903rd Friday Blog Roundup

I think the thing I missed most about being home (and not traveling) these last 2.5 years is overhearing conversations. I mean, yes, I travel to see specific things or to experience other cultures. But the thing I missed about travel were observing other people or catching snatches of conversations. You can’t re-create that from home.

Or hearing Hebrew from a stranger. Obviously easier if you’re living in Israel, but we had a few wonderful moments on the trip when I’d catch a word — on the Grand Plaza in Brussels or a train car in Cambridge — and I’d perk up, twisting my head like antennae shifting to point in the correct direction. I missed that.

Now that we’ve figured out masked travel, it feels do-able again. Something I couldn’t imagine even post-vaccine last summer.

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Thank you to everyone who celebrated the Roundup anniversary by posting links last week. You can see all of the posts here. Not too late to add your own.

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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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Things With Secret History” (Finding a Different Path)
• “With Childlessness, the Related Losses Multiply” (Childless by Marriage)
• “The Ends of Eras” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Jess!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Finding a Different Path has a post drawing a parallel from COVID-test weirdness to pregnancy tests that let you know you were just a little pregnant. Her results were kind of positive. Then kind of negative. Did she have COVID? Who knows. (Though she behaved as if she did to protect others.) The point I nodded at: “Why must all the medical things fall under, ‘huh, that’s a mystery,’ for me?”

Infertile Phoenix has a post about getting rid of teaching stuff, which is just as hard as getting rid of the baby stuff because it’s all tied together. She thought she would be able to use her knowledge on her own child. She writes: “I cried because I didn’t get to raise my children. I cried because I’m so good at teaching, but it literally doesn’t cover my bills. I cried because it’s the end of the semester, it’s hot, I’m sad, and I’m just plain worn out.” But three cheers for taking back the space and getting rid of things that are weighing you down.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a great summary of a series of posts by Anne Helen Petersen on being without children and building relationships with kids amongst other related topics. I especially like how she captured and unpacked AHP’s final piece, “How to Show Up For Your Friends Without Kids — and How to Show Up For Kids and Their Parents aka How to Be in a Community.”

The roundup to the Roundup: What I missed from travel. Thank you for celebrating the Roundup. 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 July 22 – 29) 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.