Tag: The Haunted Mansion

He stared at me and I felt a change, time meant nothing, never would again!

Sara Mazariegos

Weekend fun. Last weekend, Luis and I went out to dinner with my parents in D.C. at a place called Capitano in The Wharf. It’s a good, Southern Italian place. We caught up with my parents about their recent trip to Norway and Iceland, and they gave us a few souvenirs. We also stuffed ourselves on pizza, pasta, and bruschetta. Oh, and tiramisu.

On Sunday, Luis and I celebrated the 14th early by going to an all-you-can-eat stir fry place by our house. We also watched a few episodes of Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which has a too-long title. We’ve already seen a documentary about him, and My Friend Dahmer, so we know about the case. He was a pretty messed up individual, to say the least. We also watched the original Nosferatu, which was very tame by comparison. Can you tell we’re looking forward to Halloween?

Things start rolling soon. I’ve realized, as I look at my calendar, that all of our fun plans start rolling soon. We’re seeing John Green next week, and then about a week later we’re seeing Josh Johnson. And then the following week we’ll be at Disney! Everything is occurring close to each other this year, and it makes it all very exciting. After we go to Disney/Universal, we’re also seeing Rush.

I like having lots of plans in autumn, because it is my favorite season. It does make it a little harder to watch a bunch of Halloween movies, but there’s nothing preventing us from stretching Halloween through November. Especially because the nice, autumn weather probably won’t really kick in until then. I cannot wait to wear hoodies outside again*.

What happens to our imaginations? In all of my nostalgia as I write lately, I remember how I used to create entire worlds in backyards, and get my friends to see the same things as me. I once turned my friend’s backyard into The Haunted Mansion, at least in our minds. It was so cool that I’ll never forget it. All we really had was a red plastic wagon (her little sister rode in the wagon) and some cool, southern gothic-esque porches and trees to play in. We wheeled her little sister around the backyard and I described the imagery of the ride, turning the porch into Madame Leota’s seance room or a tree vine into a snake. We would shake the wagon or run with it down a grassy hill to make the “ride” more thrilling in places. It was so much fun.

What happens to our imaginations as we get older? I feel like I do still imagine a lot of things, but real life and adult sensibilities often get in the way. The whimsy is quieted. I read something online recently that said we don’t remember the last time we played, because we didn’t know it would be the last time.

Maybe the next story I write should be for kids. I’d love to reawaken the whimsical, hyper-imaginative side of my brain. I know it’s still there. Does it know I miss it?

All the pieces seem to fit into place. As things fit into place in my story, I’m starting to feel oddly psyched for the second draft. This never happens. But I wrote down some notes for some changes I already know I want to make, and I’m excited to fill in some gaps and add some more subplot drama. I’ve been doing a lot of research, and humorously enough it’s a lot of looking back and remembering things that happened and when and how.

I’m starting to feel like I really have something here. I hope it’s true.

* I often wear hoodies inside because air conditioning makes me cold.

Somebody force me to care.

Sara Mazariegos

I kind of don’t miss “normal,” but the past few weeks have also been a lot.

Last weekend, we saw The Black Phone 2. It was fun and I’m glad they got the whole cast back instead of changing out the actors. I hope there’s not another sequel because it has a good ending and there’s not much more to do with the characters and premise. It’ll start to get stupid if they keep churning out sequels. It reminded me of Nightmare on Elm Street. That’s a perfect example of too many bad sequels, too.

As mentioned, we went to a Game Changer-themed party on Sunday. I was so nervous because it involved so much improv and it’s one thing to watch a show like that, but to actually participate in the games on the spot is kind of terrifying. Luis and I did a scene about a couple breaking up over a tandem bike. That was my proudest moment. We also got the group challenge to whisper everything, and I was really good at that. I wore the “Whispering” sticker the rest of the day. I was feeling very anxious on Sunday, so it was good to have a fun social event to distract my brain for a while.

I was anxious on Sunday because I had Jury Duty on Monday. I woke up at the same time as when I go to work and took the bus, getting to the courthouse nice and early so I could get through security and just relax with my books. I was led to believe I’d be sitting around reading for hours (that’s how it was in Virginia when I last had jury duty)… But Maryland does things differently. For one thing, there were about 800 people in the juror assembly room! They called out names for each jury pool early. I was in a pool that was around 200 people. It was a big case, and right away I knew I shouldn’t be selected. I had lunch and a brief break after the general questions, and then we came back in for more personal questioning with the judge and lawyers, with a white noise machine blocking out our discussion so the other potential jurors didn’t hear private information.

The case is apparently going to last eight business days. The judge listened to my reasoning and could see I was anxious about missing so much work at my 1-person office job, so she dismissed me. It helped— not on purpose!—that I completely blanked on the name of my company. All my brain wanted to say was my last job’s name, and I was panicking because I just couldn’t remember and I couldn’t force my brain to remember with everyone watching me and I felt so crazy. I thought she might say, “Eh, everyone wants to be at work” but she took pity on me and told me to go home. I tried not to act so relieved, but I bet she and the lawyers knew I was.

Who knew anxiety could get you out of jury duty? I wonder if it always would, though. I think it might depend on a few factors. I’m not planning to try to use it as an excuse in the future, because it was not fun to experience that.

Shifting over to something more pleasant, Luis and I are excitedly getting into Halloween preparations. We’re hosting another homemade escape room this year. The theme is Disney’s The Haunted Mansion (the attraction, not a movie.) I’ve mainly assisted with my ride knowledge and my decor collection; Luis has been coming up with all kinds of creative puzzles and he’s made a bunch of videos. He’s talented. We were originally planning a couple’s costume that was unrelated, but then I realized since we’re hosting a Haunted Mansion themed party and it’s my #1 favorite (hence the decor and my tattoo, etc) we should dress more thematically for that. He turned on a dime and bought a new costume. The party’s the weekend after this one. I’m grateful he had enough time to make the switch and I love that he was willing to do that for me. 💖

Of course I already had something to wear. I only needed an accessory, which I bought. I’ll be quite at home in our escape room at home.

As I said above, I didn’t have as much time to read during jury duty as I hoped. I actually surprised myself last night because I’m not even halfway through The Love of My Afterlife yet even though I read it a bunch. It’s hard for me to focus on a book when I’m distracted, and the courthouse people kept interrupting to make announcements and make us watch a video and tell us their judge stories. I really like the book, though. It’s a romance but I think it’s more general fiction with some romantic elements because it’s an adventure of self-discovery in a way. A lot of the “romance” books I gravitate to are like that. I also think I’ve discovered the true twist in the story. I hope I’m not wrong, because I love a good “aha, gotcha!” when the author sets one thing up and then veers in the opposite direction.

Finally, time for a writing update: I’m still taking a break from writing. After the initial “I have so many ideas though!!” few days, I’ve appreciated having time to relax and not think up plots or agonize about conflicts. It’s good to recharge my mental batteries. I do that for so many other things, why not do it for writing? I looked at the calendar the other day and realized it won’t be long until I’m reading through and editing my It’s A Wonderful Life story. And I thought, “Oh, so I better enjoy this time away while it lasts.”

I can’t wait to dive back in, but waiting is better so it’s not too cold.