163rd Friday Blog Roundup

The wishes on 11/11 were some of the most moving comments I’ve ever read.  I started crying a few wishes in.  I’m very hormonal this week, but it was also so hard to read the heart placed in the open.  Like all of the linking things, I realized too late that if I threw my wish in there, it would screw up the chain.  So my wish is that I come home safely from this trip and that I get through it with few tears.  This is my last time I have to travel and I keep focusing on Sunday.  Returning to my home.

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My travel saga from last weekend (as opposed to my current travels this weekend) ended with a packed Amtrak train and three hours with nothing to do except listen to the two men behind me because I had to hold all my things on my lap and therefore couldn’t take out the papers I needed to edit.

I was seated in front of two men who were discussing their “little fellow.”  I assumed for the first sixteen minutes or so that they were talking about a child.  Then, one of them said, “do you remember how little his tail was when we first got him?”  And suddenly, Little Max, sounded like either one of the Illuminati or an animal.  It became clear a moment later–when one mentioned how Little Max cries with meows whenever the man eats tuna–that the son they had been discussing for 22 full minutes is a cat.  Across the aisle was the nail clipper and next to me was this kind woman who offered me her kiwi slices who went through half a bottle of hand sanitizer on the trip.  She washed her hands every time I coughed, even though she wasn’t touching anything and finally built a newspaper wall between us.  The newspaper wall sort of closed off any more offerings of kiwi slices.

I think I’m the type of person who is meant to be home.  My friend, Anat, is someone who is meant to travel and life (like paying a mortgage) gets in the way and keeps her from exploring.  I’m someone who is meant to spend her life baking brownies.  At home.

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In case you couldn’t actually picture how the Golden Haiku will work (since it is different and more far-reaching than the Creme de la Creme), I’m showing the lobby map that will be the doorway to the list.

The day the list goes up, those individual states will be linked to an umbrella category of the blogosphere.  The reader will jump to a room that contains all the blog posts that fit in that topic.  It’s essentially what Bridges tried to do, but more a burst of information than a slow reveal over time.

Those in the ALI community can participate in both the Creme de la Creme AND the Golden Haiku.  Those outside our community can only do the Golden Haiku.  The two lists will go up two weeks apart from one another.  The Creme is much more surprise-oriented, where you get to see how your post is described.  The Golden Haiku is more more doorway-oriented, with the idea being to build entrances into each area of the blogosphere that people can easily walk through.

You can submit the same post for both projects, or if you’re deciding between two posts, consider which one you’d rather have read within our community and which one you’d rather send out to the general public.  But please do participate in both projects.

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Last week, I didn’t get a chance to enter the winning squares from Blogger Bingo.  The winner, in case you didn’t see, was Once a Mother.  She won with a yellow card:

• Free Space–a post that mentions a recipe.
• Post from before 2008 that mentions a recent purchase.
• Post that has song lyrics from April or May of 2008.
• Post from any September that mentions a restaurant.
• Post that mentions a spouse, partner, or friend from December 2007.

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Favour: you can vote once a day, and it’s literally a click over, hit a vote button, and you’re done, but Lauren is trying to become the new face of E.L.F.  She doesn’t have a modeling background and she hasn’t been airbrushed or worked on.  She’s just a real woman who could be your neighbour who wants to spread the idea of healthfulness.

She writes: “I am a real woman. Period. No fake parts, no fillers. I was the fat kid.”  Wouldn’t she be a great person to inspire?  She already jumped up to the top 300 people in the past few days.  Can’t we give her some votes?

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The Weekly What If: If you could have an article written about you or your picture featured in any magazine, which one would it be?

Mine would, hands down, be People Magazine.  That’s when I’ll know I’ve made it.  When I’m in People.  I am such a lover of that magazine.

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And now, the blogs…

Birds and Squirrels has a post about turning 35.  I turned 35 this year, so the feelings are still fresh in my mind, but beyond the AMA, she is discovering that she cares about how her body is changing.  She writes, “It disturbs me that I am starting to care about these things. I’ve always wanted to be one of those sassy, vibrant, kick ass women who grow old unapologetically, that are still out digging in their gardens in their 80’s, and traveling to new and strange places until the very end. I have a feeling that those women don’t worry about dry skin, fine lines and gray hairs.”  But more importantly, she asks for a birthday gift that all of us can give her: “What I would like is for someone to sit with me and remind me of all the beautiful things that getting older brings, none of which I can think of right now.”  Even though her birthday has passed, please go over there and tell her your words of advice.  And if you have no advice, at least compliment her on the great post and wish her a happy belated birthday.

Magpie Musing has a post about the word “stigma” in conjunction with infertility.  She points out how often this word is used, how it doesn’t quite fit the definition of stigma, and asks why infertility is a taboo topic, especially when so much can be gained by talking about it.  An inspiring post.

Trying to Get Knocked Up By Another Man has a post titled “Wind.”  It is a gorgeous, moving post that begins with her egg donor, a friend, who she describes as this: “And in one of my darkest moments when I couldn’t see any light, she brought some to me. She brought light to my future.”  She goes through her fears about this cycle, the guilt, the whirlwind of thoughts about whether they should proceed.  And then, as she says, the wind stops and there is calm.  I just thought this was such an incredible post about doubt and finding the strength to keep going.

Lastly, Infertility UGH has a post about her mother’s tendency to gossip and why she is holding her at arm’s length.  I love this post because it is about accepting someone for who they are and loving them, and at the same time, knowing someone so intimately that you have to hold them at arm’s length to protect your heart.  It’s complicated and messy and the post literally aches a bit, but it is also brilliantly stated.

The roundup to the Roundup: I loved the wishes.  You can learn a lot on a train when you eavesdrop.  Join along for the Creme de la Creme and the Golden Haiku.  Blogger Bingo winning posts.  Vote for Lauren!  Answer the Weekly What If.  And lots of great blog posts to read.