Odds & ends

On the personal front: 

• Plans are underway for Little Great-Nephew #2's baptism. Date still TBD -- but we got a call from BIL a few days ago:  "Don't get mad," he said, when dh answered the phone.  Apparently, we are not invited. :(  They are having a party/meal at a restaurant after the service -- and if they invite us, they would have to invite all their other aunts & uncles too, and they can't afford that. BIL said he was calling because Older Nephew (who is OUR godson) felt so bad he couldn't bring himself to do it. 
• Dh called up Older Nephew after he got off the call with BIL, and told him to relax, we are NOT mad!  He apologized profusely, and said "You guys do so much for us." Awww... it's nice that he recognizes that...! 
• Of course we're disappointed -- but we understand. Fair is fair. 
• We weren't invited to Little Great-Niece's baptism celebration either, for the same reason. (We did go to the church to see the ceremony, since it was just a short drive away, and it's a public event.)  
• We didn't get to go to Little Great-Nephew #1's baptism either -- but that's because it was during the summer of 2020 -- i.e., pandemic restrictions. Obviously, no big party after the service. (We did get to watch the service, though, on the church's live YouTube feed!)  It was just the parents, godparents (Younger Nephew & his wife) and the priest. And SIL -- she knew the priest well, and he bent the rules by calling her up just before the ceremony and said, "Come see your grandson get baptized." She got there just in time! (Not sure where BIL was!) 
• Depending on when the baptism is scheduled, we might not be able to go anyway (if it's during the time we're out west visiting my family -- I'm almost hoping that will be the case!).
• Meanwhile, LGNephew #2's older brother, LGNephew #1, graduated from senior kindergarten this week!  :)  Parents only at the graduation ceremony/party, and Older Nephew took a rare day off work to attend. His wife posted a photo of the entire family on Instagram, with LGN #1 wearing a graduation cap, and a "boomerang" video of him in what appears to be a graduation procession, wearing his cap and carrying a little tealight in his hands, a huge grin on his face.  Awww....  Grade One in September!! (How??!)  
• Annoying thing:  dentist visit this morning. 
• Related annoying thing:  It was at 9 AM -- which meant getting up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM, and driving through the city in morning rush hour traffic to get there.  We left at 7:30 AM -- an hour is usually sufficient -- and we only JUST made it there on time!   (There's a reason why Toronto traffic is among the worst in the world...!)   
• Even more annoying:  I have to go back on June 30th for a filling -- possibly two. Sigh.  (I made sure that appointment was later in the morning!  lol)  
• Annoying thing #2:  I went to a certain very large, very well-known site to leave a product/book review this week. Imagine my surprise when a message popped up informing me that I can no longer contribute reviews or other content on that site (!)  -- and all my previous reviews have been removed (!!) -- because of "unusual reviewing activity on this account." (!!!)  
• I'm at a loss here. I don't contribute a lot of reviews to this site. I had a look at their community guidelines. The only thing I can think of is many of my reviews have been of books written by friends, and I may or may not have disclosed that in the reviews.  But it's kind of hard to figure out what I might have done wrong if I can't see what exactly I wrote.  I would have appreciated being notified at the time that the review was being removed and why (because then I might have done better the next time around).  
• This is the same site that suspended my account for almost six months while it wrangled with my bank/credit card company over payment after I was scammed two years ago (and reported the fraud to my bank within minutes). (The conclusion of that saga, with links to previous posts on the incident, here.) 
• I am wondering whether this latest hitch is connected to that one in some way??  
• I'm debating whether it would be worth it to contact the company about this?? 
• Has anyone else had a similar experience?  What do you think? 

Recent reading to share: 

• This Q&A with Gateway Women's Jody Day, posted on the Substack "[B]OLD AGE with Debbie Weil," is well worth a read -- not only for Jody's answers (always worth reading!), but also for Debbie (a parent)'s frank admission of her personal discomfort with childless and childfree people.  We need more honest conversations like this one!  (I don't always recommend reading comments, lol, but the ones on this post are worth a read too!) 
• Jody recommended this Substack post by Poorna Bell, "On not being 'that' type of aunt (or uncle)." 
• (I'm very lucky that I had some pretty fabulous aunts & uncles... MOST of them!  lol)  
• Sara Petersen, who writes on "In Pursuit of Clean Countertops" about momfluencers (and has children herself), recently asked: "Do Kids Ruin Friendships? (And what are we asking with such a question?)"  
• Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall, but she does make some great observations. A couple of sample quotes:  
• "...ultimately, I don’t think it’s particularly hard to see eye-to-eye with my friends who don’t have kids if we’re both operating from an understanding that womanhood as a construct is fucked."
• "The problem is a lack of structural support for caregivers AND the toxic expectation that motherhood is every woman’s “natural” destiny. Women without children have every reason to feel a certain level of alienation and resentment towards a culture which still views them as selfish aberrations, and mothers have every reason to feel a certain level of alienation and resentment towards a culture which tells them they’re doing the most important job in the world without providing them any structural support for that job."  [Boldfaced emphasis Sara's.]
• I see that Carly Marie (and her beautiful beach photos of remembrance) is back on Facebook & Instagram, after several years' absence! 
• In the "IT'S ABOUT TIME" category: the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada issued new compassionate care guidelines for miscarriage patients this week. (Gift link -- **beware the comments!**) The Globe & Mail says "the recommendations include a call for more early pregnancy assessment clinics to be established across the country, similar to the ones in Britain that improve care and reduce waiting times."  They also recommend that loss patients receive mental health screening and offers of support if needed.
• The Toronto Star published a critical article about the lack of transparency in success rates at Ontario fertility clinics (and Canadian clinics generally).  (Gift link.) 
• This Globe & Mail article about co-housing for seniors, while focused on the LGBTQ community, is highly relevant to childless seniors too. (Co-housing of some kind is a topic of much conversation in some of the childless communities I belong to.) 
• (Unfortunately, I used up my quota of gift links for this month, so you might run into a paywall -- sorry!)  
• I was fascinated by this Globe & Mail article on "immersive reading," and the differences in how we absorb books in text form vs audio. (Gift link.)