Josh asked me a few years ago where I would live if we couldn’t live in D.C., and I promptly told him that it would be somewhere in the North Sea or Northern Atlantic like the Shetland Islands or Faroe Islands, though I could easily be talked as far south as the Outer Hebrides. He was a little taken aback and admitted that he thought I’d throw out Boston or Philadelphia. Something a little more realistic. A little more in our home country.

And, like, yeah, I think we’ll probably end up living in this country forever, but my heart home is somewhere very cold with otters, puffins, and not a lot of sunlight in winter.

Like I said on Friday, it’s when you know you’re from one place but you always sensed that your heart is from somewhere else. That, for me, is Scotland since I was a little kid. That’s why I cried so much when we were in Scotland last year. It was like my heart for the first time was where it belonged. Like I brought it home.

I think if I could live anywhere in Scotland right now, it would be the Island of Yell in the Shetland Islands.

Do you have a heart home?

I am still blissed out after seeing Alan Cumming on Wednesday. He was in town, performing his new(ish) show, Legal Immigrant. So different from the one we saw last year around this time, but, again, I had the same reaction to his voice. He begins singing, and I just feel happy. There was no huge sadness to climb out of, so it was more like a vitamin. Like all of a sudden, someone dumped a bucket of happiness on me, and I’m still covered in it.

Two songs he sang that I didn’t know that I loved. The first was Dougie MacLean’s “Caledonia.” I love Scotland and consider it my “heart” home — like you know how you’re from one place but you always sense that your heart should have been born in another place? That’s how I feel about Scotland.

The other was a song from Moana. I don’t know anything about Moana, but even Josh’s mouth dropped open when we heard the lyrics because they are so personal and specific to my life. So having a singer who makes you so happy introducing you to a song you’ve never heard before but that describes a chunk of your life? That was a little mind-blowing.

So riding the happiness into the weekend.

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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 in order 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.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Ticket in Hand” (Inconceivable!)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Life Without Baby answers her often asked question: why didn’t you adopt after infertility? Her reason is so simple, so straightforward, based on the “most important piece of advice we were given.” And she points out this fact so well: “Adoption isn’t the next logical step on an infertility journey; it’s a step off that road and onto another completely different path.” Go read the whole post to understand.

It’s Inconceivable has a post about holidays when you don’t have a lot of family members. She examines how holiday celebrations and etiquette have changed over the years, and she writes, “I’m used to my own company nowadays, I just wish society was a bit more inclusive of others who don’t fit into family shaped ‘moulds’.” Important words everyone should hear and think about the next time holidays roll around.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a post about a surprising way of receiving a birth announcement; one that could only exist in the digital age. Go over and read the post (and adjust your settings!) about this happy news.  As she writes about the “glee and grief”: “I am so happy for them. I am SO terrified for them.” Doesn’t that sum up hearing someone else’s pregnancy news now?

The roundup to the Roundup: Covered in a film of happiness thanks to Alan Cumming.  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 April 19th and 26th) 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.

Speaking of not embracing change, I loved this article a few weeks ago because I eat the same thing for breakfast AND lunch every day. Breakfast never changes: a container of yogurt. Lunch may change if I need to meet someone for a meal, but if I’m at home, it’s a bowl of Special K. A scoop of peanut butter and raw fruits and vegetables are snacks. The only thing that changes is dinner.

I think of my meals in the same way I think of the benefits of wearing a uniform. It frees you from making decisions.

(I also don’t have a lot of variety in my wardrobe. I bought a dozen of the same black shirt and same jeans and mostly wear the same thing, day after day. I try to never buy new, seasonal clothes.)

I wake up in the morning, and I’m going to put on the outfit. I sit down at the table and I’m going to have yogurt. There are no decisions I need to make. I like not needing to think. I never get bored with the sameness. Instead, I think of it these moments in my day a little like a never-changing ritual. Now the yogurt is visiting. Later, the Special K will come around.

Do you eat the same thing for one or more meals each day?

I came across the perfect line to describe life on page 156 of Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. The person is describing a hospital with a toxic work environment:

We called it the glass factory, because it felt like everything could crash down at any minute.

I realized, re-reading and re-reading that line, that the world is divided into people who see the whole universe as a glass factory and those who believe they’re working with something a little more durable. Like wood.

Actually, I think everyone rationally knows that life is a glass factory; that everything could come crashing down because nothing is permanent and certain. The difference is that some people always think about the figurative glass factory, and others can forget that life is a glass factory for big chunks of time and therefore take risks as if they’re working with something more durable. Like wood.

I am in that first category: I never forget the figurative glass factory. I think about the glass factory all the time. I assess all risk with the belief that if I don’t consider all possibilities that I’ll be surrounded by shards of glass. I’m just trying to do my part to keep things in one piece.

I don’t know if the cups in the figurative glass factory are half-full or half-empty. I just know that they sparkle all around me, reminding me of their shatterable quality.

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

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Burger King is testing the Impossible Burger in the St. Louis area, and if it performs  well, they’ll send it out to all 7,200 stores. I am equal parts optimistically excited (the reviews of the burger have been great) and pessimistically realistic (why get my hopes up before it happens). There are vegetarian options out there when we’re on the road, but this would be a game-changer for us.

I really like veggie burgers.

I mean, I also like salads, but sometimes you just want to blend with the crowd.

What are you looking forward to right now?

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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.