366th Friday Blog Roundup

I love reading the wishes each year and adding my own, but it is always bittersweet as well.  To see so much yearning written out on the screen, and the reality of how much of life is really out of our control.  That all we can do sometimes is wish and wait to see what happens.

But how damn cool is it that it’s 11/11/11 today?

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EPT started following me on Twitter.  It was seriously like an addict getting followed by @Meth.  When I saw the name, I literally started twitching.  As a former peestick addict who can’t keep them in my house because I have no patience and go through them ridiculously, it gave me pause to see that pop up.

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I have serious Siri envy.  I didn’t really care about the app when the iPhone first came out beyond copying the woman’s voice to speak to the twins and annoy them (my Siri voice is very different from my GPS voice, and is frustratingly calm and robotic in the face of their tantrums: “Do you mean, ‘I’m not going to eat this.’  Here are a list of restaurants in your area.”)

And then, right before bed one night, I saw the commercial on television.  That night, I dreamed that I had an iPhone with Siri.  I was actually having a nightmare, but in my dream, I kept calming myself by speaking to Siri and listening to her response.  I rationally knew that it was just a computer program, but I kept saying in the dream that it made me feel less alone.  I woke up from the dream and told Josh that I now had Siri envy, knowing full well that we wouldn’t be getting an iPhone and having no other way to utilize Siri (and yes, I’ve already tried similar apps, but they don’t speak back to you in that soothing voice).

Oooh, I don’t know what to do with my Siri envy.  Those who have it, is it just as amazing as I think it is?

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On the topic of something I love: Pacific’s Vegetarian Pho Soup Base.  I am literally in love to the point where (and I’m embarrassed to admit this) I hid the remains of dinner deep in the refrigerator so Josh wouldn’t find it and take it to work.

First and foremost, it is difficult to find vegetarian pho at all.  I make a similar soup base, but it takes me hours to make enough for about 2 meals.  I haven’t made it in awhile because it’s so much work.  So it’s hard to make at home and it’s difficult to find out at a restaurant.

The soup base let me make dinner in about ten minutes.  I steamed some broccoli and carrots, fried some shallots, chopped some cilantro and green onions, and made the rice noodles. (I totally forgot the tofu until we sat down to eat.)  Heated up the soup in the pot I used to fry the shallots and poured over each bowl.  Oh my G-d — it was so damn good.

I was going to write about it on our local listserv, and then greed got the best of me.  I am waiting to put up the note until I have gone to the store and horded 5 cartons.

Greatest invention since Siri.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week as well as the week before.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Motherhood in the Time of Separation” (Slowmamma)
• “Blogotopia” (Stumbling Gracefully)
• “Is My Introvert Showing” (The Misadventures of Missohkay)
• “Out of Proportion Sad” (Write Mind Open Heart)
• “Trick or Treat” (Lesbian Dad)
• “A Birthday Story” (Baby, Interrupted)
• “Love Your Body Day” (This is More Personal)
• “Spoken Word Blog Roundup” (Four of a Kind)
• “Worst Parents Ever” (Stirrup Queens) — thanks, Keiko!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Life of an Army Wife has a post about the different ways she and her husband are processing grief.  This point spoke volumes for me: “Communication at times is lacking in relationships.  Its a necessary thing if one wants to receive what they most desire.  Mind reading is not an option.  In the last few months I’ve had more sit down, evening discussions with my husband than most couples have in a year’s time.”  It’s a gorgeous post, and I send a lot of good thoughts for that road to acceptance.

The Lotus Flower writes about needing a date with her husband after the loss of their child.  Since the loss, they’ve spent time with each other, but always with others around.  It is time for them to do something alone.  I love this thought: “we need to start guarding our time. We have a lot of friends and a lot of family. That’s a lot of support – which is great. But it’s also a lot of phone calls and offers to visit. And because I was raised as a good southern girl, I feel a lot of pressure to return phone calls, and it’s VERY difficult for me to refuse an offer to visit.”  It’s a good reminder that sometimes the best support is giving people the space they need to grieve.

Uppercase Woman has a fantastic post about her body.  About how we treat our bodies and how we think about our bodies.  I love, love, love the ending: “This is what I have, now. Peace with the external world while my internal world still struggles. Perhaps, at last, in my fifties I’ll have peace inside too. Only a few years until I find out.”  Go over and read the whole thing.

Lastly, MissConception has a raw post called “Guilty as Charged” about what she is feeling after her loss.  She takes the blame for the loss of her twins even though she intellectually knows her body was outside her control.  She asks the heartbreaking question: “How could I possibly try again, knowing that another child could die as a result of my need to be a mother?”  Please surround her right now with love.

The roundup to the Roundup: Happy 11/11/11.  I can’t believe EPT would do this to me.  I have a scorching case of Siri envy.  I fell in love with Pacific’s vegetarian pho.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between November 4th and November 11th) 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.