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165th Friday Blog Roundup

I spent Thanksgiving day with vampires and werewolves.  We went to see New Moon, which Josh did not appreciate.  In fact, at one point, I looked over at him and his head was tilted back and his eyes looked distinctly closed.  As in, he was not swayed by bare abs or Robert Pattinson’s sparkly skin.

Horror.

The movie was truly terrible and I gleefully agreed with my sister that I absolutely needed to own it the first day it comes out.  Cannot explain why I love terrible things, but I do.  I really do.

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It feels like there is a film hanging over everything; like condensation on the inside of a window pane.  It’s not just me, right?  I’m not sure where this feeling is coming from, but it sort of feels like I’m on a Disney ride, the sort where you are sitting on a tram, being led from room to room, barely able to take in what you’re seeing before you’re led to the next space, and then entire time, it always looks like you’re about to crash into a wall, but that wall gives out in the nick of time and becomes something you laugh about in the next room.

Is it just me?  Is anyone else simply feeling, for lack of a better word, a mood?  Where the same words would have rolled off your back on another month become a paper cut in this one?  Where you’re over-analyzing, wondering what every small gesture means?

I have been traveling in and out of a mood as if it is a foreign land.  As if I’m a visitor; one who knows the roads, but can’t pick up on all the nuances of the language.

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The Weekly What If: What if you could banish one dish from the Thanksgiving table?  What traditional Thanksgiving (or if you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, choose a different holiday) item would you never want to put in your mouth?

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And now, the blogs…

Thinking Miracles has a post about muted feelings regarding holidays.  She comments that even when she was dreading the holidays, she felt more about the holidays than now, where the feelings are simply missing.  As she says, “Not quite Bah Humbug, just Bah.”  It’s a brief post but encapsulates volumes even in its succinctness.

To Baby and Beyond has a wonderful post about why she talks about her infertility.  As she says, “The longer answer…you never know when you might meet someone that has all the answers you have been seeking or may give you a different way to look at things that you had not thought of before.”  It’s the stories that come afterward that really make the post.

This post was actually written last week, but since I didn’t read it until now, I’m throwing it into the Roundup because it is also without a date so it could be from this week.  Our Incredible Journey has a post about her son called “Jackfluence” about the convergence of National Adoption Month and Prematurity Awareness Day.  It is a beautiful post that shifts the way you see the situation, leading you from idea to idea until you end with a smile.

Apron Strings for Emily has a post about deciding to live child-free as her way of moving out of infertility.  She writes, “It’s taken me more than 12 years, but I think I’ve finally reached some closure in my infertility journey. Yet even as one door has closed in my life, I’m still learning to live with the reality of this decision. My infertility is no longer a daily struggle, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have those ‘moments’.”  I can’t even explain to you how beautiful the post is as a whole, how she unfolds the decision and all the points considered along the way.  I just wanted to hug Emily through the screen.

Saucy Ova has a post about waiting. And how the waiting leads to more waiting, to other decisions.  I love this line: “We will be swept up together again, with the lifeline to sanity and purpose embodied in the slimline plastic catheter that bridges the gap between nothingness and life.”  It is simply an ode to waiting; to the hardest part of the cycle for Tally.

Finally, I cannot explain to you how much I loved Our Family Beginning’s post about adoption.  It takes every possibility–from black-and-white to all shades of grey–and paints an enormously detailed picture about respect and love.  It is about not disregarding anyone else’s reality while she states her own.  It is about walking the fine line between celebrating adoption while also acknowledging that we’re born into an imperfect world where “social stigma, finances, politics, medical issues and more all come into play.  We all have to deal with the hand we were given” and therefore, to not make adoption his whole identity, but simply one card in the hand he’s holding.

The roundup to the Roundup: Visiting vampires for Thanksgiving.  The mood that is hanging in the air.  Answer the Weekly What If.  And lots of great blogs to read.

28 comments

1 IF Crossroads { 11.27.09 at 9:02 am }

I can sympathize with the moodiness. I’m totally moody right now, and for no specific reason.
If I could banish one dish from the Thanksgiving table I’d pick jellied cranberries. They serve no purpose,IMO. I didn’t buy them this year and my mother had a fit and sent me out to the grocery store 30 minutes before I was to serve dinner just to “complete” the table. What a waste!

2 calliope { 11.27.09 at 9:24 am }

YES. I am so in a mood. And I can’t even explain it. Which annoys me. I like a reason for everything. But the sun is shining for the first time since we moved and it is making me hopeful.

I would banish vegetable casseroles. I love green beans as is- don’t need weird onion bits on them. I adore squash- I don’t need a can of soup mix to make it better. SAVE THE VEGGIES!! Set them freeeeeeee.

3 loribeth { 11.27.09 at 10:03 am }

I’m in a “mood,” too, but then I usually am in November (as I recently blogged).

I’ve never liked pumpkin pie. It was one of those “ewww” foods as a kid that I refused to eat. I am thinking I would probably like it now as an adult — I like pumpkin bread & Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes. But I really don’t need the calories, and I like apple pie anyway (& there is usually both at Thanksgiving & Christmas celebrations), so I will probably go on without it.

So glad you mentioned Emily’s post. I thought it was fabulous too!

4 Queenie { 11.27.09 at 10:20 am }

It’s those weird little boiled/peeled onions that I could do without. Why are they there? They just look like they have the grossest texture ever.

The Twilight thing cracks me up. I just refuse to go there. I can’t believe Josh let you drag him along for the ride.

5 Low Fat Lady { 11.27.09 at 11:00 am }

I would have to say my MIL’s vegetable jello. It’s basically lemon jello with nuts, carrots, celery, and canned pineapple. I’m feeling moody myself as well.

6 Astrid { 11.27.09 at 11:21 am }

This one’s too easy for me. It’s almost like cheating. I’d get rid of the turkey. I don’t eat meat and thanksgiving always makes me feel bad for the animals. Along these lines, I LOVE calliope’s answer, definitely there needs to be some veggie liberation front at my in law’s house. Their green beans also end up sacrificed to the lard and sodium gods. The other thing I could do without is mashed potatoes. I’ve never been much of a fan. Boring, calorie-laden, too heavy and filling. I’m pretty much over mashed potatoes.

7 HereWeGoAJen { 11.27.09 at 11:36 am }

Sweet potatoes. Potatoes are not meant to be sweet.

8 Elizabeth { 11.27.09 at 11:48 am }

Pumpkin pie is the most boring dessert in the world, to me. I would not miss it at all.

Jellied cranberry story – when I was a kid, we were visiting the US from Peru (where Thanksgiving is not a holiday), and had dinner with some friends of my parents – a kind older couple. I was helping the lady serve some of the food, and was completely fascinated by the jellied cranberry, which I had never seen before, so I asked her, “how do you get it that shape?” I imagined that she rolled it out like fruit leather and then rolled it into its cylindrical form before cutting slices off. She leaned over and whispered to me, “it’s from a can!”
So then at dinner, my parents gushed to the hostess, “This is delicious!” I was still staring in fascination at the jellied cranberry and burst out, “It’s from a can!” Dead silence. It was years before I understood my faux pas!

9 Tally { 11.27.09 at 12:59 pm }

I would totally banish cauliflower. Can NOT abide it’s whiteness or texture, or taste… ugh.

Wonderboy’s in Toronto until late tonight. I just might go indulge in sparkly bits. 🙂

10 Tally { 11.27.09 at 1:00 pm }

errrr…

Not that I think New Moon is x-rated.

Yeah.

I’ll just stop there. *shudder*

11 karlinda { 11.27.09 at 1:31 pm }

I’m with Astrid: get rid of the decapitated, roasted carcass. I’d much rather see my turkeys in the wild, & still in possession of their heads.

12 Carrie { 11.27.09 at 1:35 pm }

A mood – yep. I’m totally overanalyzing every thing right now as well, which is making my mood worse.

Hmmm…I would banish the cream corn casserole. I don’t ever eat it, but it is still there staring at you as you walk through the line.

13 Half of a Duo , Raising a Duo { 11.27.09 at 2:05 pm }

I’d do away with nothing.

I love it all.

I am going for Iron commentor this month but am struggling…

Hey I need the link for the Golden Haiku, and the widgety thing, anyone have it?

Hugs on Black Friday!!!!

the grey one…

14 Lavender Luz { 11.27.09 at 2:21 pm }

“Cannot explain why I love terrible things, but I do. I really do.”

Should I worry if you love me?

Pecan pie.

15 Lisa { 11.27.09 at 2:34 pm }

I was most definitely in a mood yesterday, our first Thanksgiving since deciding to stop pursuing the dream of adding a child to the family. Though I’ve been increasingly absent from the blogosphere, I found that the only way for me to “get on” with the holiday (even our no-guests one at home) was to take a break before the final cooking push to blog it out.

I didn’t read others’ Thanksgiving posts. And, to be honest, I’m not going to. But I take real comfort in knowing they’re out there.

16 Barb { 11.27.09 at 4:31 pm }

I would banish CANNED cranberries and make everyone make the real stuff. 😉

I love the terrible Twilight movies too. I don’t get it either. Hub flat out refuses to even try. haha. Kudos to Josh!

I feel like there’s a film when I’m exhausted right now. Otherwise I’m living in shiny happy land which is understandable at the moment. 🙂

17 Heather { 11.27.09 at 5:03 pm }

Thank you….I am honored. Truly. xoxoxo

18 Tireegal { 11.27.09 at 6:59 pm }

Pardon me for being a bad immigrant that likes to point out the imperfections of the US palate, but I am in total agreement with the veggie liberation folks above. Why is it that practically all of these ‘festive’ veggie dishes are some bastardized version that barely resembles anything that sprung from the ground and either has nasty creamy stuff poured over it or meat snuck into it? And what is it with all these so called ‘casseroles’? Or sweet veggies? I feel sorry for all those veggies that are being served up with marshmallows or soup mix! They must feel so not good enough!!! okay, rant over! Well not quite – but I’ll save my turkey rant for another day!

19 Baby On Mind { 11.28.09 at 1:43 am }

Even though it’s role is pretty significant for the Thanksgiving holiday, he turkey’s gotta go!

I don’t like turkey and never have (probably never will). I find that it’s too dry and boring. Luckily I enjoy the other stuff related to Thanksgiving.

20 WiseGuy { 11.28.09 at 6:56 am }

Yes, I am having one of my ‘moods’ too. I can’t get fixed. I am flitting over and away all the time…

I have read Twilight but not seen any of the flicks. Twilight interested me at the point when James entered the picture, otherwise it was too-usual for me (except the vampire thing).

I have got to read some of those posts now…thanks!

21 Gerardine Baugh { 11.28.09 at 3:17 pm }

I too, am very moody. On the 27th I wrote this Blog trying to accept and grieve the past.
http://gerardinebaugh.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/i-still-have-nightmares-over-last-years-snow-fall/

22 LJ { 11.28.09 at 4:20 pm }

I’ve kinda been floating in and out of a mood for like a month. I freaking hate winter. I also hate cabbage and would banish my husband’s coleslaw as a result.

23 Erica { 11.29.09 at 11:21 am }

cranberry sauce

24 Jen { 11.29.09 at 10:11 pm }

love me some twilight. however, I’m waiting until the guests leave to go see it. it’s my guilty indulgence.

I hate stuffing. Yuck.

25 Jamie { 11.29.09 at 10:25 pm }

I know ‘the mood.’ Something about the cold weather, gray skies, no sun. It drizzled here all day, which made it worse.

I don’t understand jellied cranberries. My Granny would always dump it right out of the can onto a place, slice it and place it on the table where it would sit, untouched. For years I wasn’t even sure if we were supposed to eat it.

My mom has started making a cranberry salsa with fresh cranberries that is DELICIOUS. Now that I know how good cranberries and turkey can be, I don’t know why people bother with that weird canned stuff.

26 battynurse { 11.29.09 at 10:34 pm }

For the weekly what if? Green bean casserole has got to go. Just flat out looks nasty and refuse to eat cream of mushroom soup and the onion things. Yuck. One other thing I’d love to see gone? The onions from the dressing/stuffing. I love dressing but hate the onions in it.

27 clare { 11.30.09 at 2:30 am }

That is exactly the mood I’ve been experiencing — thanks for putting words to it. And while you’re at could you take away that horrid marshmellow on top orange dish that I think is yams or sweet potatoes or something… I’ll save my sugar quota for the pies thank you:)

28 Bea { 12.02.09 at 6:29 am }

I was going to say “mushy peas” but then it wouldn’t be Christmas without them so… I’m stuck. I guess I love terrible things, too.

Bea

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