped up to include so many other states that several of my coworkers also had to work from home in their respective office locations. What does it say about me that I was more concerned about having to possibly take a day off (not as vacation, but as emergency) than I was about having enough non-perishable food in case we’re stuck in our house with no power for a while?

Luis ordered groceries and we planned meals in case we can’t use our stove or microwave. We might be living on canned beans and potato chips for a few days. I have faith that things will be okay, though.

SNOW UPDATE: I was allowed to work from home on Monday and Tuesday. We got about six inches of snow plus ice and sleet on Sunday, and the D.C. government closed because of the weather. The bus and Metro would be a nightmare when there’s that much snow and ice, even if they sometimes like to pretend otherwise. The Metro had problems with their track the other day, after all, and that was without snow.

Luis helped me get on the bus from the terribly icy/snowy bus stop this morning. Maryland left a huge frozen hill at the bus stop and we had to climb over it to get safely on the bus. Fortunately, the driver knew to wait to let us on. We weren’t going to wait 30 minutes for another bus. Luis even rode to the Metro with me, to make sure I got onto the train safely as well. I can’t speak highly enough about him. 🥲 Today’s the anniversary of the day we met!

He’s probably going to need to help me the rest of this week, until the snow is actually gone enough for it to not still be a minor hazard. Conversely, the Metro? Totally fine. It came right on time and there were no issues. I hope it stays that way.

The Color Purple novel. I’ve just started reading The Color Purple, and I’m really enjoying it. It feels like a well-timed departure from the depressing books I’ve read recently. It’s not all sunshine and giggles, of course, but the tone is brighter and the characters (at least several of the main ones) are more lovable. Especially Celie. We saw the musical movie when it was in theaters, so I was excited when I found the novel in a Little Free Library. It is a delight to read the way the strong women in the story fight back against the oppressive men, even if it’s sometimes just with a shared look. I keep catching myself grinning while I read it on the Metro. I used to think it would be very heavy, like Beloved, but it’s got humor to it. I hope it’s not bad to say I find it lighthearted and hopeful.

Beloved is also very good, of course. It is definitely sad, though. I need to read more Toni Morrison. I read Sula in college, and I need to read it again to enjoy it this time instead of using it for a term paper. You know?

February’s going to have a lot going on. There’s a week on my calendar with so much on it. It’s going to have Luis’s and my 14th dating anniversary mini-vacation (14th on the 14th!) the Winter Olympics coverage (I love ice skating/dancing,) and the Project For Awesome! All three of those will be on the same days, though of course the Olympics last longer. With the skating and the P4A livestreaming, we’re going to have plenty to watch in the hotel room after our fun anniversary activities each day. We’re going to museums and parks and shops near where we met fourteen years ago, and we hopefully won’t freeze our tails off.

I’m glad we did not get married on Valentine’s Day, but it is nice we started dating on that day. It makes it seem like everyone’s celebrating us with us.

These are the things I can do without.

Sara Mazariegos

Christmas Eve Vacation. I requested the day off after Thanksgiving, and my boss ended up giving it to all of us anyway, so I asked him if I could use that extra vacation day for Christmas Eve. He officially approved it! So I will only have to work Monday and Tuesday that week, then have the rest of the week off. It’ll be good, because we celebrate Christmas with Luis’s family on Christmas Eve (Guatemalan tradition.) I may prefer Halloween, but I do like the time off for the holidays, and watching the specials and movies. And, hey, I wrote a Christmasy novel! I can’t say I hate it.

Snow already?! On Friday, it snowed in the DC area. The forecast said “flurries” but there were quite a few. They filled the air and hit me in the eyes repeatedly as I walked to the office in the morning. Luckily, the ground stayed walkable. I’m hoping it won’t get so bad that I can’t come to the office one of these days this winter, but we’ll see. Winters can become a bit intense here, especially in January and February. I think I’ll be able to work from home if it’s ever impassable. I wouldn’t have much other choice, and no clients would be visiting our office if it’s too nasty outside. I like watching snow, but I don’t like being in it. I hate the cold.

Merrily We Roll Along and Stephen Sondheim. We saw the filmed version of Broadway’s Merrily We Roll Along last weekend, and it was so good. My favorite character was Charley, as played by Daniel Radcliffe. I’ve loved every Sondheim musical I’ve seen/heard so far. It reminded me quite a bit of Company, and the book was written by George Furth, the guy who also wrote the book of Company. (He was also in a few episodes of The Monkees, so it’s fair to say I’m a fan of his, too!) Richard Linklater is apparently going to make a movie version over the actual course of 20 years… It doesn’t sound as good. He’s such a stunt director. I recommend the recorded Broadway version. Hopefully it will be streaming soon.

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2. This weekend we’re going to see the sequel to Five Nights At Freddy’s. I know I wrote last week about how there are too many sequels and some are okay, a lot are unnecessary. I think this one is necessary, because the first one was the setup and this one looks more like the game series. It’s getting pretty bad reviews from critics, but the audience score is great, because movies like this are made for the fans more than anything. They’re not trying to win any awards with this. But I hope it’s as fun and creepy as the games are. From the trailers, it even looks like my favorite character is in it (Mangle.) I hope I like it.


I also hope we can actually see it. Sometimes our movie theater moves out movies before we even get the chance to see them. Like they think, “Gotta make room for a bunch of old Christmas movies instead of playing new things. No one wants new things around the holidays.”

Writing/Reading update. It’s been nice to take time off from actively writing. I’m slowly working on an outline for the big rewrite of my Nerdfighter-inspired novel. I’m going in a different direction while still staying true to the general theme I had before. I like that there are many angles to play with. I’m also thinking of the characters more and more as their own people instead of facsimiles of people I know. It’s easier to create without real life dictating how things should be.

While I’m taking this nice break, I’m reading a few books. I finished The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts and now I’ve started The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. I like reading more serious books on the Metro, and the sweeter stories at home. Luis and I are reading our way through The Good Part together. He seems to be enjoying it as well. I love that book so much. Just have to try not to let it make me cry in front of him.

You got it down when you appear to be in pain.

Sara Mazariegos


This week has been so topsy-turvy.

First, it has been so snowy that I’ve worked from home two days and I’ll possibly have to do so tomorrow as well. Have I mentioned that I hate this time of year? I’ve never liked the cold, and snow makes everything so much harder. I say this as someone from Montana. I moved away from there when I was three, and I’m glad! 😛

Another big change this week is that the company I work for decided to move my desk from a little office in a corner everyone ignored to the main reception desk on our floor. I’m not a receptionist and social interaction is not my friend, so let’s just say my Bluetooth headphones are really going to come in handy.

They don’t expect me to be a receptionist. They just wanted to move someone into my office and this desk was empty. Fuuuuuun.

Anyway, my blog’s not meant for work woes.

I’ve been rewriting my novel and it’s going okay so far. I’m feeling the usual “Is this good? Do I write like a 4th grader?” feelings, but I’m noticing it’s a trend among writers to feel that way. Kate Clayborn posted on Threads that she felt similar about writing her latest novel. I love Kate Clayborn’s writing! So that made me feel much better.

One bit of exciting revision/developmental news: I finally figured out my romance novel’s hook! It took me far too long, but it was staring me in the face the whole time. I’m skewing the story in a different, but somehow also the same, direction and I’m excited! It’s going to be so cute (if I do say so myself.)

My husband has been THE BIGGEST help. Full credit to him for not only helping me when he doesn’t need to but also listening to me endlessly blather on about writing, my plot, and my ideas. He gives me suggestions to make things better rather than just saying “Yes, dear” and going back to playing Zelda, which he would be fully within his rights to do. He’s my quiet co-writer for a lot of it. ❤️

Hope you’re staying warm out there!

It must be beautiful in Vermont this time of year. All that snow…

Sara Mazariegos

I hope you had a nice holiday season this year. It’s hard to believe 2024 is almost here.

I’m working at the office Wednesday-Friday, which feels very weird. The days feel off and most people aren’t working, so it’s like a skeleton crew and none of the tasks that matter are getting done, so why worry about the other tasks?

Holiday weeks off should be mandatory. If only I was the boss of everyone. 😉

No video this week because I’m giving myself a personal vacation even if I don’t have a work one. I’m also taking a break from writing, and I keep catching myself thinking about the revising I plan to do. “Not yet, brain,” I tell myself.

Luis (husband) and I are planning our next vacation. There’s something about browsing through Airbnb that cheers me up on a cold and rainy December day.

Nevermind that we considered Cleveland, Ohio before people reminded us that snow happens in February. So that’s been added to the autumn anniversary trip list. Hopefully Cleveland’s not bad in October. We’ve only got two anniversaries! (Dating and wedding.) We don’t travel for our birthdays. We’re not that extravagant.

…Okay, so we’re going to Disney World for my birthday next spring, but a) it coincides with another Guatemala wedding and b) it wasn’t my idea.

I’m like a five-year-old; promise me Disney World and I’ll be excited for months.