Tag: Traveling

So many times we’re stumbling in the dark and then, eureka! What a spark!

Sara Mazariegos

Josh Johnson’s Comedy Band Camp. Last Saturday night, Luis and I went to Immigrant Food for dinner and saw Josh Johnson in D.C.! His show, Josh Johnson’s Comedy Band Camp, is so cool because it has comedians, musicians, dancers, and a fun ’70s camp vibe. It was a variety show, which I sort of expected because of the name of the tour. I don’t think Josh even came on stage until like 10pm (it was an 8:30pm show.)

Like on The Daily Show, he talked a lot about politics and current events. He has a funny Elizabeth Holmes impression, which I did not anticipate. He was talking about White House things that SNL also talked about at almost the same time. That was amusing to find out later when we got home. It was funnier coming from him. His opening comedian, Tevin ‘Mandal’ Williams, said he went to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture and only saw the second floor, so he doesn’t get why everyone says it’s so sad. All the fun pop culture and music stuff is on the second floor. The basement is where the main exhibit is, and it’s both enormous and enormously sad.

I love that museum. I love when visitors acknowledge our awesome museums. God, I hope they’re allowed to stay awesome.

I’m glad we saw this show, and I hope we can see Josh Johnson again next time he visits D.C.

Housewarming & zombies. On Sunday, we went to our friends Emily and Ashley’s housewarming party. It was really nice to see them again and not just be talking about taking care of our cats. We saw their cats, and we talked about Nerdfighter things. I told them a little about Hollywood, Ending but didn’t say anything spoilery because I hope they’ll read it.

Then we went to the movies and saw Resident Evil. It’s so good! It feels very much like you’re inside the game, which is cool and scary because it’s got a lot of zombies. One thing I especially like is that the movie itself is split into ‘levels.’ It feels like each beat of the plot is the next level where more horrors await and new goals for the protagonist present themselves. Austin Abrams is great in it. He feels like a normal, real guy. I call him Ben because he was Ben in Paper Towns and it reminds Luis where he knows him from. 😆

Pre-vacation jitters. I’m so excited to go to Disney (and Universal) with Luis again! He booked everything so long ago, it feels unreal that it’s finally happening in two days. I’ve been feeling the pre-vacation jitters of “did we forget about something?” or “do we know how to do xyz?” I wrote before about how I watched videos of people walking to and riding the Skyliner from our hotel to the parks, to get an idea of how it all works. I’ve been antsy for a refresher of things like that. But, like I also said, too much planning can make me feel crazy, too.

I told Luis I was feeling anxious about our packing situation, because our airline is sort of strict about sizing and weights of bags, and he suggested we pack a week ahead of time so we can be sure we’re good to go. I love that we’re in sync when it comes to planning trips. He even wrote down, hour by hour, what we’ll do during our “resort day” at the Contemporary. Sure, things might change because of timing, but it’s nice to have a general idea of what we can do while we’re there. This sort of goes along with my being a “plantser” when it comes to writing. Hmm.

We’re going to stay in three wonderful resorts while we’re there, and I’m going to try to focus more on relaxing this time. The plan is to rope-drop every day, so we’re going to hopefully have calmer evenings and not be trying to cram things up until the parks close each day. We’ll see how that goes. I’m glad we’re not the type of people who are trying to ride everything. We’ve got a list of the rides we want to ride, and then we’ve also programmed lunch breaks and some of the attractions that are shows for some breaks. I’m planning to write specifically about our dining experiences in my next update, a week after next, so stay tuned for that!

My outline is my real MVP. I will be roughly four and a half chapters from the end of my draft when we go on our vacation. I’m not sure if having a stronger outline is why things have felt easier this time, or if it’s just being more relaxed about things. My outline means I go into each chapter with a plan instead of a lot of things being stream-of-consciousness, making-it-up-as-I-go-along. It’s funny because, with my last story, I also had an outline but I still felt like I was making up a lot of things as I went along. Maybe it helps to write a good outline and let things germinate for a minute before writing. There are a few little areas here and there that I know need revision, but I feel like the overall story is much stronger.

Wouldn’t it be funny if the secret was writing on less caffeine? That’s one big change I’ve made in my daily routine, and I’m sure it’s affected my thoughts. But I think it’s really the strong outline and the fact that I’ve had these story ideas for a while now.

I’ve started to really contemplate my next story idea. I mentioned it last week, a little. The thing about shorter flights is that I’ll have basically two hours to think about novel plots while I’m on the way to and from Orlando. There may be hope for my Nerdfighter story yet! But don’t quote me on that.

I’ll be back the week after next, unless I’m kidnapped by the Hitchhiking Ghosts! 😉

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.

It’s gonna take patience and time to do it right, child.

Sara Mazariegos

Days off in the middle of the week. Last week, I had Tuesday and Wednesday off and it was so nice to have a break in the middle of the week. It gave me some much needed rest, even if I did wake up early both days to get Disney reservations. It gave me more time with Luis, which is always wonderful. And it made the weekend come sooner. The only downside is the weekend ends up feeling too brief. But then, weekends are always too brief, arent they?

I do intend to keep this in mind, though. Having days off on Monday or Friday to stretch out the weekend is good, but there’s something to be said for having the middle of the week off, too. Especially when I’ve been as tired out as I have been during this summer’s Metro construction. Only twelve more days until things go back to normal and I get to have my shorter commute back! Yes, I’m counting the days.

Spider-Man and potlucks. We were planning to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day again last weekend, but our movie theater unexpectedly closed for maintenance. I was really looking forward to seeing it again (especially not so up-close this time.) We ended up having a nice brunch instead, and watching Jaws, which was nice. There was a “Vinyl Day” at the library nearby, and I’m pretty sure it had a huge turnout because people couldn’t go to the movies. Could’ve been worse. It’s good to support your local library.

Also on Saturday, we went to our neighborhood’s block party. Luis made tostadas that were a big hit. It was nice to see everyone, but we are the neighborhood shy people, so we mostly sat quietly and ate food together. Some ladies introduced themselves and were very into talking about their fresh bean orders online, which was amusing if a bit strange. We have a friendly neighborhood. Oh wow, that’s what I could’ve called this section. “Friendly Neighborhood + Spider-Man.” D’oh!

Disney excitement. On my days off last week, I watched some YouTube videos on how to walk from our hotel to the Magic Kingdom, and how to take the Skyliner into Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. I love that there’s a video for everything these days. The hotels in the videos I found are even the exact hotels we’re staying at, so we don’t have to try to transpose the information for ourselves. There’s a delicate line between avoiding spoilers and knowing what we’re doing so we don’t arrive and feel lost. I love being in the know about stuff. It makes me even more excited. And I also feel dorky watching a ride-through Skyliner video, because it’s literally just a gondola on a line going from a hotel to a theme park gate. But I like to be prepared!

Planning our trips is sometimes more exciting to me than actually being there and doing the things. Sometimes, the being there and doing the things part is more stressful, but imagining doing the things is fun. Also, everything happens so quickly when we’re actually there. But in the twoish months leading up to it, I can daydream about all of the things we’ll do. At the same time, I cannot wait to be at Disney again and experience the new things and the old things we love!

Telling myself the story first. One of the more frustrating things to get in my head is that writing the first draft is me telling myself the story first. It comes out as the messiest version. It’s basically improv so far, making it up as I go along with the aid of some notes/prompts. I’m getting the thoughts and ideas written down so future me can go in and make sense of it. Then the second draft will presumably be better. And then the third draft, etc.

This is the first story I’ve written from the beginning in a long time, because the last two stories I wrote came from previously-written drafts that needed to be heavily rewritten. This time, I’m starting from scratch. And it’s scary. It’s daunting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought, “well, this is hard. I don’t have to keep writing it.” But that is the trap! Every novel starts out in the frustrating, ‘this isn’t coming out the way I envisioned’ phase. Every author goes through this, probably with every novel they’ve published. It’s hard to imagine, and hard to feel like pushing through the self-doubt and the “grr, this needs to be better” will eventually be worth it. But I know that it will. And then I’ll have a completed novel I can be proud of.

And maybe eventually send to agents. But I’m taking the pressure off myself. For now, it’s best to focus on the enjoyment of writing and discovering things as I draft it all out.

If you’re lost you can look and you will find me, time after time.

Sara Mazariegos

A brief—BRIEF—write-up about our wedding. Apropos of nothing, I wanted to share the story of Luis’s and my wedding. I’ve never written a full post about it, and now of course it’ll be relying heavily on memory, but how could I forget one of the best days of my life*?

On October 14, 2017, Luis and I got married in a Super Mario Bros.-inspired wedding. We’d been together for over five years, since Valentine’s Day 2012. Three days before our wedding, we went with our Nerdfighter friends to see John & Hank Green in D.C., and they literally toasted our nuptials. Luis and I met because of their silly internet videos and the group that came from them, so it was the perfect pre-wedding party for us.

We already lived together, so we didn’t have any of the separation before the wedding that some couples do. In the morning, my best friend and bridesmaid Kat picked us up and drove us to the venue (a Courtyard hotel with a beautiful lake and a bunch of cute shops and restaurants near it.) Then it was off to the salon for Kat and me while Luis went off to get ready with his groomsfriends. At some point, a Potbelly sandwich was handed to me by my bridesmaid and our wedding officiant, Eli. My bridal posse and I spent the next few hours getting our makeup on and getting dressed while the photographer snapped pictures. There were no tears, only giggles. They took turns crawling under my dress to adjust my orange crinoline.

© Michelle Whitley

Once I was properly made up and dolled up in my dress plus crinoline plus sash, Michelle the photographer and I went to link up with Luis for some first-look photos. We were excited and happy to see each other again. We gave each other gifts (a Messi Barcelona jersey for him and a green ukulele for me.) Then it was time for us to head to the venue’s balcony for the ceremony.

People often say their wedding ceremony went by in a blur, but I remember our ceremony. Kat held my bouquet so I could hold my orange vow notebook. He was holding a green notebook for himself. Eli held the mic for us as we each read each other our vows. Mine included a John Green quote, because of course it did, and Eli’s speech also included a John Green quote. My mom told me I sounded loud and confident, which makes sense to me because I wasn’t nervous to marry Luis at all. A lot of things make me anxious, but not that.

After our vows, we kissed under the Mario arch with little clouds and coins and power boxes. Then we were whisked off for more photos. Our bridesmaids and groomsfriends joined, and we all went around the lake to pose near a carousel and with the lovely fall foliage. When we arrived back inside the venue a little later, it was time for the reception. During the speeches, Luis’s groomsfriend Aymon, who’d been friends with him since middle school, spoke about how happy we obviously make each other. {It was especially touching in hindsight because, sadly, Aymon passed away in 2020.} Next, his groomsfriend Janine—also his friend since middle school—informed us in her speech that she’d briefly lost our rings but then they were recovered when a custodian at the hotel graciously found them and kept them safe. She had to prove what they looked like. Silver bricks with question marks. She was scared she’d ruined our wedding and we were going to hate her, but it’s a funny and cute story now. I can imagine how stressed she must have been. Finally, my dad made a speech that included “D.F.T.B.A.,**” which floored me. He did some research in preparation, which was very sweet.

I barely ate during the reception, because I wasn’t feeling hungry at all. I had little tastes of things, like our mushroom risotto and Girl Scout Samoa Cookie pie. We had several pies from Dangerously Delicious Pies instead of cake, because we prefer pie. Writing this now makes me want some again…Anyway. During the dances, while Luis danced with his mom to “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen, his uncle invited me to dance with him, which was cute and not planned. Then I danced with my dad to “Romeo & Juliet” by Dire Straits and we laughed because the song is long and no one wanted to come join us. Toward the end of the reception, Luis and I danced to “Barcelona” by Freddie Mercury, and I twirled a bunch to show off my bright orange petticoat. Then we gave a bow and went upstairs to our bridal suite.

Kumail Nanjiani hosted SNL that night. We flew to Barcelona the next morning. And I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding and honeymoon. ✨

* The other best days of my life were when I met Luis, a few other times with him like first kiss and when we got our dog Scout (rest in peace), and when John and Hank Green (but mainly John) spoke so kindly about us during their Turtles All The Way Down tour and gave us a KitchenAid mixer as a wedding gift!
** Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. It’s the slogan of the Nerdfighters.

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.