Tag: Traveling

I’ve heard that it’s quite acceptable and surprisingly fun.

Sara Mazariegos

I’m picky about biopics. I think I’ve discussed them before. When the Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Mr. Rogers ones came out I was irritated because, nearly right before them, brilliant documentaries came out on the subjects. We saw the documentaries and loved them. We saw the RBG biopic and that was all right but not as good, and we didn’t bother with the Mr. Rogers one because the documentary was perfect. More recently, we saw the movie about Bob Dylan going electric and it was… all right. And now there’s a Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White and I just can’t bring myself to care.

We did see Blue Moon about Lorenz Hart last weekend. That was really good. The difference there, I think, is that it was made like a play and didn’t tell his story as much as it showed one major point in his life. He’s also not as well-known to people today as The freaking Boss. It was quiet and subtle, and required prior knowledge about musicals and Broadway in the 40s. It’s probably not doing too well. But I’m tired of seeing the origin story of anyone who’s ever been famous. Tired of even seeing them being made.

I’ve been thinking a lot about aging lately, especially when it comes to people I admire or people in my life who are getting older, and how it makes me feel old in ways that I otherwise might not. It’s strange, I guess; I obviously don’t feel twenty anymore or anything, but I especially feel the passage of time when I see famous people I liked growing up and how they’ve gotten older. Like Tina Fey being in her 50s. That feels insane to me. I’m very glad she’s still around and getting older, of course, because the opposite would be way worse. But honestly… I don’t think people talk about it enough: getting older is scary. It’s like some kind of magic trick that happens in slow motion that no one is controlling, and when you notice it’s happening it’s unsettling and doesn’t feel real.

I was thinking about all the countries I want to visit, and how we often don’t have the time off to go places. And it makes me feel sad and concerned because we shouldn’t wait until we’re 80 to travel. We should go while we’re young enough for walking to not be a problem and we don’t feel too tired to do all the things. I want to visit Amsterdam, Argentina, Berlin, New Zealand (even thinking about that flight makes me feel anxious,) Tokyo, Venice, and I’d love to go back to Barcelona and London since they’re both so great. Domestic vacations are fun, especially Disney, but there is a part of me, in the back of my brain, that thinks, “You should travel to those other countries while you still have a chance.”

I have wanderlust. Somebody explain to my and Luis’s employers that I want to travel so they will give us more days off. Wah.

I’m looking forward to Halloween on Friday and our escape room party on Saturday. It’s not in October, but Saturday is Dia de los Muertos, so it still counts as spooky time. 💀 We’ve gone all out for our escape room this year. It helps that we already own a lot of the stuff and it relies on a lot of lore from the attraction we love so much. I’m excited to see how it all plays out and see how our friends react. They loved our Riddler one last year.

There are understandably a great many shows that people like that are good and become popular. But oh my god. I love The Bear. All the episodes, even the ones that are a half-hour, are like little films. The crazy Christmas episode, “Fishes”… I’m still thinking about it. I was worried when we started watching the show that it was overhyped. That also happens often, but this show is very very good. Can’t recommend it enough, though it is frantic and sad, so you have to go into it knowing it’s not really a comedy. It’s a Drama with some humor in it.

That doesn’t mean I’m rushing out to see the Bruce Springsteen movie just because I like the guy who plays Carmy, though. I like Carmy specifically. I’m not watching everything he ever makes.

Last-Week-of-Not-Writing Writing update: the time off from working on a story has been a good thought cleanse. When I see on the calendar that I’m going to start reading through and editing my It’s A Wonderful Life novel next week, I feel excited and ready to check it out. I have an organized plan, in theory. I’m going to start with a read-through, no note-taking allowed. Then I will go in and make notes of changes, make actual line edits and minor tweaks. THEN I will go in with the bigger rewriting and altering.

Hopefully, by the end of February, I’ll have a fresh new draft I can let people read. And maybe even send to agents.

Here’s hoping,

Caught between the moon and New York City.

Sara Mazariegos

Sort of as predicted, I was sad to leave New York. I kept telling myself as we took the train and Metro and Uber home that I shouldn’t regret it was over, I should be glad it happened. It helped a little, but it’s still sad when fun time together has to end. The weekend will be here soon enough, though. And we will most certainly go back to NYC again.

Luis and I had a more casual anniversary vacation this time, which was good. We didn’t super-pack days with activities, and we were flexible when the weather or shutdown got in the way. For example, since we couldn’t go inside Hamilton’s house, we strolled around the grounds and the park directly near it, then walked all the way to the north in Central Park and explored that a little, too. A different day, we were supposed to walk on the High Line but the rain meant it was closed. It’s a pretty outdoor trail with a bunch of plants and views of the city, sort of like an urban Living with the Land. We moved it to a different day and walked it then; it was much nicer in better weather than it would’ve been if we’d attempted it on the rainiest day we were there.

We also went to the Museum of Modern Art in the morning on the day we were supposed to walk through the High Line, and there were so many people in there. I think it was both because it was rainy and because it was a holiday. Probably not the best planning on our part; it was the day with the most people of any of the places we went. But it was still good to see several of the famous art pieces by Dali, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Warhol. One thing I quickly noticed about tourists in art museums is that a lot of them go up to paintings just to take a picture with their phone, then they move on to the next one. I find that sad.

Luis and I stood at The Persistence of Memory for several minutes, admiring it and appreciating it after watching a lady stand directly in front of it, move her arm in the way of everyone to snap a picture, and then leave.

We did take pictures of the artworks, to have proof memory of seeing them, but we also paused in front of each of them to admire them. Paintings, after all, weren’t made to be photographed.

While on our trip, we also saw several Muppets, a Reagan puppet from The Exorcist, Jim Carrey’s mask from The Mask, Robin Williams’ mask from Mrs. Doubtfire, several Broadway theater marquees, several dogs and squirrels, and even a cat sitting in a window in Queens. We also took the subway a lot. It gets a bad reputation, but the New York subway is great. It’s also modernized with the times, of course, so it’s even more convenient than it used to be.

On our anniversary, I got brave and requested for one of the singing waiters at Gayle’s Broadway Rose sing “Being Alive” from Company for us. And he did! And I cried. It was his first time ever performing it for an audience. It was very sweet.

It was a nice visit. I love going to New York often enough that it feels like a normal place to be. Does that make sense?

We all belong to everything.

Sara Mazariegos

The US is in the midst of a government shutdown. It feels like this happens way more frequently than it used to. It doesn’t only affect Washington DC either; Luis and I are going to New York this weekend/the beginning of next week and we wanted to visit Hamilton’s house, but it will be closed because it’s run by the National Park Service, which is funded by the federal government. We’re going to visit the grounds and see the outside of the house at least. It’ll still be nice to be there, but it’s annoying to be shut out for that reason.

I’m excited to go back to NYC for our anniversary. It’s the city I’ve been to the most, outside of cities I’ve lived in. We’re planning to go to Astoria, Queens and Harlem, and we’re staying in Hell’s Kitchen. We get to experience parts of the city I’ve never visited before. I’ve usually stuck to Manhattan. Technically Harlem is part of Manhattan, but I feel like… no it’s not. We’re going to see the Muppets in Astoria, at the Museum of the Moving Image. Apparently there are around 500 Muppets and sets, etc there. I may implode.

I’m enjoying the three main books I’m reading at the moment: Practical Magic, Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice, and House of Leaves. My calendar reminded me that I’ve been reading House of Leaves for a year now. I’m halfway through it. Don’t judge me until you’ve read it. All three books are Halloween-appropriate. I still love Practical Magic. I’m reading it every weekday while I take the Metro home, so it’s slow-going, but it’s great. The Pumpkin Spice one is for young adults and it’s obvious. It seems like it’s for the younger end of young adults. I think she says “pumpkin spice latte” eighty-six bagillion times in it. So it can be somewhat grating, but it’s cute. I’m looking forward to finishing it so I can read another romance about a ghost.

While I’m at the court house for jury duty, I’m planning to read multiple books. We’ll see how much time I actually end up having to read. I remember reading for hours last time. I get kind of jumpy in situations like that, though, so it might be too ambitious to think I’ll be able to finish reading two books. What if—horror of horrors!—I do finish two books and I don’t have anything else to read. Bringing three books might be crazy.

I’m glad I’m not planning to write there. I’d be too distracted to think!

Speaking of writing, here’s my weekly writing update: I wrote out a plot outline and gave it to Luis to read. It was too confusing and messy, so he helped me come up with a rough skeleton to guide me in writing out my ideas. I wrote a new story summary with his skeleton guide and it makes way more sense now. I still have a lot to think about and develop, but I’m getting somewhere now.

I’m still on a break from writing. This is how I take a break from writing.

I keep forgetting we’re going to NYC in a few days and then I remember and get all excited again. ✨

Until next time,

Ain’t there a pen that will write before they die?

Sara Mazariegos

I stayed up late to watch Conan O’Brien on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night. I lost about an hour of sleep. I think it was worth it. It’s not the sort of thing I’d do every night, though. That’s one of the main issues with those late night talk shows for me. How are you supposed to watch them on the night-of if you have to get up early the next day?

“You can always sleep through work tomorrow.” – Craig Ferguson

I had to stay up to see Conan though. He’s my favorite of the late night guys, and has been since I was little. I’m so glad he’s still around doing things*, and he’s doing such interesting, unique stuff. He’s in a movie, in a more serious role! And he’s going to be in the new Toy Story movie. (It’s an unnecessary sequel, but still it’s nice he gets to be in one.)

Speaking of movies, though thankfully it’s not a sequel, we saw One Battle After Another last weekend. I think it’s only the second Paul Thomas Anderson movie I’ve seen. One thing that’s funny is that it reminded me vaguely of a Wes Anderson movie, though of course it’s not quite as bonkers or bright or ~arty~. But it does have Benicio Del Toro. Hmm.

I really liked it. The acting was good, the story was good, it didn’t feel like it was over two and a half hours long.

Luis and I are making plans for future vacation times. The world being what it is right now, it’s hard to realistically imagine going out of the country, even though the list of countries we want to visit is long. I have a lot of wanderlust, but we’re planning to stick to closer places at least in the foreseeable future. Of course we’re thinking about going to Disney World again. I told Luis we could go in February for our 14th dating anniversary, but then he suggested we could make a week of it and go to Disney and Universal in October for our 9th wedding anniversary. I’m not going to turn down extra theme park days.

Possibly while wearing a hazmat suit, but still.

We got vaccinated last weekend. I even got a hepatitis booster shot. It took almost an hour for them to give us our vaccines, but once we finally saw the tech, it went by quickly and we feel good. We even made her laugh. A lot of people get so impatient and mean to poor pharmacy teams. I know it’s frustrating to have to wait and sometimes dumb things happen, but there’s no reason to be mean to people who are there to help you. Be mad at health insurance companies; they’re the real ones screwing people over.

For this week’s writing update, there’s not much to say. Roll credits.

Just kidding. But I am taking a break from writing, and it might be driving me a little crazy. I created an outline for a new story idea I have, and I’m going to let Luis read it and give me some feedback before I commit to writing it. I’m restless to write something new, something more out there than the contemporary romance novels I’ve been so focused on. A subgenre I really like is magical realism, especially related to ghosts. I’m playing around with some magical realism ideas and we’ll see if it becomes the next novel I’m working on.

Aside from future novels, I also have to edit the story drafts I’ve already written. I’m excited to dive back into my It’s A Wonderful Life novel, though taking a writing break beforehand—and also having a vacation and Halloween to focus on—will be extra helpful for my brain, I think.

It’s a little bit funny how November is still a writing/editing time for me. It’s just easier to write about the holidays when it’s actually the holidays time.

Until next time,

* Don’t even get me started on all the Colbert and Kimmel stuff. Flames. It- It- Flames. Flames! On the side of my face.

I’m trying for no one else but me.

Sara Mazariegos

My new job has been stressful, mainly because I’m getting used to my new schedule and the new things I have to do. It’s a lot of customer service stuff (answering live chats, phone inquiries, and emails) that I haven’t had to do before. But I’m getting used to the structure of how my days will go and I’m asking for help less often. I still hate answering the phone, but maybe that will dissipate with this job, since I’m supposed to answer the phone at least a few times each day. The manager told me it’s okay to tell clients I don’t know something and just take down their info to get it to them in an email, which is a relief.

I’m working on embracing my longer commute. I read a book on the Metro ride home, which is nice. Each block I walk from the office to the Metro station — two, it’s only two blocks — feels like it takes a century to get past. It feels like being in New York, except everything’s wider and it’s less busy. So it’s not like New York at all.

There was a duck standing in the middle of the sidewalk yesterday. Just chilling. She stared back at me when I looked at her as if it was the most normal thing she could be doing with her life.

Two weekends ago (time is crazy right now) we went to our friends’ wedding in Frederick, Maryland. I’d never been there before. It’s a cute little Civil War-y town with tons of independently-owned businesses. Besides the wedding, which was very fun and cute and good to see old friends, we went to the Museum of Civil War Medicine and Mount Olivet Cemetery, which has Francis Scott Key’s grave and memorial. I’m glad we finally went to this little historic town after living in Maryland all these years. Thanks for getting married there, Emily and Ashley. 😊

Boo’s surgery has officially been scheduled for next Tuesday. We opened a GoFundMe and received a bunch of kind donations to help us cover the crazy-high costs of it. She’s going to be cute with only one ear and no tail, but it’s going to be an adjustment, too. I think she’ll be fine with it after she heals. We’ll be the ones who are emotional about it for a bit. We received a generous grant from a volunteer organization, so some of her surgery will also be covered by them. She’s getting so much attention lately. She’s got a lot of fans and well-wishers.

My writing is going well, amidst all of these changes and new experiences. I keep reaching the next 500 words with no trouble, and I’ve come up with some fun plot ideas that tie things together. Just have to remember to actually use them. Does that ever happen to you? You think of a great idea (or even a good idea) and then you forget about it so you never use it? I wish I had a note-taking machine in my brain that transcribed my thoughts and ideas for later.

The other day, I was taking notes and I gave my thumb an annoying wound that’s finally healing. I used to write by hand all the time. I don’t miss it, if it’s going to hurt.

Wake up, it’s nineteen-eighty-four.

Sara Mazariegos

Luis and I had a wonderful, fun vacation in California last week. It was so wonderful that I was genuinely sad to return home. We went to Hollywood for a few days, exploring the Walk of Fame area and a museum full of costumes and Max Factor makeup history, then Universal to check out the new Nintendoland (amazing!) and Disney to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout for the first time. We ended up riding it four times. None of which included a working Rocket Raccoon animatronic, but I’ll get over it. Eventually.

We also rode The Haunted Mansion fourteen times. I’m not exaggerating.

We’re planning to go back again in a few years. Luis event mentioned we could retire in California and get resident passes. 🥹 That is the dream.

I managed to avoid much of the political craziness while we were enjoying our trip. It’s overwhelming, in a lot of ways. I know I’m extremely privileged to be able to go away and not think about stuff for a while, but it’s hard not to feel powerless right now.

Yesterday, I started writing my new novel, and Luis started reading the draft of my other novel. I’m trying to take it easy this time and not push myself so much to write 2k every day. I was starting to feel burnt out and like it was work instead of pleasure. There’s no sense in the first draft being so stressful. It’s not like I have real deadlines (yet.) I wrote an opening scene, and that was a good start.

Anyone else watch The Oscars? I missed it on Sunday since we were flying back that day, but we watched a recording on Monday. I had a feeling Anora would do really well when we saw it in theaters months ago. I have a lot of good-looking movies to check out now, too. Flow looks adorable.

Mostly I’m trying to enjoy each week regardless of what plans we have on the horizon. We haven’t made plans for our anniversary yet this year, and though it’s gnawing at me, I’m not stressing as much. We have time.

We have time.

Pity the child who has ambition.

Sara Mazariegos

I recently listened to Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back and And I’ll Scratch Yours albums. They remind me of when I’ve tried to get people in on my creative projects. I once had a video collaboration channel on YouTube with some friends; that’s the first example that comes to mind, but I’ve had other attempts at getting people to collaborate with me over the years. It’s rough. People have their own lives and schedules. I get it. But it’s also frustrating and disheartening when people fail to follow through and abandon things, especially when they’re things I’ve put my whole heart into. (No grievance or anything toward my video collab friends. It’s not easy to keep up the enthusiasm on a weekly basis.)

Peter Gabriel’s two albums are like that, because he recorded covers of various artists’ songs in the hopes that they’d return the favor and cover one of his songs. Several of them did, but several didn’t… and a few of them delayed the album because their covers came in late. (Looking at you, Regina Spektor.) I feel for him, because his zest for creative collaboration is always at the forefront of his musical projects. Similarly, Paul McCartney wanted Sgt. Pepper to be a concept album and only got two songs into it before it fell apart. Not my favorite Beatles album by any means, but I can empathize with him.

I can also understand the other three not wanting Paul to tell them what to do.

Speaking of Sir Paul, did you watch the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special? It was… not what I hoped for. 😬 A lot of people have said “watch the documentaries if you want to see the older stuff” but that’s no excuse for those sketches they performed. Most of them were too recent to even feel special. My favorite was when Linda Richman (Mike Myers) appeared on Bronx Beat, but it was awkwardly long. I was glad to see Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris getting some love, but if it was up to me there would have been a much better balance between the older players and the newer ones.

Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg’s songs were my favorite parts. Adam Sandler really loves his friends.

The writing break is going well. I still think about my stories all the time, but in a laid back sort of way. I’m looking forward to jumping back into writing when we come back from our trip.

We’re flying to California on Saturday. It’s going to be fine. There are thousands of flights every day. It’s going to be fine. I’m looking forward to warmer temperatures and being inside the original Haunted Mansion as many times as possible while still doing other things. 😄

I’ll be back the week of March 3rd!

“He’s making violent love to me, Mother!”

Sara Mazariegos

It feels as though a million things are happening right around our travels. Isn’t that always the way? I have a bunch of stressful things to do at work, meanwhile we have to get our bathroom renovated (again.) The guys who fixed our shower two years ago didn’t really fix the problem; they caused new ones instead. So we’ve got a nice, new plumber who’s going to work on fixing our shower stall and flooring so things don’t leak.

What a concept.

For Valentine’s Day, since it’s our dating anniversary, we’re going to stay at the hotel where we got married. 😊 We got a lakeview room, and reservations at a fancy nearby restaurant. We’re also going to explore the shops around and see Captain America: Brave New World. It’s going to be a nice weekend.

And then, the following weekend, we fly off to California. We spent time with friends last weekend, one of whom is a pilot, so he told us what went wrong with the helicopter and the plane near the Potomac River. He also assured us that flying is safe, especially from Dulles Airport rather than National. That was comforting. Of course, I already knew that there are way more car accidents than airplane crashes. It’s still a rare thing, even if the news has a lot of them lately…

I’ve already read one of my comp books (comparable to my story, for those wondering what “comp” means) but I still bought an e-reader version so I could reread it and reference it for influence. That’s one thing that’s difficult about not owning comps; if I need to check something, I have to get them back from the library. My story that I’m currently outlining is very different from the other novels I’ve written thus far, so I want to make sure I’m plotting things in a way that makes sense. There are rules for time travel.

Luis read through my outline and gave me some good advice that’s made me even more excited by this new idea. Taking a break from writing and letting myself think about things has been very good for me so far. At the beginning of March, when I start writing, I’ll hopefully have an easier time getting going. My last story benefited tremendously from having a solid outline, so I feel optimistic.

Escaping into novels has been the perfect thing for my otherwise anxious brain.

Like a drunk, but not.

Sara Mazariegos

Wow, a lot has happened in the past week.

I joined the Dear Hank and John Patreon livestream on Wednesday and they announced that tickets were on sale for John Green’s new book tour, for Everything is Tuberculosis! As soon as I got home, Luis and I got tickets. I’m so excited! It feels a little odd to be excited since I’m sure it’s going to also be sad and frustrating to learn about, but I’m still excited to see him again and hear his latest work. We haven’t seen John in person since 2017, when he gave us a lime green Kitchenaid mixer as a wedding present. Something like that’s not going to happen again, but it will still be a great show.

John and Hank Green led to Luis and me meeting, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to see John again. Hopefully Hank will come to D.C. again someday, too.

Many places in Los Angeles have been burned in wildfires, which is scary and sad, and nerve-wracking because we’re going to be there in a little over a month. I’ve donated to redcross.org to help. Los Angeles has been on my mind a lot over the past week.

And then there’s this whole thing with Neil Gaiman. *Deep Sigh*

In writing news, I finished listening to my novel (as read by a phone app!) Luis listened along with me, and he told me he really likes it, though he’s a bit biased. 😏 Now the goal is to read it through and make edits. Thankfully, I didn’t find anything glaring that needs to change, plotwise, so that’s a relief. Restructuring and rewriting really did the trick.

I’m currently reading How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang and I really like it. I’ve noticed that she repeats the descriptor “Victorian” all the time, which is amusing because it escaped edits and read-throughs for her. It makes me think about what words or phrases I might’ve overused. I’ll focus on fixing things like that this first go-around of editing.

Victorianly,

“I, myself, am… strange and unusual.”

Sara Mazariegos

Coming back to work is difficult, especially with how busy I seem to always be these days. I’m doing my best to take deep breaths and handle tasks one at a time, so I don’t feel so overwhelmed.

Our anniversary trip to Cleveland was nice! We ended up having an impromptu day on Sunday because it was rainy and we didn’t feel like trudging through a cemetery (as fun as that can be). We ended up going to the Museum of Natural History instead, which includes a wildlife center with foxes (red and gray!), bobcats, a raven, and even an adorable albino raccoon. It was a highlight of our trip, for sure.

The Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame was also a lot of fun. It’s changed quite a bit since I was last there in the 2000s. Many of the people I like don’t have much in the way of displays anymore, except for The Beatles, of course. The Beatles will always have a big display there. I was a little sad to see Kate Bush’s display is already gone, to make way for this year’s inducted people, I suppose. There was also nothing about Peter Gabriel. But it’s still a great museum! I might have to hunt the archives to find out where certain memorabilia can be found…

Something that might have been predictable: I didn’t write very much on my vacation. I wrote approximately 400 words yesterday before my brain said, “No! I want to relax!” So, now that I’m back to work, I’m going to play catch-up this week. I’ve already thought of changes I want to make in my story, but I’m determined to complete this draft first, then I can make changes… After working on my other story. I can rest again when it’s Christmas. 😅

We’re looking forward to hosting our annual Halloween party soon. Luis worked hard on creating an ‘escape room.’ We’ll have to double-check that everything still works before the party and that the cats haven’t moved things out of position (as cats are wont to do.) I’m eager to see our friends solving the puzzles. It should be so fun. We’ve done murder mystery parties before, but never a full at-home escape room.

October is our busiest month. Can you tell? It’s also my favorite!