1.  We shall announce this loudly and proudly…

2.  WE CAN DO HARD THINGS.

3.  We can. We really can.

4.  Have I convinced you yet?

5.  Not important, I’m trying to convince myself.

6.  The WordPress bloggers out here get this: I’m battling the block editor.

7.  For my everyday, not on the platform, just show up to read some writing people: technology has been kicking my ass for almost a decade.

8.  You’d think almost a decade was hyperbole but turns out WordPress launched the block editor in 2018 so it’s really not that far off.

9.  Everyday peeps, let’s talk.

10.  You know how you show up one day and your grocery store has moved nearly every damn thing in the place?

11.  Don’t mind me…it took me ten minutes to find the freaking carrots in my produce section this morning and I’m salty about it.

12.  Anyway, on chaos day we assume everything’s still in the store but it’s been relocated.

13.  Sometimes five feet, sometimes five aisles, sometimes to what feels like an alternate universe under the same roof.

14.  STRESSFUL.

15.  Anyway, WordPress (the platform I use for Riddle from the Middle) has a whole system set up.

16.  The space where you write your posts, store your media, develop and maintain the actual web page — it all meshes together so I can maintain a blog for you.

17.  Then one day I showed up and BAM, when I tried to write a post it dropped me into an entirely different screen.

18.  For my non-blogger peeps, I don’t think describing the actual screens would help.

19.  Imagine stepping into your shower to find every bottle rearranged, the soap stored under the bathroom sink, and the water faucet controls moved across the room.

20.  Or going to get in your car only to find your key fob won’t activate until you sing a lullaby, turn the vents on high, and nestle the sucker into bedding inside the glove compartment.

21.  Or heading to bed but finding someone moved your pajamas, made your bed so your head’s at the opposite end, and replaced your sheets with the scratchiest material known to man.

22.  Everyone gets this, right? That super uncomfortable, everything’s off sensation?

23.  Alright, we’re all on the same page.

24.  So one day WordPress decided it had enough of “gently encouraging” its users to adopt the Block Editor and just dumped us all into it.

25.  I clicked Add Post and BOOM, it pulled up a screen that metaphorically speaking may as well have had a faucet across the room, key fob blankies in the glove compartment, and scratchy sheets.

26.  I gave it a shot, if by shot we mean I tried one post but for probably less than twenty minutes.

27.  Because I’m stubborn Sicilian opinionated me I may have told my computer to fuck all the way off and walked away for a minute.

28.  Not my finest moment, man, but they broke my writing space.

29.  I was pissed.

30.  Cue eight years of working the system so I could keep publishing in the Classic Editor.

31.  I was quite possibly the crotchety-est of crotchety old people insisting the platform works JUST FINE as it is (was)!!

32.  And then Dan shared Hugh’s Views and News post on how he switched his blog to a Block Theme.

33.  If you’re in the blogging world it’s got some great advice.

34.  If you’re not, it’s still a great read by someone who faced a daunting task, found resources to help, and wants to help others along the way.

35.  Which brings us back to WE CAN DO HARD THINGS.

36.  Saying it publicly is the first step.

37.  Warning you I may be monkeying around on my blog soon is the next.

38.  If anything weird shows up here for you — blogwise, not me-wise, because we all know I’m pretty freaking weird — let me know and I’ll look into it.

39.  Happy Friday.

40.  May your pollen count be reasonable, your days sunny, and your pajamas right where you left them.