Happy Saturday, friends! I hope your weekend is off to a lovely start. In today’s inaugural Ask Stephany Anything post, I’m answering a question from NGS:
It’s not a question so much as a request. I’m a relatively new reader and I don’t know a lot of basic things. I feel like a “basic facts” would be useful. How old are your cats? How long have you had them? What do you do for a living? What are your favorite types of books? What do you consider a good date? What’s the best vacation you’ve ever been on? I think I’m nosy, but maybe that’s what you need right now!
This seemed like a great time to introduce everyone to the girl behind the blog. 🙂
Hi, pleased to meet you! My name is Stephany and I’m 33 years old. I live in St. Petersburg, Florida, which is a hop, skip, and a jump away from Tampa. I’ve lived in this area my entire life, which is unusual—there are not too many native Floridians and even fewer people native to the St. Petersburg area. But I love St. Pete with all of my heart and soul and cannot imagine living anywhere else! It’s a more liberal area of Florida with a lively downtown scene, lots of breweries, great restaurants, and tons of museums. St. Pete is considered a “peninsula on a peninsula,” which means we’re surrounded by water on three sides and we have so many incredible beaches—it can get pretty touristy around here!
For my job, I’m part of the content team for a large digital marketing firm. My company is based in Tampa, but we became a fully remote workforce after the pandemic hit. Apparently, most of the people at our company really enjoyed working from home, so my company moved out of our old office and into a smaller one that will function more as a coworking space. I looooooove working from home full-time and I don’t think I could ever go back to being in an office on a regular basis.
I just celebrated 8 years at my company in August, and it’s really been a wonderful 8 years. I still love what I do, even if it can get stressful at times. (But what job doesn’t?) My primary role is writing. I write short-form (300-ish words) and long-form (500+ words) articles for a variety of clients, mainly in the healthcare and home improvement industries. I also do a ton of editing, mostly because I’m managing the workload of one of our contractors and am responsible for sending her assignments, editing her work, and sending it to clients. I also do project management and content strategy for some of our more specialized accounts. Basically, my days are busy and no day is the same.
Let’s talk about family! My mom is my very best friend and we Facetime with each other multiple times a day. She’s remarried and lives just 10 minutes from me, and I try to see her at least a couple times a week. She has two of the sweetest dachshunds, Chip (3) and Lucy (7 months), and I love them to death. My brother also lives nearby. He’s married to his high school sweetheart and they have two boys: J. is 13 and D. is 6. I’m estranged from my father, a decision I’ve talked about extensively on this blog. It was a decision I made in 2010, and it still hurts knowing he’s not in my life, even though that was the best decision I could have made for myself.
I have a big extended family on my mom’s side. She has five brothers and all but one of her brothers have children. (And many of those children have children of their own!)
Currently, I am single and I live by myself, which I love. While I hope for long-term partnership someday, I am also really happy being alone. Of course, I don’t actually live alone because I have my cats! I adopted Eloise at the end of 2018 and Lila a few months later. They are around the same age and turned 3 in the spring. Both of them are rescues who were living on the streets and having a rough go of it. I’m so glad I’ve been able to give them the cozy home they need! They are my entire world and I don’t know what I would do without them.
My hobbies are pretty varied! I love writing, obviously, and this blog has become the perfect outlet for me. I’d still love to write a novel, but that dream has been put on the backburner for the time being. Of course, reading is probably my biggest hobby and I make time for it every day. I also love NFL football, podcasts, going to museums, Peloton, traveling, reading blogs, and coloring.
I’ll finish by answering some of the questions that were posed to me in this question:
What are your favorite types of books? Romance is probably my favorite genre, and that’s why I usually have a romance book going alongside whatever else I’m reading. Other favorite genres: nonfiction (social justice and memoirs, mainly), thrillers, and women’s fiction.
What do you consider a good date? For me, a good date is less about the place and more about how I feel during it. A good date is when we can talk and talk and talk without running out of things to say. It’s not having awkward pauses. It’s wanting to extend the date, and not run back home to my cats within 20 minutes. It’s that feeling of hopefulness and happiness when it ends, knowing it was something special that only comes around every once in a while. It’s excitement that maybe, just maybe, you have found your person.
What’s the best vacation you’ve ever been on? Gosh, I’d like to say my trip to Ireland because it was such a bucket list vacation, but I was not my best self there and I spend a lot of time regretting how I planned that vacation. So instead, I’ll say it was the second cruise I went on in May 2012. My mom and I booked a six-day cruise where we biked around Key West, swam with sting rays and played with dolphins in Grand Cayman, and discovered our love for zip-lining in Jamaica. It was an incredible six days and we had so much fun!
I’m still looking for questions for Ask Stephany Anything! Comment below with your question or use my handy-dandy form.
Ooh! You live in St Petersburg. I lived in the Tampa area for a couple years, waaaay back when I first moved to Florida. St. Petersburg is definitely a unique city. Now i live in Boca Raton, but we visited St. Pete a couple years ago to see the new Dali museum. There’s also a vegan restaurant there that we loved. It’s unusual to find someone who grew up in Florida- most people you meet are transplants from up north (like me.)
Your job sounds amazing! I’m envious. And I love your fur babies. I have a couple of my own- cats just add so much to a home!
Its so fun to read a few more things about who is writing here. I love those kind of posts. I am also into the marketing and content creation business. As a freelancer I have the privilege to look into so many interesting business. Currently I work for the Port of Hamburg and a stationary shop. Very different and so fun. I love how you described a good date. I could not imagine being in the dating game and everyone who does needs to be applauded.
Like you said in response to one of my recent posts, I knew most of these things about you already (but it
was still nice to read this little summary about you!) which must mean we’ve been blog friends for a long time <3
As a relatively new reader, I loved reading this! Thanks Stephany! I have a question: if you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation/ trip, where would it be and why? You mentioned Ireland was a bucket list, what other places are on that list? Also – unrelated to travel – what is the lipstick colour you are wearing in that first photo, it’s gorgeous on you!
Your job hiring?! LOL you’re doing exactly what I would like to be doing, and remotely too.
I always love your book reviews, I get a lot of good reads from you!
Even though I have been reading your blog for some time now, this was so fun to read!
As a former copywriter, I am curious about your job. How did you get into it? What are the best and worst parts about it? Was there something else you always thought you’d do for your career?
I also knew most of the answers but it was still fun to read through. I did not realize that the St. Pete area is a more progressive/liberal area of FL. I can see why it’s a good fit for you. I know you are happy there but if you were to live someone else, where would you choose? Phil and I will never move during our working years – his mom needs us since she’s on her own and I do really love Minnesota, even though I don’t love the weather for a good chunk of the year. I try to get Phil to talk about where we will live when we retire but he doesn’t like to even talk about that as he said it’s too up in the air (like where will our kids be?). But I would like to spend the winter in a warmer location. If money was no object, I’d probably pick the Santa Barbara area of CA but that area is EXPENSIVE! So we’ll see what we end up doing.
Thank you for putting this all together! I had gleaned bits and pieces over the last… few? years? I think? reading your blog, but knowing some more of your history (born in FL, more about your job, etc.) is so nice. I do not tend to share a lot of details on my blog, but I think I will do something like this and / or something like the 20 questions post that San shared. Sharing a bit more might help people know me a bit better – without me having to reveal all the nitty gritty details. (And trust me, they’re not that interesting, anyway! :>)
Frivolous question… were you exclusively a “dog person” before getting Eloise and Lila?
Less frivolous question… what sparked your deep love of reading and writing? You are such a literary-minded soul, and I always love to know if it was a teacher, or a parent, or a friend, who helped make books/writing such a passion for those who love them.