576th Friday Blog Roundup
It’s Christmas day. I hope if you’re celebrating that you’re having a wonderful time with all the festivities. And if you’re not celebrating, that you’re having a wonderful time having a day off. And if you don’t have a day off, that you’re at least getting a good piece of chocolate into your body. And if you hate chocolate… well… a particularly satisfying carrot?
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This post has zero spoilers for The Force Awakens.
I got to see it on Wednesday. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I would rank it third for Star Wars films (Empire is 1st, New Hope is 2nd, and Force Awakens is 3rd).
I cried four times — big, gasping, shaking crying jags that freaked out the elderly woman next to me. I’m happy to tell you where if you want to know. I just don’t want to post it here and possibly ruin anything for anyone.
But the best part for me was seeing it with my dad. I saw Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi with him in the theater, so this was our third Star Wars movie together.
Now the hard part: the ChickieNob doesn’t know if she wants to be Leia or Rey for Purim this year. Decisions decisions.
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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:
- “Being Up to the Task” (A+ Effort)
Okay, now my choices this week.
We’ll kick it off with the best Christmas post I read this week. A Half Baked Life has a beautiful post about being okay with the darkness and even finding the benefit to sitting with the unknowns that creep out when we’re without light. I loved this line: “It was like coming home, almost, to people who didn’t judge me for leaving.” We should all find spaces like that in our lives.
Infertile Fantasies donated her embryos, and the recipient is now pregnant. This is a gorgeous post about the ambivalence she feels, swinging between extreme gratitude that the embryos burrowed in and implanted and the grief in knowing the embryos burrowed in and implanted. I especially loved this thought: “Suddenly my heart was lighter, like it just then realised it didn’t have to go through it all that night, because it would in any case be going through it piece by piece each day.”
Today’s the Day has a post about her word of the year. I love this post because while I see lots of posts in January about a person’s word of the year, I rarely see posts in December that reflect on how the word served them over the 12 months. So it was nice to hear how the word kept her company, goaded her along, or sometimes made her feel guilty over the course of a year.
Lastly, One Step at a Time has a post about a negative right before Christmas. Days of nausea convince her that she’s pregnant, but after she gets the beta results, she writes, “I just could not believe it. I was sad, but I was also angry about all the nausea I was having. I was fine with it if it meant I was pregnant but now it just seemed like a cruel joke.” It’s a post about being grateful for what you have and missing what you don’t at the same time.
The roundup to the Roundup: Merry Christmas. Happy Force Awakens. 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 December 18th and 25th) 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.
12 comments
First, thank you for not doing spoilers on Star Wars. I am really looking forward to it probably going next week. I cannot wait.
My brother celebrates Christmas, so with me here, I will too. He even bought me a Tofurkey. (Which no one but me gets excited over.)
These recommended posts are lovely.
I’m a purist as in I’ve only seen the first 3 Star Wars movies. I’m old enough to have seen the 1st one in a movie theatre at age 9. And I will continue to refer to the first as Star Wars. How can they change the name 30+ years later?
It’s been soooo long since I’ve seen a movie. We will likely wait until it’s on dvd to see it.
Question: if one has not seen the other movies besides the first 3 (actual first 3, not first 3 time wise–the later ones are supposed to have occurred in time first, right?), will they get this latest one? Or is there knowledge from the intervening movies that is necessary to follow along in this latest one?
Went to see Star Wars with my husband and I started crying at the opening credits, sent me back to my childhood. Also cried at other moments during the movie, but I do not want to spoil the movie for anyone. I want to see it again, but will wait until I can rent (probably buy it).
Thanks for the mention! Also going to see Star Wars and looking forward to it!
Probably best to have seen the original trilogy, but no real need to see the prequels before you see The Force Awakens.
I really enjoyed TFA. Probably some holes I could pick with the plot but as pure entertainment it was great. The two new actors Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were amazing, hope this is the start of a great career for both. I particularly liked that there was more than one awesome female character in the film.
If you’ve seen the film, check out the “emo kylo ren” twitter account. It’s hilarious but full of spoilers, so don’t go near until you’ve seen the film.
Happy holidays, Mel! I hope you got to enjoy some chocolate yesterday 😉
I really enjoyed this post, and how she talks about being “ready” for children, as if that is ever truly possible. But her thought at the end is spot on.
http://talesofa30yroldnothing.com/2015/12/23/are-you-ready/
Mel, thanks again so much for listening and including me. I feel much more settled about it all (at least for now) after my little meltdown of the other night. Sometimes I think you just have to take 24hrs and have a small meltdown about a thing. You know?
Anyway, I’m still holding out for the heartbeat scan in early January – long experience has taught me not to start expecting anything before then. And even after that of course it’s the same story – but each milestone is one step closer.
Keep doing what you do. We appreciate it!
I loved Cristy’s post on the quiet moments at the start of the holiday break:
http://searchingforoursilverlining.blogspot.com/2015/12/microblogmondays-not-creature-was.html
And Lori Lavender Luz’s thoughtful discussion on the brou-ha-ha surrounding the Kohl’s ad where a young man meets his birth mother and other family members for the first time:
http://lavenderluz.com/2015/12/kohls-adoption-video.html
We feel like the last people to see Star Wars. As in, we haven’t yet. We need to see a matinee this week while we’re fortunate to be off but some people are working, actually ASAP as we’re starting to piece some things together from a variety of sources that alone wouldn’t constitute spoiling but when cobbled together seem to be giving things away. Or maybe I’m wrong. I’ll have to let you know… 🙂
I was gonna put Justine’s in as second helpings. Glad to see it’s part of the main dish!
We plan to get to Star Wars this week.
(And thanks, Jess!)
I hit a point in The Force Awakens where I started crying (the obvious point), and I just DID NOT STOP. I cried for the entire rest of the film. I cried all through the credits. I cried leaving the theatre. I cried in the bathroom at the theatre. And I cried all the way home on public transit.
We’re talking great, big, sobbing, ugly crying. I think the last time I cried that hard at a movie was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
I am a crier by nature, but being pregnant has clearly made things much much worse.
Now when people ask me if I liked the movie and they haven’t seen it yet, I tell them to go see it first because I don’t have a short answer to that question.
We’re planning to see it on New Year’s Day. Duly noted: I will bring plenty of Kleenex. 😉 To Working Mom: my girlfriend & I went with our moms (!) to see “The Empire Strikes Back” when it first came out. Neither of our moms had seen the first movie, and I cannot for the life of me remember why they wanted to see this one, other than they wanted a night out, but they both enjoyed it hugely, even without the background of the first.
I’m back from the movie! 😉 As we left, I said to dh, “Now THAT was the “Star Wars” movie that I’ve waited 30+ years to see!” SO. AWESOME. Now the wait to May 2017 begins…!
I was prepared to start crying from the opening crawl, but then they showed THIS little short/promo for the theatre chain just before the movie began. So I was bawling my eyes out & mucking up my glasses, even before the dang movie began:
http://www.cineplex.com/SNOWMAN