Stephany Writes

Categories: Recurring Series

Best of 2022 | A Month-by-Month Recap

Putting together my yearly recap is a labor of love. It involves reading through my blog posts from the previous year to remember what I was doing and how I was feeling, as well as sourcing images and putting them into a collage. I’ve been working on this post for about a week now (woof) and it’s a solid 2,500 words. You’re welcome, friends. What a year 2022 was!

JANUARY

  • I started off my annual goal of going for a 5K walk in a local park every month with a bang by going for a long walk with my mom and the dogs on Martin Luther King Jr. day. The dogs had fun and so did we!
  • I had a terrible anxiety episode on a Friday night when I couldn’t get ahold of my mom for 12 hours. We talk every day on the phone and we hadn’t talked that day, so of course, I imagined the worst-case scenarios. I didn’t sleep at all that night and couldn’t shut my mind off for anything. She was fine, just went to bed early. But it took me a while to come down from that episode, and I really do think it impacted me for months afterward.
  • I had lots of family time this weekend, as my brother, nephew, and I spent almost every Saturday and Sunday at my mom’s house to watch the playoff games.
  • Bri texted me to say she had been thinking about this podcast idea I talked to her about at the end of 2021 and she wanted to do it. AHH. I was excited to make it happen but also really nervous. It felt like such a big undertaking, starting a podcast, and I was scared I didn’t have what it took. We had a few brainstorming sessions this month, going through what we wanted our podcast to look like, figuring out the name, and coming up with episode ideas.
  • On the last day of January, my promotion was officially announced to my team. This was my last month of being a content writer!

FEBRUARY

  • I kicked off February by starting my new job as content team manager, and went through some growing pains that first month. It was weird to not be as busy as I used to be! And I had this weird anxiety that I could be fired at any moment because I couldn’t bring tangible value to my role the way I used to be able to (“I’m writing X amount of pages every month!”)
  • The Winter Olympics were fun to watch, mostly to see Nathen Chen (figure skating) and Chloe Kim (snowboarding) win their gold medals. But it was also heartbreaking to witness the downfall of some athletes who had trained so long and so hard for this moment.
  • I bought a new coffee table and it was super easy to put together. I love it so, so much. It’s the perfect size for my living room!
  • We surprised Mikaela with a mini celebration during our February book club, as she was due to give birth a few weeks after our meeting. I brought vegan, gluten-free cupcakes for her and we gave her a gift card.
  • Russia declared war on Ukraine, and it was horrifying and so sad to see the images and stories coming out of Ukraine. It’s devastating that the war is still raging even now, but the Ukrainian people are fighting like hell to keep their country.

MARCH

  • I started the month with a long weekend, dogsitting Chip and Lucy. It was my first time dogsitting both of them at once, and we had a lovely time together! There were lots of snuggles on the couch, lots of reading time, and lots of outside time.
  • My mom woke up one morning to find a rather large lump on her chest. Luckily, she had a doctor’s appointment the next day and while her doctor wasn’t too concerned, he scheduled a breast ultrasound for later that week just to be cautious. Thankfully, it was only a cyst but boy did I worry myself silly for the many days leading up to the appointment. Afterward, we celebrated by getting brunch at The Library.
  • My best friend Mikaela welcomed a sweet baby girl, Eleni Kim, on March 21st. She was so tiny when she was born!
  • I had to have a mole on my back fully removed as it came back pre-cancerous. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it did require stitches so my mom had to help me change the bandage every few days as it was in an area of my body I couldn’t reach. I was very glad to get the stitches removed after 10 days!
  • I bought a sit/stand desk! And I hired someone from TaskRabbit to put it together for me, which was an A+ decision. I hate putting furniture together, and it was nice to be able to pawn that work off to someone else who does enjoy it. The new desk takes up so much less space in my apartment and makes my living room feel so much bigger.

APRIL

  • Bri and I recorded our first-ever podcast episode in April. We recorded the intro episode, and we had such a fun time. We actually recorded the intro 5 or 6 times, but ended up releasing our first take since it was the most natural.
  • I went back to therapy. After my intake session, I wasn’t sure if this therapist was the right one for me but I decided to give it a few sessions before deciding anything. Our first official session was so healing and helpful, and I realized right away that I had found someone good.
  • We had some fun memory-making days with the dogs! Early in the month, we all went to the SPCA 3K Pet Walk and had a great time walking around and enjoying all the doggos. Then, we did a day trip together where we all went out to lunch (the dogs are not great at restaurants: Chip barked ferociously every time our server came by, sigh) and then took the dogs to a dog ice cream parlor for a fun treat. While there, I saw a cat on a leash!
  • We had book club at Bri’s house where we did a frozen pizza taste test. The verdict for me: Screamin’ Sicilian frozen pizza is amazing. Mikaela also came to book club and brought baby Eleni who was passed around for snuggles.
  • I went out to brunch on Easter with my mom and stepdad. We had mimosas and ate a decent meal. (It wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was fine.) It was fun to get dressed up, though, and enjoy some time with them!

MAY

  • I kicked off the month by going to a u-pick flower farm with Amber. There were rows and rows and rows of wildflowers and sunflowers that we could pick and add to our cups to take home.
  • I celebrated Mother’s Day with a delicious brunch with my mom, stepdad, brother, sister-in-law, and my nephews.
  • I went back to the office to work for one day. It was fun to hug a whole bunch of people I haven’t seen in-person for two years. I also went out to lunch with a few coworkers and then enjoyed happy hour with more coworkers after work.
  • Mikaela and I were able to resume our writing dates! She brought Eleni with her, and I was more than happy to snuggle a sleepy newborn while I worked on my writing project.
  • I chopped off 10 or so inches of my hair, going back to a “lob” for the first time in many years. It was fun to do something different with my hair, although I think I prefer it long.

JUNE

  • We took Chip and Lucy to the dog beach. It was very cute to watch them swim in the ocean for the first time, although they were a bit unsettled by all the big dogs around them!
  • My mom and I spent a week in Canada and New York, exploring Toronto, both sides of Niagara Falls, and the sweet town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
  • I got Covid. I managed to make it two years and three months without ever getting brought down by this nasty disease, but it happened and it was very unpleasant.
  • Roe v Wade was overturned, in a Supreme Court decision that makes no sense and had has disastrous effects to so many women already. This is a horrifying reality to live in.
  • My company announced that they were giving us unlimited PTO. What a relief to not have to worry about “saving up” for PTO when I want to take time off.

JULY

  • My mom got Covid (likely from me) and I had a lot of anxiety about her. We had to postpone all of her birthday celebrations and then my stepdad got Covid and my brother got it, too, and it was just a month of sickness and sadness.
  • I had an emergency therapy appointment because I was not handling my mom’s Covid diagnosis well, and cried a lot. I don’t normally cry in therapy, but this was really restorative and what I needed.
  • Bri and I finished recording all of our podcast episodes for season 1! I had so much fun recording with her, way more fun than I thought I would. (This is not a diss on Bri; I always have fun with her! It’s more that I’m not someone who likes to talk a lot, or so I thought, so I wasn’t sure how I would take to being behind the microphone.)
  • The girls’ big birthday gift, a new cat tower, arrived and they immediately took to using it, which I was surprised about. They still love this cat tower a lot, although Lila never uses the hammocks, which was the sole reason I bought this cat tower, ha.
  • I scheduled my first date since my breakup, only to have the guy cancel on me the day of the date. Sigh.

AUGUST

  • We launched our podcast into the world this month! The Friendship Paradox has been a delight to release and the reception has been nothing short of fantastic. Our listenership is low right now, but just the fact that we have nearly a hundred people listening to every episode feels crazy!
  • Biden announced his student loan forgiveness program that would forgive all of my student loan debt and ensure I don’t have to think about student loans ever again! (Of course, Republicans are doing all they can to quash this program, but I am holding out lots of hope that they won’t succeed.)
  • I went through some major bouts of loneliness this month (and previous months, honestly) and things felt really hard for a long time.
  • I spent a weekend with Chip and Lucy where we did our usual: snuggling on the couch together while I read my book and they snoozed.
  • Bri and I started recording podcast episodes for season 2, which had a much different feel than season 1 but were still really fun to record!

SEPTEMBER

  • I kicked off the month with a fun Labor Day getaway with two of my best friends, Bri and Amber. We spent three days at a resort in Orlando where we floated in the resort’s lazy river, went mini-golfing, went to a cat cafe, and took a sunset airboat ride.
  • I got injured for the first time all year on said vacation, after tripping down a few flights of stairs at our condo. I sprained my big toe and it hurt like hell for a few days.
  • The NFL football season started! It was so good to have Football Sundays with the fam back in my life.
  • At the end of the month, I evacuated with my mom, my stepdad, my fur-siblings, and my two cats when we thought Hurricane Ian would be coming directly for the Tampa Bay area. We snagged a last-minute Airbnb in Ft. Lauderdale, and we’re very grateful when the hurricane took a turn south and missed our area completely.

OCTOBER

  • We launched season 2 of our podcast!
  • My mom’s car needed a very costly repair ($5,000) so she opted to get a new car instead. Unfortunately, the car she bought had to be ordered and delivered so she was car-less for nearly a month. I got to be her Uber driver for that time, shuttling her to appointments and dinners out.
  • I did a fun bathroom refresh where I changed out the shower curtain and rugs, got new bath sheets (which are so luxurious), and added cute lil Command hooks for my towels right outside the shower stall.
  • I got my flu shot and bivalent Covid boosters at the same time on a Friday afternoon, and was very pleased that my only symptom was a sore arm.
  • I bought lots of fun fall decor for my apartment, my first time ever decorating my apartment for fall!
  • I experienced lots and lots of anxiety spirals and spent a lot of time in my head, worrying about endless scenarios.
  • I spent Halloween at my mom’s house where I dressed up like a cat to pass out candy. We had hardly any trick-or-treaters, though!

NOVEMBER

  • I did NaBloPoMo 2022 and published 30 blog posts in 30 days! We had a really great, big group of bloggers join in this year, which was a lot of fun. (And a lot to keep up with!)
  • My mom and I attended Running of the Wieners with Chip and Lucy, and Chip got 2nd place overall! We’ve never had a dog even win in their heat, much less make it to the finals and win, so it was so very exciting.
  • I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. My stepdad cooked dinner and it was delicious!
  • My mom and I went on our first cruise since 2019. We rode a hot air balloon and sipped cocktails poolside in the Bahamas, jumped into a waterfall and tubed down a river in Jamaica, and painted pottery in Haiti.
  • I turned 35! We were in the Bahamas on my birthday, and it was a lovely way to spend a birthday.

DECEMBER

  • I participated in San’s Secret Santa Mug Swap and was delighted by the mug and extra goodies that my Secret Santa, Anne, sent to me.
  • I spent a fun Saturday with friends: a writing date with Mikaela, lunch and making gingerbread houses with coworkers, and a dinner date with Amber.
  • I was shocked and saddened by tWitch dying by suicide. I am still trying to process this loss, and my heart is broken for his wife, his kids, and everyone who was impacted by his life.
  • I enjoyed a lovely Christmas with my family: we went to a candelight Christmas Eve service at a nearby church, had our annual steakhouse Christmas Eve dinner, and had a lovely Christmas Day at home.
  • I ended the year by having coffee with Amber and talking about our goals for 2023.
Categories: Recurring Series

Best of 2022 | My 2022 Goals

Well, here we are. The final check-in on my 2022 goals. How did I end up doing? Welllll… it’s not pretty. Let’s get into it:

Three Big Goals

1) Reduce my sugar intake. Not complete. I didn’t make this goal specific enough. I know better than that!

2) Save $4,000 for a down payment. Not complete. At the end of 2021, I was thinking about becoming a homeowner in the near future. Now, it’s just not something I’m all that interested in. A renter I shall be!

3) Reorganize my blogging categories/tags. Not complete. I made a huge spreadsheet of all the blog posts I’ve written from 2009-2021 and started recategorizing blog posts, but only made it to February 2011 before I put the project on pause.

20 Fun Goals

1) Buy a new mattress. Half-complete. I have most of the money saved, but wanted to add another $500ish to my savings account before I started mattress shopping for real. However, I recently realized that I could use my brother to get a mattress for dirt cheap! He works for a furniture store and has a decent employee discount and he got me some prices on mattresses for under $400! (With a box spring, that price would be a smidge higher but still wayyy lower than using one of those online mattress providers.) This will get done in 2023!

2) Complete the 2022 Unread Shelf Project. Complete! This year, I read:

  • January (the book you’ve been putting off reading): The English Wife by Lauren Willig ★★★☆☆
  • February (a title you couldn’t resist): Wordslut by Amanda Montell ★★★☆☆
  • March (a memoir or biography): Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling ★★★★☆
  • April (a book by an indie publisher or small press): When She Woke by Hillary Jordan ★★★★★
  • May (the shortest unread book on your shelf): The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin ★★★★☆
  • June (a book about a journey): Outlawed by Anna North ★★★☆☆
  • July (a book set in a country/culture different than yours): A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (DNF)
  • August (a book chosen by your friends or family): Pretty Little Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (DNF)
  • September (a book that represents the reader you want to be): The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare ★★★☆☆
  • October (a book that makes you nervous): A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold ★★★★★
  • November (a title that starts with the first letter of your name): The Smart One by Jennifer Close ★★☆☆☆
  • December (a classic book): Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (DNF)

3) Read all of the books added to my Goodreads TBR in 2017. Complete! I DNF-ed almost half of these books, but that’s okay. The goal was to finally give these books that have been languishing on my Goodreads TBR for so long a try, and that’s what I did.

  • Columbine by Dave Cullen ★★★★★
  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson DNF
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven ★★★★★
  • Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit DNF
  • Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber ★★★☆☆
  • Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier DNF
  • The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity Is Killing Young Women by Jessica Valenti ★★★★☆
  • Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley ★★★★☆
  • Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman DNF
  • The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane ★★★★☆
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou ★★★☆☆
  • Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer DNF
  • A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold ★★★★★
  • Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult DNF
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward DNF
  • How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life by Heather Havrilesky DNF
  • Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America by Jeff Chu ★★★☆☆
  • Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon ★★★★☆
  • Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley ★★★★☆
  • The Nix by Nathan Hill DNF
  • The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord DNF

4) Do 100 Peloton workouts. Not complete. I made it to 66 workouts. Womp, womp.

5) Restart my novel. Not complete. I started a podcast, though, so I did something creative this year.

6) Go back to therapy. Complete! I love therapy.

7) Watch 12 standup specials. Half-complete. I only watched 6 standup specials this year.

  • Taylor Tomlinson, Quarter-Life Crisis ★★★★★ (I cried with laughter from this one. A must-watch!)
  • Nate Bargatze, The Greatest Average American ★★★☆☆ (There were some chuckles, but overall, kinda blah.)
  • Mike Birbiglia, Thank God for Jokes ★★★★☆ (A bit more heartfelt than funny, but still a good special.)
  • Taylor Tomlinson, Look at You ★★★★★ (Is Taylor my favorite stand-up comedian? I think so.)
  • Nicole Byer, BBW ★★★☆☆ (Very, very raunchy!)
  • Iliza Schlesinger, Elder Millenial ★★★★☆ (Soooo funny and her thoughts about dating really spoke to me.)

8) Watch 6 TV series. Complete!

  • Only Murders in the Building – I watched seasons 1 and 2 this year.
  • Ted Lasso – I watched seasons 1 and 2 in May/June.
  • Abbott Elementary – I watched season 1, and it was excellent.
  • Good Girls – I watched season 1 and I’m halfway through season 2.
  • Cheer – I watched almost the entirety of season 2 while I was holed up at home with Covid.
  • Love is Blind – This show is so bad, it’s good. I watched seasons 2 and 3 this year.

9) Launch two seasons of our podcast. Complete!

10) Get my third tattoo. Not complete. My social anxiety is holding me back on this one. I just need to make the appointment!

11) Walk one 5k a month, in a different place each time. Not complete. I only managed 3 walks.

  • January 17, 2022 – Seminole Park – 2.82 miles with my mom and the dogs in 1 hour, 12 minutes
  • February 20, 2022 – Walsingham Park – 3.1 miles solo in 1 hour, 16 minutes
  • May 14, 2022 – Crescent Lake Park – 3.1 miles solo in 1 hour, 14 minutes

12) Redo my bathroom. Complete!

13) Get microdermabrasion or laser treatment—whatever is the better option for dealing with my acne scars. Not complete. Money was a little tight near the mid-point to the end of the year, and I know this would be a significant cost.

14) Learn how to French braid. Not complete. A goal for 2023!

15) Go on one date a month. Not complete.

16) Put an extra $1,000 toward my car loan. Not complete.

17) Make 12 new recipes. Half-complete. I made 9 new recipes, but didn’t quite get to doing one new recipe every month.

18) Make a recipe book. Not complete.

19) Cut gluten out of my diet for one month. Not complete.

20) Buy a coffee table and a floor lamp. Complete! I bought a cute coffee table in January and a floor lamp in March.

Well, that was depressing. I managed to fully complete 7 goals and halfway complete 3 goals. Out of 20. (We won’t even get into the three big goals I originally planned for.) There are many reasons I did so poorly this year: mental health struggles, financial woes. I also feel like I have a lot of aspirational goals on this list, but didn’t really break those goals down into more manageable chunks to make them more attainable. Ah, well. Live and learn, right? I’m not going to beat myself up over this poor performance. It is what it is! I also accomplished a lot of other things this year, things I didn’t add to my goals list, and I’m going to choose to be proud of those accomplishments.

Happy New Year, friends! I can’t believe this is my last blog post of 2022. See ya in 2023!

Categories: Recurring Series

Best of 2022 | The Year in Blogging

It’s been a good year for the blog. And I didn’t realize how good until I looked at my yearly stats. I don’t worry about my blogging stats; this blog is just a place for me to come and talk about my life, and I love that there is now this community of other bloggers who are doing the same. We’re not trying to make money here; we just like having the space to chat and connect. But I do like doing a check-in at the end of the year to put together this post. It’s interesting to see what people are most connecting with, what old blog posts are still getting thousands of views (it’s so crazy!), and how many people are stopping by my blog on a daily basis. It’s always more than I expect!

By the Numbers

  • 57,000 unique views
  • 13,000 visitors
  • 1,088 words per post on average
  • 1,400 comments
  • 180 posts
  • 121 countries represented in my views (with the United States, Canada, and Poland being my top three)
  • 165 subscribers

My number of unique views, unique visitors, and comments skyrocketed this year (+17,000, +2,000, and +600). My average words per post also increased (whoops) to over 1,000, and that’s an increase of 138 words per post from 2021. Will 2023 be the year I bring that average down to a more reasonable number? We shall see! I also posted a lot more—41 more posts, to be exact!—and that’s likely because I didn’t take two blog breaks, like I did in 2021.

My Top 5 Blog Posts of 2022

(Blog posts written in 2022, in order of most pageviews.)

  • My New Rules for Dating – I loved writing this post after reading Logan Ury’s book, How to Not Die Alone. While I haven’t exactly implemented the rules I laid out in this post, I did enjoy thinking about how to make the dating apps work better for me. I really do not enjoy the dating life (which is why I’m not on the apps as much as I should be), but I do desire partnership so I need to get better about using the apps to hopefully find that special person.
  • Stitch Fix | Summer 2022 – I think the reason this post made it on this list is that it was the last post I published before I took a few weeks off blogging while I was away on my Niagara Falls trip. In this post, I also talked about my body image and finding clothes that make me feel good no matter what my body looks like, which garnered a lot of (kind!) comments.
  • TGIF (v. 42) – I’m surprised that this post wound up as my third most popular post of 2022! There were a lot of comments on this post, which might be due to asking everyone to vote on their favorite pair of glasses I got in my Warby Parker try-on pack.
  • A Friday Morning Coffee Date – In this coffee date post, I got really vulnerable about my dating struggles, my mental health, and some weight-related challenges. Apparently, you guys like it when I’m really honest about what’s going on in my life!
  • My Experience with Covid-19 – I got Covid for the first time ever in June, after my Niagara Falls trip. (Wear your mask on planes, folks!) In this post, I talked about my experience with Covid, which really wasn’t as terrible as other people’s experiences. I ended up giving Covid to my mom and my brother (and my mom gave it to my stepdad!) and they all had it much worse than me.

My All-Time Most Popular Blog Posts

These stats haven’t budged in a few years, and this is the second year in a row I have gotten more than 2,000 views on the “10 Things I Like About Myself” post. I’m not sure why that post (written in 2014!) is still getting so many views.

  1. I’m 27 and Scared to Move Out (+221 views)
  2. On Being a Socially Anxious Introvert (+2 views)
  3. 10 Things I Like About Myself (+2,271 views)
  4. “What is meant for me is already mine.” (+506 views)
  5. Rules for Living with a Dachshund (+144 views)

Other Favorite Posts

  1. Some Thoughts on 12 Years of Estrangement – I’ve been estranged from my father for 12 years now. I was just 22 when I made the decision to sever our relationship, which feels so young, but also, I am so proud of that girl who decided she wouldn’t accept that kind of volatile relationship from someone. Becoming estranged is not an easy decision (especially when the person is your own father), but it was the best one I could have made. In this post, I talk about that decision and what being estranged from someone really feels like.
  2. That Time of the Month – I loved the discussion that Kelsey and Erica had about their periods on The Girl Next Door podcast so much that I decided to write an entire blog post about my own period—my history with periods, what periods are like for me these days, and funny stories I have about menstruation. I think we need to be more open and honest about things like periods, and I loved the discussion I had in the comments with some of you guys after writing this post.
  3. Living with Mental Illness – This year started off with one of my worst anxiety nights in a really long time and in this post, I talk about that experience and what it feels like to come down from a place of heightened anxiety. Bringing people into the real world of someone with an anxiety disorder is something I’m really passionate about, not only because we need to lessen the stigma of mental illness but also because it helps me feel less alone when other people say, “I’ve been there, too.”
  4. The Girl I Was Then – I’ve spent a lot of time this year reading through the archives of my blog as I work on my blog recategorization project, and it’s been really hard to read older blog posts from when I was in my early twenties and realize how hard I was on myself. I didn’t treat myself very kindly, and this post is a love letter to that girl to let her know she was okay as she was.
  5. My Evolution As a Reader – I wrote a long post all about how my reading has evolved throughout the years, starting in elementary school and continuining through college and beyond. I have always been a reader and it was fun to think about the different ways reading showed up in my life during different times.

It’s been a good year of blogging and I can’t wait to see what sorts of things I feel pulled to write about in 2023!

Categories: Recurring Series

Best of 2022 | My Favorite Podcasts

It was another lovely year of podcast listening! I added many new podcasts to my queue, and dropped a few long-time podcasts that just weren’t working for me anymore. One of my favorite things to do when I add a new podcast to my feed is to work through their entire back catalog of episodes. It keeps my podcast queue fresh (I always have something to listen to!) and it’s a fun way to see the growth of a podcast from the beginning to present day. I haven’t included any of the podcasts that are in my “backlist listening” queue, but some that I am enjoying a lot include Behind the Bastards; Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet; You Can Sit With Us; and 5-4. Maybe one of those will make it on my favorite podcasts of 2023 list! Time will tell.

I narrowed down my list of favorite podcasts to just 10, which was very hard to whittle down and it meant knocking off a few podcasts that have made it on my favorites list for years and years and years (sorry, my beloved Josh and Chuck). You’ll also see a little shameless self-promotion on this list. (I had to!) Let’s dive into the podcasts that meant the most to me this year. Let me know if you have any similar faves!

1) Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata – Sit back and relax as Nicole and Sasheer catch up with each other, talk about their lives working on TV sets, answer listeners’ friendship questions, and take silly Buzzfeed quizzes. This podcast is NSFM (not safe for Mom; as in, I never turn it on when my mom is in the car), but it makes me laugh and I love Nicole and Sasheer’s best friendship. (Weekly episodes, downloading every Wednesday.)

Start here: Nicole Probably Snored on Her Flight

2) The Bible Binge – While I’m still not sure where I stand when it comes to my Christian beliefs, I do enjoy listening to this podcast that covers a whole range of biblical and pop culture topics. Come for the Bible stories that they break down in a very fun way (including casting all the characters of the Bible!) and stay for their “Favored or Forsaken” and “Stuff We Didn’t Get in Sunday School” episodes. (Biweekly episodes, downloading every other Thursday.)

Start here: SWDGISS: Hell

3) The Friendship Paradox – Shameless plug for my own podcast! I didn’t imagine starting a podcast in 2022, but somehow we have released 10 episodes and have a whole new season in the works. My podcast, which I host with my best friend Bri, discusses all the ways our personalities impact the way we interact with the world. We’re releasing our episodes in seasons and so far, we’ve done a season on personality frameworks and a season on events (like weddings, birthdays, etc). We already have lots of ideas for next year, including relationships, travel, work, etc.

Start here: S1E2: A Type 9 & Type 2 Tackle the Enneagram

4) The Girl Next Door Podcast – Kelsey and Erica feel like old friends by now. They’ve been podcasting for so long and they always put out thoughtful and interesting discussions. They’re part of the inspiration of starting The Friendship Paradox, actually! I love their episodes, although I tend to skip anything that’s too motherhood-centric. Thankfully, they don’t do too many of those episodes and I’m grateful for all the nuggets of information I can pull from their episodes! (Biweekly episodes, downloading every other Wednesday.)

Start here: Let’s Talk About Our Periods!

5) Maintenance Phase – Two people sit down to debunk all kinds of fitness fads, junk nutritional advice, wellness scams, self-help books, and more. It’s hosted by Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon, who may be two of my favorite people on the Internet. (Aubrey’s laugh never fails to make my day!) They are self-deprecating, hilarious, and so very smart. I have loved every episode they’ve released, and I just wish I could have more of them in my life. Maybe it’s finally time to susbcribe to their Patreon?! (Biweekly episodes, downloading every other Tuesday)

Start here: “French Women Don’t Get Fat”

6) Over Under Achievers – I don’t know who this podcast will interest because it’s all about sports. Knox McCoy (of The Popcast fame) and his best friend Jason Waterfalls (not his real name, obviously) get together to talk about all the crazy news stories in the world of sports. I’m mostly interested in the football stories, but I enjoy Knox and Jason’s banter so much that I don’t even mind when they talk about other sports. Knox and Jason are both into Survivor (Jason being a new convert like I am!) and it’s fun to listen to their Survivor recaps, too. I also really like that every episode ends with the two of them guessing the Cameo price of different sports stars. I guess along with them and am very rarely anywhere in the ballpark (<– ha, see what I did there?). (Weekly episodes, downloading every Friday)

Start here: Disney Dads, Survivor Recap/Predictions, and Sports Polyamory

7) Pod Save America – I’ve been listening to my guys at Pod Save America since the beginning of the Trump presidency, and they have carried me through 2022 as well. I love the way they break down the biggest political stories of the week and help them make sense to someone like me. They also make me laugh, and I do very much enjoy the way they make fun of Fox News and the Republican party as a whole. Politics can sometimes feel very disheartening and disillusioning, but Pod Save America makes things feel a lot less shitty. (Twice-weekly episodes, downloading every Tuesday and Thursday.)

Start here: 2022 is dead. Long live 2024

8) The Popcast – Ah, of course. The podcast I chose as the only podcast I would listen to if I could only listen to one podcast for the rest of my life. Knox (mentioned above!) and Jamie Golden are the most perfect hosts who make me laugh every week with their funny, lively debates. They discuss all things in pop culture, but they go way beyond a typical pop culture podcast by doing deep dives on movies and celebrities, discussing the NOs of certain things (like, the NOs of Thanksgiving or the NOs of vacations), and unveiling everyone’s most unpopular opinions in their Flavor Town regular episodes (and your unpopular opinion must be spicy, nothing like “Taylor Swift sucks.” More like, “Hey, I don’t think it’s weird to marry your first cousin.”) Anyway, this podcast is my comfort listen. I will put it on above anything else, and Knox, Jamie, Erin, and the whole squad are precious to me. (Weekly episodes, downloading every Wednesday.)

Start here: Hallmark Movies Explained

9) Sarah’s Bookshelves Live – If I had to choose one book podcast to keep in my life, this one would be it. I enjoy Sarah’s Bookshelves Live so much! Sarah is such an honest and relatable person, and she is so great at discussing books, running author interviews, and bringing us into her readerly process. I love that she’s not just focused on getting the coolest author to interview; rather, she wants to talk to interesting people who are doing cool stuff in the publishing world, like debut authors, ghostwriters, literary agents, etc. I subscribed to her Patreon this year because I needed more Sarah content, and I think she does a great, great job with her Patreon extras. All in all, if there is one book podcast you should subscribe to, this one is it. (Biweekly episodes, downloading every Wednesday.)

Start here: Behind the Scenes of Ghostwriting with Barbara Feinman Todd

10) Strange Bedfellows – These guys have made it on my favorites list for years and years, and that’s because I find them genuinely funny and comforting to listen to. Jack and Tanner are two guys who started their podcast reading and reviewing books from The Baby-Sitters Club, and now they’re reading and reviewing romance novels as well as watching and reviewing romance movies. (Reading one romance novel every week got a little much for them, and since they’re both working fathers, I don’t blame them!) They make every episode an enjoyable listen, and I very much enjoy subscribing to their Patreon where they are watching old TGIF episodes (like Full House, Family Matters, etc.) from the 80s and talking about them. It’s always a fun time when one of their episodes download to my feed. (Weekly episodes, downloading every Monday.)

Start here: Persuasion

Honorable mentions: Stuff You Should Know, Currently Reading, Lovett or Leave It, Good Christian Fun, and Office Ladies

See any similar favorites here? What were some of your favorite podcasts from 2022?

Categories: Recurring Series

Best of 2022 | End-of-Year Survey

Hi, friends! Happy Tuesday. 🙂 I am so, so excited to start my 13th annual “Best Of…” series. Yes, I’ve been doing these year-end review posts since 2011! It started as a small three-post series where I did a yearly recap, discussed my favorite books of the year, and talked about my goals… and now it legitimately takes me 2-3 weeks to get through all of my “Best Of…” posts. Buckle in, friends. We’ll be discussing 2022 for a bit.

Today, I’m starting off “Best of 2022” with one of my favorite traditions: the end-of-year survey. I found this survey years ago and over the years, I have removed and added different questions that it barely looks like the same survey anymore. But I find it to be a really fun way to reflect on the year that was.

1) What did you do in 2022 that you’ve never done before? 

  • Visited Canada and Niagara Falls
  • Rode in a hot air balloon
  • Went tubing down a river
  • Picked flowers at a u-pick flower farm
  • Started a podcast
  • Started managing my own team of writers
  • Got Covid

2) Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, my best friend Mikaela gave birth to an adorable baby girl on March 21st. Her name is Eleni Kim, and she is the delight of my life.

3) Did anyone close to you die?

No, even though I worried about it happening every single day of 2022! My brain is such a fun place to be.

4) What places did you visit?

Niagara Falls and Toronto in Canada; Buffalo, NY; CocoCay, the Bahamas; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Labadee, Haiti

5) What would you like to have in 2023 that you didn’t have in 2022?

Inner peace. I would just like to not spend so much of my days fraught with anxiety over things that have not happened. It has been a hard, hard year with my anxiety disorder.

6) What dates from 2022 will be etched in your memory forever?

You know, I don’t think any specific dates from 2022 will be forever etched in my mind. There are things that I will remember fondly and hard things I am proud I got through, but no specific dates come to mind.

7) What was your biggest achievement this year?

Making it through every panic attack and every anxiety spiral. It is an awful thing when your brain conspires against you and you can’t trust it to be a safe place. I’m proud of myself for making it through every one and for restarting therapy to help me learn new coping strategies for these spirals.

I’m also really proud of my accomplishments at work this year. I started this year with a promotion from a senior writer to a manager, and I’ve truly exceeded my own expectations of what I could accomplish. I’ve helped to streamline our content processes, implement new procedures, and support our team as best I could. I feel really proud what I’ve done career-wise this year.

8) What was your biggest failure?

My dating life was a big flop this year. Most of this is on me, as I wasn’t as active as I need to be on the dating apps to actually have a dating life. But the dating apps can be a cesspool and I had two people cancel on me hours before our first date was scheduled, leading me down a spiral of self-loathing for a bit of time.

9) Did you suffer from illness or injury?

I got Covid in June, after my Canada trip. That was pretty sucky, but the worst of the symptoms only last for 2-3 days thankfully. And I strained my big toe when I fell down the stairs during my girls’ trip in August.

10) What was the best thing you bought?

Probably my sit/stand desk! While I’m not using the standing portion as much as I should (a goal for 2023!), I really love that I have the option to stand when I want and that my new desk takes up a lot less space than my previous one.

11) Where did most of your money go?

Where it always goes: to food. As of November 2022, I have spent $7,008 on food this year. None of my other categories (aside from housing/bills, but I’m not counting that) even comes close to that number!

12) What did you get really, really excited about?

I was really excited about the trip I took to Niagara Falls in June. I went with my mom and we had the best time. I spent a lot of time planning this trip, and I was just excited to see Canada and enjoy the Falls, which we definitely did.

13) What authors did you discover in 2022?

Catherine Ryan Howard (thrillers), Ashley Herring Blake (contemporary queer romance), Mia Vincy (historical romance), Kevin Wilson (contemporary fiction), Maureen Johnson (YA suspense), Elizabeth Acevedo (YA), and Clare Pooley (contemporary fiction).

I also loved the debuts from Alison Cochrun, Nita Prose, and Bonnie Garmus. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next! (Actually, I already have Cochrun’s next book, Kiss Her Once for Me, on my shelf!)

14) What do you wish you had done more of? 

I wish I had gone on more dates, gone on more walks, drank more water, gotten more sleep, and reached out to friends more often.

15) What do you wish you had done less of?

I wish I had done less worrying over things that haven’t happened and I wish I had been less complaining in general. There is a time and place for complaining, but next year, I want to challenge myself to not get drawn into conversations that only seem to be about complaining for the sake of complaining.

16) How did your spend Christmas?

I woke up at my mom’s house on Christmas Day and enjoyed spending the morning with my mom, stepdad, and the dogs. They got dressed up in sweaters because it was cold (low 30s!) and I wanted to cry, they looked so cute. My brother and his family came over around 2, we had dinner around 3, and then opened presents. Unfortunately, as we were opening presents, we had the game on and the Dolphins imploded in a very frustrating manner so I was feeling both happy to be opening presents and mad at my football team. Fun times! I went home around 5:30, had to take FIVE trips to my car to unload everything (I’m so very spoiled!), and then took a bath and went to bed early (10pm; not early for some, but early for me these days, ha).

17) What was your favorite TV program?

It’s hard to pick a favorite, so I’ll list off some of the shows I really loved this year: Ted Lasso, Only Murders in the Building, Abbott Elementary, Good Girls, Survivor, and The Amazing Race. I also started watching older seasons of Master Chef and man, that show is such a comfort-watch for some reason!

18) What did you want and get?

I wanted to find a therapist and I found one very easily. I didn’t even have to go therapy-hopping!

I wanted to thrive in my new role as manager, and I most certainly did that.

I wanted to see Niagara Falls and it was so special to plan this vacation with Mom and experience it with her.

19) What did you want and not get?

Romantic love, a normal brain, better nighttime sleep habits.

20) What was your favorite film of 2022?

I really enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing! I thought it was a fair representation of the book and I really loved the ending.

21) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 35 this year and I celebrated on a cruise ship! My mom and I took our first cruise in three years (!!) at the end of November, which meant I got to celebrate my birthday in the Bahamas. We took a hot air balloon ride, sipped fruity cocktails in the pool, and had a delicious dinner at the steakhouse on the ship in the evening.

22) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If my anxiety disorder had been more manageable. It has been a really hard year for my anxiety, something that had been under control over the last few years, and it is really exhausting to constantly deal with the spiraling thoughts and that feeling of something squeezing your insides deep in the pit of your stomach. There were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of unnecessary worrying, and a lot of things that should have been fun and exciting made miserable thanks to my anxiety.

23) Who kept you sane?

My friends – both my IRL friends and my blogging friends. I really struggled with loneliness this year, and having friends both near and far there to support me and help me recognize I am not alone was so vital. And, of course, my mom always keeps me the sanest and I am so grateful for her support and love.

24) What are five things you are grateful for this year?

  • My cats – Gosh, my cats are the best. They are sweet and snuggly and adorable. Eloise is my velcro-kitty who wants to be near me at all times, even if it means I have to share my desk chair with her. Lila is the kitty I can always count on giving me snuggles when I’m in bed. She’ll even let me tug her close to me and wrap an arm around her, which is a major feat.
  • Therapy – I am so glad I was able to find a therapist I clicked with and to have the financial means to attend therapy regularly. (Even with my insurance, I pay $140 every visit, so it’s not cheap.) We have worked through so many things in the 10 months I’ve been in therapy, from my anxiety spirals to my loneliness episodes to my dating life. It’s been gratifying to be able to better understand where all of my worries and fears are coming from and how to better combat the anxiety when it comes. I have a long way to go, still, but I am so thankful I have this space carved out once a month to talk through my issues.
  • The relationship I have with my mom – As you are all well aware, my biggest fear is something happening to my mom. And that’s because we have such a wonderful relationship, one I do not take for granted. She is my best friend, my anchor, my strongest support system. We have a special relationship, but one that is not without its fights and struggles (I left out the story of me snipping at my mom for not bringing cash with her while we were in Jamaica so she wasn’t able to buy water shoes, and her responding with, “Why are you yelling at me?” Hello, my name is Stephany and I can be a brat sometimes.) I cherish this relationship and I just want to have years and years and years of more memories with my mom.
  • A job a love (and one I’m good at) – This year came with lots of changes on the job front, moving into a management role. While there were some low points and bumps in the road, I have found myself really happy and fulfilled with my work this year. I feel like I’ve excelled in every task I’ve been given, and that feels really good.
  • Friendships – Like I said in the previous question, my friends kept me sane through this year when I wasn’t my most mentally stable. I am grateful to have friends I can reach out to when I’m feeling anxious or lonely, and they will be there for me. And that includes all of you who read my blog! Knowing I have this community at my back really makes me feel less alone.

25) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022.

Reach out to your people. When I’m going through loneliness or a depressive episode or an anxiety spiral, my natural inclination is to turn inward and shut people out. But my therapist has really challenged me to reach out when I’m feeling this way and to let people love me through these episodes. It’s a hard thing for me to do because I don’t ever want to be a burden and, as someone who takes on the emotions of people around them, I don’t want others to get sad because I am sad. But I know people want to be there for me and I know not everyone takes on the emotions of people around them. And I’ve realized how much better I feel when I do reach out. The anxiety lessens and I feel less alone in my struggles.

26) What would you rate your level of happiness on a scale of 1-10 this year?

Probably a 6. There were so many good memories from this year, so much happiness and joy. But there was also loneliness and self-doubt and high anxiety days. It wasn’t the best year of my life, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. It was just… a year.

27) If you could change one thing that happened this year, what would it be?

Do I have the power to remove any mass shootings that occurred this year? Uvalde, in particular, was a horrific shooting that I wish I had the power to change.

Personally, if I could change one thing about this year, I wish I could have gotten my life together to implement a better morning/nighttime routine. I’m starting to wonder if some of my anxiety issues stem from not getting an appropriate amount of sleep every night, and it’s something I really want to work on in 2023 because I think it could really help my mental health struggles.

28) How have you changed over this past year?

I think I have grown a lot professionally. I feel really confident in my role as a manager and have stepped up to manage a lot of different projects and processes to help our content team function better as a unit. It’s fun to be the one making the decisions, even if I don’t always make the right decision. I work by the adage, “Ask for forgiveness, not permission,” and that is very contrary to my personality (enneagram 9 here!), but has helped me grow a ton professionally this year.

29) How did this year surprise you? 

I wasn’t expecting to struggle with my anxiety disorder so much this year. It really impacted all facets of my life. My anxiety has been at a pretty even level for many, many years (even during the early days of the pandemic!) and it has sometimes felt like a failure to have struggled so much with anxiety and panic attacks this year. But mental illness is not static or logical, and sometimes, things just get fucked up for a good, long while. I’m hoping that 2023 surprises me in how much better I feel mentally.

30) Show us one of your favorite photos from the year.

I took this photo from the top of a building on our second night in Niagara Falls. It shows Niagara in all of its glory, and it takes my breath away every time I look at it.

What’s a lesson you learned in 2022?