452nd Friday Blog Roundup
I thought I was going to hate the new version of Gmail and dreaded seeing my inbox switch over, but I have to say, I am in love with the new system. My social media notifications go into one column, and I can read/delete/archive them in huge batches. Anything promotional goes into another column, and I can now quickly drag product pitches over there and never have to see them again. I’ll just comb through that column once a day to make sure no legitimate emails got stuck in there. It’s like having a turbo spam filter.
And then the rest of my emails are all coming into my normal inbox.
I get a lot of email every day, and a chunk of my evening is spent separating out the emails I need to read from the ones I just need to glance at and archive. And don’t even get me started on my annoyance over the amount of junk mail I receive. Now I can scroll down a column, hit “all” and poof — they’re gone. Archived. Trashed. Whatever I want.
Well done, Google.
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Last week, we drove down to Carmen’s for water ice. As we drove over, I realized that I had no cash on me. I hate using a credit card for a small amount of money, so I decided that I would buy a Crave card (one of their gift cards) and use it immediately, keeping the remainder for another day. Problem solved.
Except when we stepped up to the door, there was a sign saying their credit card machine wasn’t working. We went inside anyway to see if it had miraculously been fixed and they just hadn’t taken the sign down. Alas, it was like Ladyhawke — they could only take cash, and we had no cash, no ATM card, no blank check. We only had the credit card, and they had a broken credit card machine.
We were going to have to leave without water ice.
I told the twins we could come back on the weekend, and the ChickieNob promptly began to cry. It had taken us a while to get there, she had debated flavours in the car, and now she was going to have to wait days for her water ice. Carmen’s is also nowhere near our house — a long drive — and she knows from past experience that the best laid plans sometimes don’t happen when we need to figure out how to get there again.
As we crossed the lot, we heard a woman call out to us. “Come back,” she said. “Let’s figure this out.”
So we went back in the store, and the owner came out from the back room. Apparently, after we walked out, the employee went to tell him how sad the ChickieNob had been, and being the parent of a similarly-aged kid, he decided that they must have water ice that day. They simply couldn’t be expected to wait. He brought out a portable credit card machine that they use for their carts, and rang up our water ice. It tasted even better than it would have if we hadn’t thought we wouldn’t be having water ice that day.
That’s the sort of nice step a family-owned business can do for its customers.
Later that weekend, we came back because I had indeed promised the kids water ice on the weekend. So they ended up getting two water ices in one week.
Thank you, Carmen’s, for not sending away two very sad eight-year-olds sans water ice.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “This is my Therapy” (Mama Said Knock You Out)
- “Birth Plans” (Stumbling Gracefully)
- “Advice, and Double Dark Chocolate Beet Muffins” (A Half Baked Life)
- “Straddling Worlds” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
- “Six Years into this Lonely Walk… Saudade” (The Empty Cookie)
Okay, now my choices this week.
No Kidding in NZ has a post about setting up your future when your future isn’t following the course you thought it would take. In other words, answering the internal question, “what’s next for me?” She writes, “When a big life goal – whether you’ve held it for your entire life, or simply the years in which you were trying to conceive – is taken away as an option, we often feel that we need to replace it with something equally big. How do we save the world, make a difference, feel as if we’ve achieved something, and leave our mark on the planet if we’re not going to be a parent?” She answers with her own advice for this question.
Starlit Dreams has a happy post about gratitude. Maybe it’s having read her for so long, to know how dark some of the dark days were, that it made me smile hugely to read her post and think about this happy space keeping her from sleep. May everyone get to feel that type of contentment in their lives.
On the opposite end was Baby, Borneo or Bust’s post about moving, also starting from a place of being unable to sleep. You can practically feel the excitement of the night before your life changes popping off the screen. Wishing her safe travels.
Lastly, Baby Makin’ has a post about when her job and her infertility collide. This line really moved me: “Will I ever be able to tell my child to ‘make something pretty!’ when I drop them off and see their excited faces when they bound up the stairs at pick up time with their project from the day?” And then this one: “I give her a small smile to try and make her feel better. She doesn’t know, however, that I’m crying inside, wondering if I’ll ever have a little girl like her.” That last one got me crying.
The roundup to the Roundup: Love the new Gmail. Thank you, Carmen’s. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between July 12th and July 19th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
17 comments
I love the new Gmail, too. It makes the OCD freak in me incredibly happy.
I would appreciate the new Gmail if it were at all consistent. It keeps putting my emails in random folders – not the one it used previously for the same sender. All in all, it’s kind of OK – it allows me to ignore stuff, which I generally enjoy.
What is water ice? Is that like a snow cone? Do I ask this every summer? Don’t you think water ice is redundant? (For me, it’s like the people around here who call pens “ink pens” because they can’t enunciate the difference between pen and pin. Or people who call it sticky tape – when it’s video tape, you should specify. All other tape is used for binding. Yes, I do know that I’m crazy, but weren’t we talking about our little idiosyncrasies?)
What a cute story!
Thank you so much for mentioning me! What an awesome thing to start my weekend 😀
I’m one who really dislikes change, so the new Gmail has taken me a while to get used to. I actually changed both my personal and work Gmails back to how they were before, but I might end up slowly using the tabs.
That is such a sweet water ice story – but I too am at a loss for what water ice is………
My picks for the week:
1. Stirrup Queens – https://www.stirrup-queens.com/2013/07/infertility-is-like-getting-rejected-from-your-dream-job-over-and-over-again/
2. Invincible Spring – http://my-invincible-spring.blogspot.ca/2013/07/travel-essentials-and-learning-to-let-go.html
3. Life From Here: Musings from the Edge – http://lifefromhere.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/breakdown-breakthrough-part-one/
Water ice is a type of Italian ice with a very fine texture.
Yay for Carmen for seeing the bigger picture :-). And thanks for the new perspective on gmail. I have been sitting in the if-it-aint-broken camp
Something big dawns on Geo-Chick: http://geo-chick.blogspot.com/2013/07/my-adoption-backstory-and-epiphany.html
On being excluded: http://queenoftheslipstream.blogspot.com/2013/07/mama-is-state-of-mind.html
OMG, how would I know about anything without you. I learned about Google Reader going away here, first. Then about Sharknado, and now about the improved Gmail (which I just clicked over to (I used gmail as pass through account so only access it when I need to send an email from that address).
Wealth of info here at Stirrup-Queens, I tell you!
Also, I have no idea what water ice is. Must know. Is it akin to what one might call a snow cone?
Impatiently Waiting’s post struck a chord with me this week: “Better To Be Too Soon Than Never At All (In My Opinion)” http://wherethebleepisourstork.blogspot.com/2013/07/better-to-be-too-soon-than-never-at-all.html#comment-form
She writes about a blog friend who was chastised about telling too soon, and how the author believes “I don’t know what difference it makes when the announcement of the pregnancy was made; if it is going to end, it is going to end. Don’t go on living one day, while being pregnant, without celebrating it, and the child growing, for all its amazing glory!”
After just coming off of a surprise bfp and then miscarriage, in my case I realize just how right she is. I didn’t tell and now there is little knowledge that my very wanted miracle pregnancy ever existed.
I have never had water ice. I do love love love shaved ice, so I guess I would love water ice too?
I like the new Gmail inbox, but I am still having problems with “what mail is put where”. I just pull the mail between tabs, till Gmail starts intuitively figuring what goes where.
My pick of the week is a post written taking its prompt from one of your posts:
http://itiswhatitisorisit.net/?p=4656
I loved this post this week:
http://bythebrooke.blogspot.ca/2013/07/other-peoples-pregnancies.html
I too was apprehensive of the new Gmail, i do like it because most of my emails aren’t actual emails! It’s a bit of a pain having to go through and delete them all separately, but i like that its organised.
Water ice, i had no idea it existed!! I had to look it up and curse the fact that it’s cold and i don’t actually want one at this very moment. I’m so glad you guys got to unexpectedly enjoy it; human kindness is a most delicious flavour.
Loved the post from No Kidding from NZ this week. If you hadn’t posted it, I was going to recommend it. I love how she ends the post. Inspiring words in finding meaning in your life on your own terms.
That was so nice of them. I’m glad ChickieNob got her water ice.
I wanted to add this for last week but I didn’t read it until late Thursday so I’m including it now. It’s a great post on not having a parenting philosophy but understanding why some do cling to a prescribed way of doing it. Very insightful.
http://ana-begins.blogspot.com/2013/07/my-parenting-philosophy.html
Kathy from Bereaved and Blessed linked to this post via FB and it really touched me: http://katydidcancer.blogspot.fr/2013/07/day-1119-say-little-prayer-for-me.html
Awwww, thanks for the link. 🙂
StacieT- Thank you for mentioning my post! That post about timing and telling sure got quite a mix of comments. I am glad you enjoyed it!