Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I clearly missed the Roundup this week. I got behind on blog reading while on a trip because my phone was apparently eating data in enormous gulps. (As in, I would check email and eat up 100+ MB of data for a few emails.) So no feed reader for a few days. Cue sad trombone.

We dipped our toe into the travel-in-the-COVID-world pool, which was both strange and normal at the same time. We felt very comfortable wearing a mask everywhere and only doing takeaway from restaurants. It didn’t feel limiting at all to set our family limits and stick to them. I guess our limits didn’t limit us from doing what we needed to do to enjoy the trip.

I just used the world “limits” way too many times.

Anyway, I’m back. I’m off-schedule. I’m discombobulated. But I’m back and on wifi.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I learned a new term that explained so much: psychological reactance. It’s “a reflex reaction to being told what to do, or feeling that your freedom is under threat.” Freedom is a loose term: someone impinging on your free time can bring out this reflex. Or your manager telling you that you need to do something differently. Or even annoyance at a book club you’ve chosen to join because you now feel obligated to read books that someone else is telling you to read.

It’s that initial thought of, “But I don’t want to.”

I guess knowing the name of it (beyond what Josh always calls it: “the don’t wannas.”) means that you can combat it. You can acknowledge what the feeling is, tell yourself that you can feel it for the next ten minutes, and then need to set the feeling aside and be open to the request or demand. Or counter with what you will do if there is a good reason to push back against the request.

I guess I just liked learning a new word.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I read this fascinating piece on how Gmail changed our relationship to amassing information. Giving people somewhat unlimited space (at least it seemed like an unfathomable amount of space when it started) and then enabling a search function in it means that we don’t need to (1) be careful about saving what is truly important because space is not an issue or (2) organizing it because we can always search and find an email later. If they had created a smaller limit or made the data unsearchable, we would have a different relationship to amassing digital clutter.

I still organize the emails I save into folders, but I think that is a habit based on my earliest interactions with computers. If I grew up with search, maybe I would have a completely different way of organizing or amassing digital ephemera.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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When we go to the beach in the winter, the parking lot is mostly empty. We park, facing the water, and crack the windows so the car doesn’t get stuffy. If it’s not too cold out, the car remains warm enough with the sun streaming through the windshield. We can leave the car off and relax for the day, reading and eating and generally remaining sand-free unless we take a walk.

This article about feeling a sense of community with other car-at-the-beach-goers made me feel a sense of community, though the words on the screen.

As much as I like being on the sand, I think part of me prefers when we’re all hanging out in the car. Enjoying the ocean but everything neat and clean and comfortable.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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For most of my adult-ish life, I’ve made mishloach manot for Purim. Except the last two years. I delivered all of my mishloach manot before COVID hit back in 2020 — I was early that year — but no one was dropping off packages last year. And even this year felt too soon. Like the world wasn’t ready for cookie deliveries.

I made a double batch of hamantaschen for Josh and ChickieNob, and chocolate chip cookies for the Wolvog (like me, he doesn’t groove on fruit in pastry). And called it a day. I didn’t attempt to go to a Purim event at shul. I just sat at home and read a book, like every other night.

It made me sad, but it also made me relieved. Making hundreds of cookies and candies every spring was exhausting, and I don’t have energy to spare right now.

But I miss that feeling when the last ribbon is tied and all of the packages are lined up at the door, and I know my treats are about to go out into the world.

Maybe next year.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.