Recap of Living Out Loud volume 22: Name your vice

Holy crap, do you know your vices! We had 13 entries this month! We've got a lot of reading to do, so let's get started: Erin's A Vice for All Saints Day I have done all these as well! After the baby, my hygiene levels shifted to a new "norm".

Rachel's Nasty! I used to chew on my cuticles ruthlessly until I got acrylic nails. Just after having Ian I managed to chew one into a horrible infection. That. Was Nasty.

Grace's Name your vice Grace really went all out and covered all the biggies! I think I've been guilty of all of these at one time or another too.

SuziCate's For Bad Or Worse Ooh, that "always" thing would get to me. Though Rich has a few things like that and we joke about them now. And Rich is also the World's Worst Passenger, but it just means I always get to play on my phone because he alwayswants to drive. See? Totally turned a bad into a good.

Peg's Don't Rock the Boat My mother has always said that if it weren't for deadlines she wouldn't get anything done and I'm not much better. So yeah, I get that. And rocking the boat? Oof, I feel that way too sometimes.

Jen's There, I've got it all sorted! This was neat to read because as first I was all "hey, you're just cheating!" but I can see how the little things are still vices but the big ones have shown a lot of progress. Go you!

Megan's Oh, I have a vice This is funny because I never knew this drink existed before Megan. And while I like it, I don't worship it like she does. But I do like to spoil myself with the occasional $4 beverage. Cheaper than beer.

Deb's Name Your Vice Oh, I totally do the same thing! I'm a very judgmental driver!

Candice's Cleaning Product Aromatherapy This stands out as the most unique vice. I can't say that I've felt the same way about this, but I'm sure there are other things I do that are equally weird. But taking one to bed? That's awesome!

Iseulte's My (not so secret) Vice As a diabetic, you'd think I would be all about this, but it has never appealed to me. But I know plenty of others who share your passion. That's fascinating about the bloating, though.

Ruth's Collecting Voices Rich and I just had a conversation the other day about eating out. But you took it to a much more global level.

Donal's My Vice This vice came as no surprise to me but I appreciated the honesty. The brevity of it was not lost on me either.

And my own Try before you buy

This was a fun topic to write about and a very fun topic to read about, so I hope you take the time to peruse all the entries. There were so many that grabbed my attention!

I felt more connected to so many of you to know I'm not the only one who goes days without washing my face or says things I shouldn't.

I had several favorites. Grace got points for going all out and covering the seven big sins. Jen gets props for tricking me into thinking she was going to tell me all her vices are gone. Candice made me laugh in a way that I couldn't necessarily commiserate with her but I have a sensitive sniffer so it's only a matter of time before I fall into this trap. Ruth taught me something about commercialism I'd never thought of.

But this month, I pick Peg as our winner. She covered some of the basics like diet, exercise and procrastinating. Things we can all relate to. But then she confessed some things about herself that might be hard to admit. Things I've seen myself and other friends do too but not share with others.

So thank you for rocking the boat this month, Peg. I'm super proud of you.

Peg will receive our customary $25 Amazon gift certificate as her prize. I can't express enough, though, how pleased I am at all the participants and I'm so happy you play along, whether in print or in your own heads.

I'm happy if these themes just get you to ponder them during your commute but I'm even more stoked if you write something for us all. Go you!

And since it's NaBloPoMo this month, I'll have plenty of opportunities to write up the theme for this month. So stay tuned!