850th Friday Blog Roundup

My 15th blogoversary AND 850 (really 750—remember, the misnumbering) Roundups falling in the same week? That feels like symmetry somehow.

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I was super excited to see Us on Masterpiece. David Nicholls is a fantastic writer, and this book holds a special place in my heart because I read it in Glasgow. How often can you remember exactly where you were or what was happening when you read a book? Almost never, right? But I remember walking through Glasgow and then curling up in a chair in the hotel, reading this story about a family coming apart. The moment I heard about this production, I put it in my calendar. I was going to watch it on June 20th, come hell or high water.

And then the television stopped working. Like five minutes into the first episode.

Isn’t that what you expected to happen? I mean, I clearly didn’t, but that’s the only way this story can go.

Luckily, I have the PBS app, so I can watch the episode by plugging the phone into the television until service can be fixed. Well worth it because the director and actors did a fantastic job capturing the story and moving it from page to screen.

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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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

I love this post by Jewish IVF because sometimes the small wins are the biggest wins. In some ways, they’re the most important wins, and people rarely notice them. They are celebrated quietly, and this post is a reminder they should be celebrated loudly. Getting started is hard. She writes: “I’m equal parts embarrassed and proud. I’m ashamed that it took so long to actually do it … and I’m proud I finally took a step over the hump of the mental wall that was preventing me from starting.” Congratulations on jumping over the mental wall.

Much Ado About Nothing has a heartbreaking post about the aftermath of broken trust. And a second layer: “And then when I didn’t have all the pieces, instead of coming clean he made my brain work like a detective to put everything in order.” There are no good answers to her enormous questions, but we can all abide with her.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix wrote an amazing post about building the life she wanted. All the hard steps along the way, and where she ultimately ended up. And I love this—”I thank my children every day. I had picked out a boy’s name and girl’s name and so I thank them both out loud quite often. We don’t get to be together on Earth in this lifetime, but I feel our love and their guidance as they bring me closer to myself, to others, and to my true purpose for being here: to be of service to my community.” What a gorgeous way of honouring a whole life.

The roundup to the Roundup: 15 years and 850 Roundups. Us on Masterpiece is really good. 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 June 18 – June 25) 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.