785th Friday Blog Roundup

Remember Melissa from last week who thought she was prepared for COVID-19 because she owned a functioning thermometer? Who was THAT Melissa? This Melissa does not feel prepared for this at all.

This Melissa keeps refreshing this site. (It’s pulling in the data from WHO and CDC.) In the time it took her to drive from her home to her mammogram, 3000+ people were diagnosed with COVID-19. Three new countries had cases.

This Melissa feels really uncertain.

This Melissa bought herself a new mop because she cannot stop cleaning. Because that is what all incarnations of Melissa do when they’re nervous. Melissa loves her new mop. She loves her new grapefruit-scented floor cleaner. Melissa wants to stay up all night cleaning and cleaning and cleaning.

Because this Melissa doesn’t know what to do with herself.

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For the first time… ever(?)… we didn’t go to Purim services. I mean, we did Purim in the sense that we made mishloach manot. But we didn’t go to a Purim party or megillah reading. We didn’t celebrate it in the traditional sense.

It didn’t really have to do with COVID-19. I had gotten home from volunteering, and I felt tired. The last thing I wanted to do after showering was go out again. We didn’t have costumes. So I phoned it in and watched Fleabag instead.

And felt like a terrible person afterward.

Social media made the whole thing weirder because I wasn’t just missing it; I was watching everyone else celebrating it. I didn’t have FOMO because I didn’t really want to be there. I had GOMO––the Guilt of Missing Out.

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It’s Friday the 13th. You guys know I have a compulsive need to mention this every time the Roundup falls on the 13th. As you were.

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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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:

• “That’s My Story and I’m Sticking To It” (Inconceivable!)
• “Up On the Watershed: The View from 45” (Bereaved and Blessed)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled has a post about the playground she can see from their window. She writes, “The weather hasn’t been great, and so the playground hasn’t been used very much so far. And to be honest, I really didn’t give it that much thought. But it’s gradually starting to get a little milder and sunnier outside — and the other day, we spotted a couple of obviously delighted small children climbing all over the equipment as an adult stood by supervising.” It’s a bittersweet post about her old house and old dreams as well as the new ones she’s looking forward to.

Much Ado About Nothing writes about infertility (or, more accurately, PCOS) in the next generation. Her daughter is facing a PCOS diagnosis, and it’s hard for her not to think of her own experience with infertility. She writes, “I know what IF and miscarriage did to me and so many of my friends and all of you out there. Thinking my kid might have to know the same pain just kills me.” She’s asking for words of wisdom if you’ve experienced PCOS yourself.

My Path to Mommyhood has a post about other paths as she goes through a few what ifs. She explains: “I think that’s why it was so hard when the family with two boys moved in to our old house, and the house got the family we tried to make happen, but only after we’d left. Seeing toys in the yard and hearing neighbors talk about the life in the house because of those two young people gives me another window into what could have been.” It made me wistful to think about these mental trips we take to alternate worlds.

Lastly, I love No Kidding in NZ’s post about turning away from guilt and honouring instead. She writes, “Maybe I didn’t want children enough if I could begin to feel joy. Maybe, if I could begin to feel joy now, it meant that I didn’t deserve to have children. Were my fleeting moments of pleasure, or laughter, a betrayal of the babies I had lost, or those I would never have?” Instead of feeling guilt over experiencing moments of joy, she sees it as a way to honour herself, her partner, and her losses by living well.

The roundup to the Roundup: I am not prepared at all. I skipped Purim. It’s Friday the 13th. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between March 6 – 13) 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.