431st Friday Blog Roundup

Last Friday, the twins and I were having dinner out together before we went to see a play.  The ChickieNob was asking for specific stories: Tell me about the time there was a tornado while you were in class, and how the world looked when you walked outside after.  Tell me about the time someone threw a police road block through your apartment window.  And then she said, “tell me a story I’ve never heard.”  Suddenly this story popped into my head, a story I had never told almost anyone before about something that happened back in high school.  I told them this long tale of what had happened which ended with me yelling at the boy in the story.  I admitted that I let out a long string of curse words at the top of my lungs while in the mall.  And then I did it again when he tried to call me later to apologize.  The ChickieNob was aghast.  “Did you apologize?”

No, I admitted.  I hadn’t apologized, though I certainly had come to feel sorry about how I reacted once I calmed down.  “You need to write him an apology.”

“It’s been over 20 years,” I pointed out.  “He may not even remember.”

“You have to apologize anyway!” she admonished.

She didn’t forget.  She asked me the next day if I had written my apology.  I hadn’t.  She told me to write myself a note so I would remember to do it.  So I wrote myself a note, and then, in the middle of the week, I found the boy on Facebook and sent him a note.  I didn’t know if he would remember me much less the incident, but the ChickieNob was satisfied.  “Good! That is what you should have done 20 years ago!”

But in the end, he wrote back.  He remembered the incident, and we got to have a great conversation about it.  It was so nice to swing back to that moment, continue the story so it didn’t end on that sour note but instead had a long pause and ended with this conversation 20 years later.

He commented that the ChickieNob seemed like a very compassionate person, and I told her that.  She gave this secret smile and did this dance step and said, “I am!  And I’m glad he noticed that.”  Then she proceeded to pretend to be a zombie, dragging herself across the floor, grunting and groaning.  She is compassionate, yes, but she is also the strangest person I’ve ever met.  Like Mother Theresa meets Wednesday Addams.

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The kids weren’t really phased, even when I greeted them on Valentine’s Day by reminding them that their stuffed animals and kidneys were mine.  It’s as if they’ve developed an immunity to my shenanigans.

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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:

• “Gender Differences and Why They Don’t Matter So Much” (Science-Based Medicine)
• “On the Pain Olympics and Why I Don’t Think It’s a Dirty Term” (A Thousand Oceans)
• “From the Ashes” (Viva la Vida!)
• “Tik Tok Tik Tok 1-1-1” (While We Were Waiting)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Following My Sun has a heartbreakingly brief post that stunned me into a state of quietness.  It is a gorgeous post about loss; about those hours that most people sleep through and miss.

Bio Girl lost her sister Missy this week to brain cancer, and her post in the aftermath stayed in my mind for days.  She describes the fear the numbness brings so perfectly.  My heart is with her family right now as they grieve.

Mojo Working has a very angry post, which is a must-read for anyone wishing to see the far-reaching effects of a reproductive disease.  She states so honestly, “Sometimes it feels overwhelming, impossible to bear. And yet, somehow, I bear it. I wish I could say I bear it gracefully, but I do not. I bear it, but with a deep and unforgiving anger that bubbles just beneath the surface. I do not hide it well.”  Read this post.

An Expat’s Journal has a post recounting an important conversation she had with her husband.  It is about realizing that not only does she need a game plan in order to proceed, but she needs to know where her husband stands on the various paths out of infertility so they can plan together.  It is about knowing in the back of her head that one day she may hit her limit, and she needs to know what will happen next.  It is a beautiful post about two people planning a life together, one that weaves both their ideas, hopes, and limits.

Almost lastly… FrozenOJ’s Concentrated Life got me with a cartoon that states: “Sometimes I really hate my vagina” but she kept me as I cringed through a day in the life of OJ on her period.  She begins, “Watching feminine product commercials really make me jealous.”  And while none of us run through a field of flowers while we’re on the rag, our hair blowing back in the breeze, her reality is such a harsh contrast to the girls in the commercials who run and jump and go to the beach… all while bleeding profusely.

Really lastly, the amazing list of writers who stood up and were their own valentines this week (well, they were possibly other people’s valentines as well, but they were also their own valentine).  Please read and enjoy these great posts:

• Have sex. If you can. And if not, don’t stress and have it later.
• Letting Go Of…
• FTAW Day 2: It Takes a Village
• Mental Checkup
• Sleep Shenanigans
• AdoptLit Book Tour: The Sound of Hope, an Adoptee’s Quest for her Origins
• A Day in the Life
• Time Warp Tuesday: Heart
• Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
• Helping Out Our Aunt
• Past, Present and Future News
• Random Thoughts
• Everything I Love About Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” Video(s)
• Love, Sex and Rock n’ Roll: Happy Valentine’s Day.
• Why I Hate February
• I Am Angry
• My Worst Nightmare
• In Honor Of My Favorite Bees
• Due Date 2013: The Actual

The roundup to the Roundup: An apology 20 years in the making.  The twins don’t even react to my teasing anymore.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between February 8th and 15th) 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.