Category — Friday Blog Roundup

COVID cases are on the rise, which means it must be time to get rid of masks. Amirite? Especially in small, enclosed spaces such as cars and buses and planes. We can use those forms of transportation to get to other small, enclosed spaces, such as bars, where we can all hang out, maskless, and lament how COVID cases on the rise. Whatever should we do?

If Year 1 was scary and Year 2 was frustrated, Year 3 of the pandemic feels ridiculous. We know what works. We know what we need to do to keep cases down and continue with — for the most part — normal life. And yet we seem incapable of doing what we know works. We’re like toddlers screaming that we’re not tired while we have a meltdown and fall asleep on the floor.

Luckily, one-way masking still works, even if its effectiveness is reduced. I’m keeping my mask on — for myself, for the immunocompromised, for the people who can’t or are too young to get a vaccine.

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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:

• None… sniff…

Okay, now my choices this week.

Finding a Different Path makes a surprising connection with a student’s parent. It was a great conversation about infertility and adoption, and she ends with this thought: “It was a moment that left me feeling connected and understood. Our experiences were different, but with a thread of commonality.” Here is to the connections we make along the way.

A Separate Life muses on a line in Richard Osman’s book about how we once knew each other’s handwriting. Yes! It’s a strange thing to miss, but I knew all of my friends and family member’s handwriting. That number has shrunk considerably. There are still people whose handwriting I can identify, but for most of the people I interact with on a regular basis, I have no clue what their handwriting looks like.

Lastly, I held this over from the missing Roundup: Bereaved and Blessed breaks down 15 years of blogging with each year’s defining word. It’s an amazing look back at a writing life, and it would be fun to retroactively return to each year and figure out the overriding feeling of your own posts. Congratulations on reaching a huge blogging milestone.

The roundup to the Roundup: Thankful for masks. 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 April 8 – April 22) 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.

I spent the night before getting my progressives feeling like I made an enormous mistake. I imagined I would put them on, the world would be blurry, and I would promptly vomit in the store. Okay, perhaps not vomit, but not be able to function.

I walked into the store with my stomach in knots.

But they weren’t as bad as I feared. They also weren’t as good as I hoped. I was getting accustomed to a new prescription and the progressives at the same time, which possibly made it harder than it would have been if I had spread out the transition process. The world was blurry on the edges, and I felt seasick every time I moved my head. But when my eyes were pointing forward, I could see far. And when I looked down, I could read my watch — something that hasn’t happened with my glasses on in years.

I decided to wear my progressives from 9 to 5. Then I would switch into my distance glasses. If we went out, I would wear distance glasses. I gave myself the first hour of the day in my old distance frames, and the rest of the day (except for when I was wearing progressives) in the new distance frames.

The result is that three weeks in, I’m feeling okay with the progressives. I can keep them on to read brief things, though I still like to take them off to read books. Headaches from the new distance prescription have mostly stopped. I can see the world again. I probably should re-read this in the future the next time I’m dreading something.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• None… sniff…

Okay, now my choices this week.

Cup of Jo has an essay from a person who was born after her parents experienced two children born still. I’m accustomed to hearing about loss from the parent’s perspective, and it was interesting to hear how a child (now an adult) processes the space that exists between her older sister and herself. She writes: “The babies: this is what we called them. The babies. We — our eventual family of four — knew them as one, though they hadn’t come as one. They were never going to grow up to be anything other than the babies, the big brother and sister I never had.” It is such a powerful piece about loss and families and how we take care of each other and hold memories.

A Separate Life has a most excellent rant about the portrayal of women over a certain age. Think granny. And not even spry granny. She writes: “Over and over again, we see this on our screens; the grandparents of young children are almost always portrayed as extremely elderly. Yet the reality is that most young children have active grandparents in their 50s (give or take a decade).” It creates a weird phenomenon where 60-year-old women are aged up to portray 80-year-olds.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix gets through a hard month and can breathe easier in April. She writes about something I rarely see discussed: how do you know when you need help? She explains: “There were a couple of times where I wondered if I needed to bring in some more support. I am not afraid to ask for help, but I’m not always aware of when I reach that point. I informally assessed my life but determined I was still functioning. So I just continued to feel and process.” Food for thought.

The roundup to the Roundup: Adjusting to new glasses. 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 April 1 – April 8) 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.

It’s the most terrible day of the year. Fine. There are holidays that are emotionally hard to get through. April Fools Day isn’t that, but it makes me so cranky. Especially fake pregnancy announcements.

I am avoiding social media as much as possible today so I don’t have to whisper, “I hate you,” under my breath as I scroll on.

My glasses saga also continues. I had to return one of the pairs of distance glasses. The frames were too small for my face, which I probably would have noted if I had been given longer than three minutes to commit to a pair of frames. I learned what all of the numbers mean on the temple of the glasses, and now I am armed with the numbers from my favourite pair and trying to replicate them in a new frame. Like April Fools Day, I feel really done with eyeglass shopping.

Done.

That is the theme of this week.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• “Putting Our Yearning on a Shelf” (No Kidding in NZ)
• “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Cut has a photo essay about miscarriage. A warning: it is graphic. But I’m including it because I found it very moving. Especially the accompanying words: “I remember being annoyed with Casey for taking pictures. What I didn’t realize was the whole time I was bleeding, being operated on, and recovering, he was photographing. This was his love language, his way of saying, ‘I’m here, I see you and your pain.’” Click over and read it if you’re feeling up to it.

Lastly, Uterus Monologues has a post about Mother’s Day. (UK Mother’s Day is earlier than the US version.) She encourages you to feel whatever you’re going to feel. She writes: “My relationship with this particular day has shifted since I started writing this blog. Every year, my feelings have been slightly different. Every year, I’ve been confronted by something else. And every year, I’ve learnt something.” Love this thought.

The roundup to the Roundup: Don’t get tricked. 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 25 – April 1) 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.

888 Roundups! (Okay, really 788 Roundups due to the misnumbering years ago, but still.)

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I’ve been calling this Big Sleep Weekend. It’s probably only Big Sleep Saturday because I have to clean the house on Sunday and I have a call with friends in the middle of the day. But the point is that I scheduled in sleep, reading, and watching television for 24 hours. A salad for dinner that will take no time to pull together.

I cannot wait.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• “What I Learned From Blogs” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Phoenix and Mali

Okay, now my choices this week.

Dubliner in Deutschland is dealing with COVID. The remarkable thing is the way the posts have changed over the two years. By which I mean, the way we talk about COVID has changed. Glad they’re all on the mend, though bummed that she missed St. Patrick’s Day again.

A Blank New Page unpacks some thoughts about Ukraine. She begins, “It seems so inappropriate to talk about me, my lost future as a mother, and my problems with my childless life while a terrible, cruel war is raging in Europe.” It’s a heartbreaking post; giving perspective.

The Road Less Travelled talks about the new designation of prolonged grief disorder. She says it perfectly: “Grief needs to be normalized, not pathologized.” The fact that the designation is being made for insurance purposes is maddening. Grief demands that we allow it to take its own time, it’s own shape.

Lastly, Counting Pink Lines talks about the waiting. She writes, “I forgot how much of TTC was waiting — either for periods to come or to not come.” Especially that period before the period (no pun intended) where you feel like it’s coming any moment… and then doesn’t arrive.

The roundup to the Roundup: Big sleep weekend. 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 18 – 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.

Just as Bea was telling me about Encanto, I received an email from Hulu asking if we wanted to add Disney+ for a teeny tiny amount. Years ago, I said I would never give in and have streaming services. And now, suddenly, we have several of them. I’m not sure where this train jumped the track.

Part of me likes the streaming life. I don’t feel cluttered, though I have access to tons of entertainment. And part of me feels like I want clutter. I want to feel weighed down. I want to pay for something once and own it.

It is hard to feel such different things at the same time.

I am leaning towards accepting the Disney+ offer because there is a movie with a red panda in it. And red pandas are kind of my heart along with quokkas, foxes, puffins, bears, otters, and 3000 other animals I’ve told you are my heart over the years. But I also kind of feel like I need a good talking to about this.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• “In Our Own Time: One Couple’s Fertility Journey” (McSweeney’s) — don’t get confused about it being on a funny site. A (the commenter) found this, and it’s a beautiful series
• “Empathy: The Glue That Holds Humanity Together” (Silent Sorority)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Many people marked the two year anniversary of the pandemic. Family Building with a Twist reflects on the last two years. She lost her husband during this time period as well, and she writes, “Jimmy did not die from COVID, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to separate his death from the last two years. It’s all tangled up together and part of my pandemic experience and memory.” It made me think about how much our personal history gets tangled together with the collective history, and we live these two realities at the same time.

Infertile Phoenix also looks back on the last two years. She has a profound thought about restaurants at the start of the post: “It represents that every routine and element of structure in my life changed entirely. Over a weekend. It’s a lot for all of us to absorb, process, and endure.” Yes. I mean, on one hand, it’s just a restaurant. But on the other, when I ate my last meal out, I didn’t realize that two years later, the closest I’ve gotten to a restaurant is eating takeaway in the car. Her year contained other moments including a toxic co-worker (three cheers to not explaining yourself), but I kept thinking about the restaurant line.

Finding a Different Path learns how her story has helped others as friends use what they learned from her. It’s a powerful feeling to know your words have helped another person. She writes, “I’m pretty damn happy with where we landed, how my story has evolved, and how it’s used for a good greater than me.” She should be!

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ writes about making bread, turning it into a metaphor for life. She explains, “Even decisions over which bread am I going to make are influenced by the fact that I don’t have children. Okay, I know realistically any kids I might have had might not be living at home any longer. But I could have had years of baking bread for them or with them before they set off for university or careers or travel or love.” I hope she made the bread, and I hope it was delicious.

The roundup to the Roundup: Mixed feelings on streaming services. 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 11 – 18) 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.