Steal a Post: 20x20

Friends, I am working through a patch of blogging burnout.  I have a ton of stories of food, family, and puppy mayhem but for whatever reason they are not wanting to get written.

What do you do when you don't want to write something?  Skip it and write about something else!

I was very taken with Suzanne's Twenty Ideas for Lists of Twenty Things that she wrote as a tribute for her guest post for Engie.  As I was reading along and giggling, I found myself wanting to "respond" to the list.

Now mind you I don't have 20 responses to each of the 20 things.  In fact I have serious listicle paralysis, as evidenced by the last time I tried to populate a list.  Luckily for me, it's my blog my rules, so here are my rambling responses to the 20 things.  

Just to be clear, the bold italics are Suzanne's genius words, and everything not in bold is mine.

1. Twenty things I did twenty years ago that I don’t do any more

• Who remembers since I wasn't blogging back then so I don't have any records to look back on.  My life in the summer of 2004 bears little resemblance to my life today.  To give you an idea:
• I was single.
• I lived in an apartment, though I was starting to think about maybe getting a house someday.
• I was still working in Career #1 as a technical writer/tech support guru, but I was starting to dabble in the world of accounting.
  
• That summer my body decided that it was pissed off at the world.  Out of nowhere I got a nasty case of seasonal allergies which led to a sinus infection which led to pneumonia and being sick for the entire summer and cracking a rib from coughing.  The allergies persisted with a vengeance throughout my early 30s.  The jury is out on whether they calmed down on their own or if I learned how to manage them better.
• I didn't cook very much, I don't remember what I was doing for fitness besides "something", I watched a lot of TV, and I was barely reading.  So I could only have blogged on one of the four topics that I blog about today.

2. Twenty things I’ve learned about myself and life in the past twenty years

• I already kind of knew this back then, but when you feel like you don't fit in with your surroundings...one possible reason is that you're in the wrong surroundings.
  
• Go after the things you want with a vengeance (examples: buying a house, changing careers, going back to grad school, meeting the hubs).
• Discard the things that aren't working.  Just because you have a degree in X field doesn't mean that you are serving a life sentence to only work in that field.  Hobbies that used to be fun and aren't fun anymore...there is no reason to keep doing them.

3. Twenty of the best foods I’ve ever eaten

• All of them.
  
• Delightfully spicy foods.  I have a spice tolerance, so if something hits as spicy it's really good.
• Sushi
• A really great dessert.
  

4. Twenty of my favorite books

• Ooh finally something that I can knock out a full 20 for!!!!  I'm starting with lifelong favorites on my bookshelves and then I'll switch over to more recent reads.  No apologies for all of the repeat authors, and I'm deliberately leaving out series because that's the next list.
  
• Lifelong Favs:
  
• The Far Country by Nevil Shute
• No Highway by Nevil Shute
• The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute
• A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
• Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
• Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
  
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Rebuilding Coventry by Sue Townsend
• A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
• The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacycyn (basically a blog from before blogs existed)
• Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
• More recent reads: 
• Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (thanks Jenny!)
• The Wives: A Memoir by Simone Gorrindo
• The Year of the Puppy: How Dogs Become Themselves by Alexandra Horowitz
• Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
• The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
• The Social Climber by Amanda Pellegrino
  

5. Twenty of my favorite book series

• Lifelong favs:
  

• Little House
  
• Joyce Porter!!!!  
• The Dover series
• The HonCon Series
• The Eddie Brown Series
• The Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend
• Current favs:
  
• The Alphabet Murders by Sue Grafton - fun fact, this was a co-recommendation by Suzanne and Engie.
• The Amish Murders by Linda Castillo - this is my current obsession
• There are 25 Alphabet Murders and 16 Amish Murders.  For some reason I feel very protective of the Alphabet series and I'm putting a lot of space in between each book.  I'm binging the Amish Murders.
  

6. Twenty books about which Engie and I disagree COMPLETELY (I am only assuming that we have this many books we disagree about)

• YESSSSS!!!!!  This is the one that made me want to write this post.  I have two examples to share:
• Hello Beautiful by Anne Napolitano!!!!  This is a book that gave me all the feels and got me crying ugly.  Engie's review: meh.
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.  It was Engie's pick for CBBC, and I voted for it.  It started strong but then I just plain lost track of the plot and couldn't make sense of it.

 7. Twenty of my favorite Engie posts (how could I possibly choose only twenty????)

• What Suzanne said!  There would be a lot of Hannah and Zelda pictures, at least 20 book reviews for books I only have heard of through Engie that I ended up reading and loving, that post from long ago about the good popcorn at the Belvidere Oasis, the post on swearing, and every post in general.

 8. Twenty favorite musical moments

• I think they would all be centered around the Hubs and me playing 80's MTV videos on YouTube for each other. 

9. Twenty of my favorite gifts

• I'm drawing a blank, but I've gotten a lot of good gift ideas from Suzanne's gift posts.
  

10. Twenty things I cannot live without (I mean, I probably could but I wouldn’t want to)

• The fam, including inlaws and four footers - sorry for calling y'all a "thing" but you know what I mean.
• Coffee, specifically the way that I make it (TJ's coffee, simple drip coffee maker at home, pour over filter for travel, splash of half and half) 
• Technology (internet, phone, computer)

11. Twenty words I wish I could work into conversation more regularly (“adumbration” is currently up there near the top)

• I have to sit this one out.  It's hard enough for me to come up with anything to say in conversation, let alone coming up with good words on the fly.
  

12. Twenty ideas for novels I haven’t yet written

• I had that list back in my teen years, but those memories are long gone.
  

13. Twenty stories about pets I had in my childhood

•  I loved our cats so much.
  

14. Twenty things to try when you can’t sleep

• I've got just one but it's a goodie.  Sleep mediation are magic for me.  There are a ton of free ones on the Insight Timer app
  

15. Twenty of my favorite poems

• I'm not big into poetry, but I appreciate it when it crosses my path.
  

16. Twenty weird things that make me anxious (writing a guest post for a blogger I admire, apparently????)

• YES THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

17. Twenty of the best rules for writing (and life???)

• "Writing is easy.  You just stare at a blank page until your forehead bleeds"
• Writing is hard and life is hard.  We do them anyway, as best as we can.
  

18. Twenty things about my life today that would surprise twenty-years-ago me

• That it all worked out.
• That I became a dog person.  I'm still Team Cat as well, but the way to make the call is to ask who I'm sharing a bed with.
  

19. Twenty of my top pet peeves

• "Washing your hair everyday is bad!"  Hi, if I don't wash my hair daily I end up with a greasy mess.  And then every time I work out my hair gets soaked with sweat.  If it's all the same to everyone else, I prefer to walk about with non-greasy, non-sweaty hair.
  
• Sleep trackers.  My Garmin is never satisfied with my sleep, but it just complains, it doesn't tell me what to do about it.
  

20. Twenty reasons blogging makes me a better person

• Well I dunno if it does but I sure love doing it and I sure love reading other blogs.
   

That's a wrap!  Please make my day and steal this stolen post!