Hi, friends! It’s NaBloPoMo 2022 tiiiime.
I have been looking forward to starting NaBloPoMo for such a long time, like just the anticipation of it was enough to boost my mood immensely. I don’t know why I’ve been so excited! Maybe it’s the community aspect of this challenge and knowing I’m doing it with a lot of other bloggers? Or maybe I’m just excited for all of the blog posts I have planned and I’m looking forward to sharing it all with you guys. Well, for whatever reason, I am just so stinking excited for NaBloPoMo and I hope you guys are as well.
An Introduction of Sorts
I’m not sure if I’ll have some new readers popping by this month but, if so, I thought I could give you a quick introduction, bullet-list style:
- My name is Stephany and I’m a mid-thirties single lady living on the West Coast of Florida (the Tampa Bay area, to be exact!)
- I’m a content marketing manager for a company I’ve been with for over 9 years and I love, love, love what I do. A large part of my job involves mentoring writers, managing our contractor program, and overseeing our content assignments (we have 2,000+ pieces to assign out every month!).
- I have two cats who have my whole heart: Eloise is my tuxedo kitty who is very social and chatty and Lila is my sweet calico who is an expert snuggler but very shy. They are both 4.5 years old and have turned me into a crazy cat lady. (Before them, I’d only ever had dogs!)
- I recently launched a podcast with my best friend, Bri, called The Friendship Paradox where we explore the world of personality typing and how our personalities show up so differently in our lives.
- My favorite hobby of all-time is reading. I regularly read 130+ books a year, although this year I’m averaging slightly below that. My favorite genres are romance, contemporary fiction, thrillers, social justice nonfiction, and YA.
- My mom is my best friend and favorite person in the world, and I spend a lot of time with her. In fact, in just a few weeks, we’re leaving on a cruise together! I’m also very close with my brother who lives nearby.
- Other things to know about my: I’m a fat lady and have grown to appreciate my body no matter that it doesn’t hold up to the societal ideal, I’m a baby queer and came out “late” in life, and I could talk politics with people all the live-long day.
What to Expect This Month
I have a lot of fun blog posts planned this month. My entire editorial calendar for November is planned out, but of course, nothing is set in stone. I’m leaving myself the option to switch things around if needed. Here is some of what I’m looking forward to writing:
- Week in the Life – I’ll start this next week and I’m really looking forward to doing this series again. I’ve done it 5 times: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020. I’ve missed a few years here and there, but it’s one of my favorite series to do.
- Thank God It’s Sunday – I’m planning on switching my TGIF posts to Sunday. Last year, I did a “stream of consciousness” post every Sunday, which was fun to do, but I like the idea of doing TGIS instead.
- School Days – I’m going to continue my “School Days” posts by documenting my middle school years. Middle school was TOUGH for me, so I’m not exactly looking forward to reliving it but I will do it for the blog.
- My annual birthday post – I turn 35 (!) at the end of the month and I’ll celebrate with my annual birthday post. This past year has had a lot of growth in it, both professionally and personally, and I’m looking forward to sitting down and talking about it.
- Ask Me Anything – It’s baaaack. More below!
Ask Me Anything!
Last year, I reserved every Saturday for an “Ask Me Anything” blog post, and I’d love to bring it back this year! You can either fill out my form to answer your question (if you’d like to remain anonymous!) or you can ask a question (or questions!) on this post in the comment section. Depending on how many questions I receive, I’ll spend a few Saturdays this month answering your most curious quandaries. 🙂
Are you doing NaBloPoMo this year? Leave any questions you have for me below!
I am doing NaBloPoMo. I had just started blogging this time last year, so didn’t join in! I’m excited 🙂
I’m curious if you always had pets growing up. I feel like you’ve probably mentioned this, but I can’t remember.
Also, what is your absolute DREAM job (the sky is the limit – you would, in this universe, have all the skills needed to complete said job so if your answer was “be a famous rock singer”, you’d be able to sing/play an instrument already sort of thing)…
Enjoy the month. It sounds like you have things really well planned out!
I’m so excited you’re doing NaBloPoMo, too, Elisabeth! It will be a fun journey for all of us. 🙂
Thanks for your questions! I can’t wait to answer them.
Happy NaBloPoMo! I’m excited about it as well. I’m looking forward to your posts. You are very brave to relive middle school. Middle school was such a bad time for me, I look awful in every single picture, and I was miserable. I’ll be interested to hear what your time was like!
i’m also a crazy cat lady- as a matter of fact my post tomorrow will include some cat photos.
You’re usually pretty open about your life in your usual posts- I can’t think of any questions right now. But I’ll think of something!
On the last day of 8th grade, all of the girls in my class were crying because middle school was over and I could not understand. I was so happy to get out of there! It was an awful time for me. Will be interesting to relive those years!
Yay! Happy November!
I submitted a question on your form — that is a very cool set up! You are super tech savvy.
Yay! I love the questions you submitted, Suzanne, and can’t wait to answer them. 🙂
Oh, it’s always so fun to do AMAs. I love it.
You asked this question of me and I think it’s great: What book(s) do you recommend to people over and over again?
What is your ideal way to spend a weekend afternoon?
What skill do you wish you had that you don’t have?
Aside from yourself and the girls, what five things would you grab on your way out the door if you had sixty seconds to leave your house and knew you would never return?
Do you ever listen to Desert Island Discs? Basically, it’s a radio program where they ask people what eight songs, one book, and one luxury would they bring to do a desert island. What are your choices?
Great questions! I look forward to answering them. 🙂
I’m looking forward to reading along! I’ve never done this, even in my hey day of blogging when I blogged 3-5 times/week! It always felt too daunting for me!
Hmmm, my question is “if you could live anywhere in the US, where would you live? Does your answer change for when you are retired?”
It is a daunting challenge, for sure! I don’t blame you for sitting this one out. 🙂
Thanks for your question!
I am excited YOU are so excited!!!! And I am looking forward to reading everything this month!
Hmm, AMA. I know I came up with some really hard ones last year 😉 Can I top it?! Here we go (feel free to pick and choose LOL):
If you could only listen to ONE podcast, what would it be?
If you could only go on a cruise for vacation or a road trip for the rest of your live, which would you pick?
If you could only get takeout from ONE place forEVER, what would it be?
If you could only do game night OR football Sunday, which would you pick?
What one word would you like removed from everyone’s vocabulary?
What is something people rave about but you just don’t get the appeal?
What’s underated about where you live? What’s overrated?
What is your favorite thing about Cat Lady Culture?
When will you graduate from being baby queer to queer? (I hope that question is not offensive! I thought the term baby queer was really cute)
What ONE book do you think everyone should read?
You are forever the best question-asker! These are TOUGH but I’m excited to answer them!
I just decided to do NaBloPoMo this morning and I am excited to read through the posts and discover new blogs 🙂 No questions yet, just taking it all in 🙂
I’m so glad you’re along for the ride this year, Meike!
Stephany, I am so excited that you’re joining NaBloPoMo again this year and I feel like you’ve become one of the biggest cheerleaders for reviving this blogging movement. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have you – such a seasoned blogger – on board again.
I am looking forward to reading (even) more here this month and I know you’ll have a lot of cool content planned out.
A couple of AMA questions for you:
– Would you ever consider leaving Florida and live in a different state?
– What is one thing people say about you that you don’t agree with?
– I know you’re very close with your brother, but did you ever want to have a sister?
– If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Aww, San! That means a lot. <3 I am so excited to be doing NaBloPoMo again! It's going to be a great month. 🙂
Thanks for your questions!
I’ve also been looking forward to NabloPoMo and its so great that – it seems like – the community is growing again. I listened to your first podcast episode but wasn’t able to hear more. What a fun project though. I wonder do you get all the recording done in one take or is there lots of stopping because you discuss personal things that you then dont like to have in the podcast. My best friend and I we drift of so much when we chat so I am wondering…
We’re actually pretty good at staying on topic during the podcast. A lot of times, if we do go off on a tangent, we leave it in the episode because we want it to sound like it’s just two girlfriends chatting. We have an outline and we try to stick to that outline, even though we can get off topic from time to time. Mainly, we have to cut off me trailing off because I lost my train of thought, haha.
Oh, yay. So excited for NaBloPoMo but also soooo far behind already (damn conference!). I will continue to read every word of your blog, though, as I love how you write.
Also? I am even more confused about what you do than ever! I have no idea what a content marketing manager is. None. So if you care to take pity on me in an email or maybe a more in-depth post, have at it! I know your day to day is busy, and that you also have more meetings than you used to, but I also think that might be due to your new manager role, right?
I don’t have any good questions to add to the AMA, unfortunately. Everyone seems to have already asked them! But I shall keep pondering, in case you come back to the AMA idea in the future. 🙂