The Guardian had an essay about an anti-worrying trick that I clicked on because I, as a world-class worrier, am a sucker for any anti-worrying trick.

The “trick” is that you do not allow yourself to worry past 6:30 pm, so your brain has about 12 hours (to 6:30 am) not to worry. You don’t immediately go cold turkey and not worry at all for 12 hours. You tell yourself you can’t worry from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, and keep pushing it back an hour. And then you’re asleep for a large chunk of the hours. So… it probably works.

Except I couldn’t see how I could make myself not worry in a certain time window if my brain was still actively thinking. The only way it could work is if I lied to myself and said, “There is nothing wrong,” which is the adult version of telling a kid who is crying, “You’re alright.”

Because yes, it is true. The crying kid is alright. Yes, they have a skinned knee. Yes, something freaked them out. But in the grand scheme of things, they are alright. They are safe. They are cared for. They have food and water and shelter. (Assuming they have all of these things.) And for the adult, unless you are actively going through a crisis (and not worrying about the potential for a crisis), there is nothing wrong. There will be wrong things in the future (not just potentially, but it is inevitable that we will all go through wrong stretches), but in the immediate moment, there is nothing wrong. Between 6:30 pm and 6:30 am, I don’t have to worry about the potential problems.

Maybe it will work? Jury is out on this one.

I read this on Modern Mrs. Darcy, and I can’t tell whether I believe it to be true. The title: “Nobody loves a city like someone who wasn’t born there.” She writes,

Only someone who chose a place can see it that way. Only someone who fell in love with it from the outside can maintain that kind of unmarked appreciation. There’s a kind of love you can only give to a city you chose to fall for.

Is that true? I don’t have a complicated love for where I grew up. I don’t feel that it’s a “complicated love. Heavy love. Love that comes with the suffocation of performing someone else’s dreams in a city that never gave you room to breathe.” It’s actually pretty simple and straightforward. I liked growing up here enough to stay around here.

On the other hand, I also feel a lightness every time we go to London. We collectively love it as a family, and I can feel myself unravel and relax in multiple places: Stepping out of the Gloucester Road Underground station, walking alongside St. James Park on The Mall, sitting down on a bench at the Tower of London, sitting down at a table at Da Mario’s. Do Londoners love it as much as I love it? I have no clue — I’m not in their head. But I fell in love with that city and can ignore the city traits that I hold against other cities, such as New York. Exact same thing can occur in both cities, and in London, it’s charming, and in New York, I seethe.

What do you think about falling in love with a place?

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

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At some point, I told myself that I wouldn’t like Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy. I had it on my TBR and took it off. And then it showed up on a list of books people love who also love The Magicians, and that trilogy is my favourite.

I cannot believe I almost missed these books. They are funny and clever and hit the same spot as Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow books. I love them.

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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.

While I don’t remember ever seeing the show as a child, the theme song to Love, American Style has been stuck in my brain for weeks. Josh and I thought it was an early reality television show, but the Wikipedia page describes it as a comedy series with “multiple stories of romance, usually with a comedic spin.”

But before we saw the page, Josh thought it was like Real People with a romantic twist. That led us down a rabbit hole where we discovered you could watch Real People episodes on YouTube.

YouTube also has Circus of the Stars clips and Battle of the Network Stars.

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Back in February, Jellycat featured a jerboa in their daily email. I held onto the email, and told my nibling about it because we share a love of all things jellycat. But a week or so ago, my sister randomly sent me a package. I opened the box, and my fingers touched those long, soft ears, and I shrieked.

MY SISTER AND NIBLING GOT ME A JERBOA.

After making a shortlist of names, I decided to call him Kitto, which is Cornish for Christopher.

I set him on my side table at night so he can watch us sleep, which creeps out Josh a bit. But at least the stuffed version means I don’t spend all night anymore asking him how often he wishes we could have a real jerboa friend. So there is that.

I have the best sister and nibling.

Sometimes I feel sad when I read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland because she has this incredible experience and then has to go back to normal life. It’s one of the things that made me love the Magicians trilogy because Quentin addresses this multiple times: Why did the Chatwin children have to leave Fillory? Which is really why did the Pevensie children have to leave Narnia? Which is just another form of why did Alice have to leave Wonderland.

I recently returned to a project I worked on years ago, and it is exactly like getting to return to Wonderland. My March Hare and Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts are all still working on the project, too, and I get to spend every day down the rabbit hole, remembering past work and thinking about pathways to future work.

I’ve been back to places I’ve left, but most of the people have been different. And I’ve seen people I’ve known a long time in different spaces. But it’s rare that you get to go back after many years and have the people and place together in the same formation. I feel very lucky.

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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.

And now the blogs…

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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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled writes about a blast from her past. I have had my own old television show in my head this week, so this spoke to me even though I don’t know her show. I can imagine it based on Mr. Dressup’s connection to Mr. Rogers. But while she may take you down memory lane, read all the way to the end to get her personal connection to the performer. Love that.

Lastly, reading All & Sundry brings you back to the old blogosphere, where posts were raw and either you saw the world in a new way or you whispered, “me too.” She is currently writing about life after her divorce. She explains: “The truth is that it was tough, it still is tough, it’s going to be tough. This is tough and that’s okay. It’s okay for things to be hard because sometimes things are hard. Pain does not automatically mean I did something bad.” She processes her story for herself, but in doing so, she writes in a way that makes people feel less alone.

The roundup to the Roundup: Going back to Wonderland. 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 March 27 – April 3) 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.