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

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I have a new life goal: Stay in an underwater hotel.

Traveler put out a list of underwater hotels. Most start above ground and then move underwater, or they’re really aquarium-view hotels (as in, your window looks into an aquarium). I’ve fallen in love with all of the options in the Maldives. The first one is probably my favourite.

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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 connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

One night after dinner last week, I picked up my iPad and said, “I’m going to go read the news.”

“Spoiler: It’s all bad,” Josh warned me.

It feels like the news has been bad for a long time, and I’m hitting my bad news saturation point earlier and earlier in my feed. I don’t think this is about just getting through X or that after Y happens, things will calm down. Maybe the world has always been like this, but the reporting has changed. Maybe these are the end times.

I liked this article on nine things you can do to stop catastrophizing when you do enter a panic spiral while reading the news. I’m placing this here in case it helps anyone else.

I won a Goodreads giveaway for the 4th time! While I won the first three (1, 2, and 3) pretty close together, it has been years since I won a giveaway. This time, it’s for the new Peter Swanson.

Seeing that “Congrats — You are a Giveaways Winner!” subject line makes me feel like a life winner. Like the book universe dropped a crown on my head and declared me the luckiest lady on the planet. It is such a high that I keep the email in my inbox and peek at it whenever I need a pick-me-up during the day.

I get that hundreds (thousands?) of people win Goodreads giveaways daily, and many have won them more than four times over the years, but this week, I feel book lucky, which is one of my favourite luckies to be.

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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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “18 Years” (Born Still But Still Born)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Finding a Different Path made a list after her divorce of what she’d want in an ideal partner. The story has a happy ending, and she found someone who hit 18 of the 20 traits. But what made this story even sweeter is what happens when you give someone time (and a lot of hints), and they end up fulfilling #19, just because they love you.

Lastly, By Lisa With Love writes about her child entering the double digits. But growing up also brings up other thoughts and she writes: “It feels very much like my grief after my two pregnancy losses. It’s almost like the grief for the loss of what might-have-been is heavier than the loss of what-cannot-be-any more.” It’s a moving post, and I’m glad she’s back with an update.

The roundup to the Roundup: Goodreads winner x 4. 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 May 17 – May 24) 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.

Along with For Better or For Worse, I was reminded recently — twice! — about PostSecret. Eight years ago, that site was a weekly visit, and by this week, I forgot that it existed until I read two pieces about it.

It’s twenty years old.

Twenty. Years. Old.

I never sent a secret, though I loved reading them weekly and checking out the PostSecret books from the library. Did you send one?

Many years ago, I started a tradition of spending half hour every Friday near lunchtime eating good chocolate and watching a television show. Right before the twins left for college, I decided to re-watch Ted Lasso. ChickieNob joined me for the final few Fridays before she moved, and then she left me to finish the rest of the episodes on my own.

When I was still in Season One, I couldn’t imagine how I would get through this year. How was I going to get from Friday to Friday? But that’s the thing about time; it keeps going. And suddenly, I was weeks away from picking them up for summer break.

I finished the series’ final episode an hour before we left to pack up their dorm rooms. I am so grateful that positive stories like that exist because this has been such a hard year — both the twins being away and world events — and to spend a half hour each Friday taking a break from this world to spend time in a fictional world was priceless.

I decided to re-watch One Day next. It only has 14 episodes, so I’ll finish it before the twins return to school and have time to start a new re-watch while they’re still here. But thank you, Ted Lasso, for keeping me company during a hard year.