List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.
The earth is round.
The sun is hot.
Tears contain salt.
So do the oceans.
If we don’t drink water, we cease to live.
If we don’t eat food, we cease to live.
The only parts of the human body unable to get cancer are teeth and fingernails.
My back hurts.
WordPress needs new prompts.
Are you seeking security or adventure?
I sought security. I’ve sought it since March when I learned my whole department was terminated to save the company money. I was shipped off to an agency which lasted two weeks. I was not interested in working on the account to serve my former employer, thank you very much.
I exited that job for another agency. The people were kind, and the pay was decent, but the insurance costs were steep. And I hadn’t had enough time to grieve the loss of my job, which I held for 14 years and I was really good at. I exited the second agency after a month. I did well and left on good terms. In fact, my supervisor offered to be a reference for me or to be a resource, if ever I should need it.
I took about a week to regroup. One morning, my eyes popped open, and the thought was put into my head to log onto a job search site and look at the jobs. Much to my surprise, there was a job similar to the one I’d held for 14 years. I applied for the job from my bed. It took less than 30 minutes. Within a few days, the first interview took place. Within the next few days I performed the skills assessment that was timed and observed. It was the most stressful skills assessment I have ever taken in my life, and that includes my first examination to get certified in my field. I wasn’t sure if I would pass, but I did. I found out the next day that the department was sending over my information to HR, and were looking forward to me joining the team. I was thrilled. A permanent home. A job that would feel like home because it was an environment that I had known before. The difference was in the kindness. This new company has been nothing but kind since the beginning. My former employer? The word kindness is not in the vocabulary.
Speaking of kindness, I agreed to start at another agency prior to knowledge of this job opening, and obviously prior to me gaining the position. This past Monday, I joined that agency, and these people are also extremely kind and have been wonderful. I am being compensated well, but the cost of insurance continues to try to financially sink me. To stay there would mean bankruptcy for me. I do not exaggerate.
Thursday afternoon my phone rang while I was staring at it waiting for HR to call me with the official offer. As soon as I answered the call, I heard a woman giggling. There must’ve been a funny joke prior to her calling me. Between her giggles, she asked for me. I told her she had the right person. She apologized for her giggling. I knew it was the HR hiring manager from the new job. Please understand, no one ever needs to apologize for giggling in my presence. I told her as much. She made me an offer and we had a pleasant conversation. The next steps are in motion and I have a tentative start date. I have to say, from start to finish this has taken a very short amount of time and feels like an absolute gift.
You may think I’m crazy, or you may just not believe it, but I am convinced my mother had a hand in this job acquisition. I can’t explain why the thought to go to the job search site was placed into my head when I didn’t put it there. I can’t explain why the first interview invitation went to my spam folder and the Director called me from her personal cell phone to be sure that I was interested. I can’t explain why it took less than a month to gain employment at a prestigious company that holds some of the most kind people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
I also can’t explain the giggling, but if you knew my mother, you would know she would be capable of something like this.
You see, I got the verbal offer on the birthday of one of my brothers – the 11th. He texted: “Happy My Birthday to you,” after I informed him of the news. Every year, my mom and I would meet him for birthday lunch. Often, it was on 12th of July. That’s the day in between our birthdays.
He was joking when he wished me a happy birthday on his day. The truth is, it’s a birthday present for me, it simply happened two days early.
Thanks, Mom. 💫✨💫💛
What time do you go to bed and wake up currently?
I reserve the right not to answer these questions, Mom.
*Everyone, I do see your comments and likes and I promise I will return to get back to you guys. This week has been and is a hot bed of activity, with lots of changes happening . I hope to return by the weekend to tell you all about it. I appreciate you all. 
What is your favorite genre of music?
But I’m down with most of the rest.
My favorites are 80s pop, 80s alternative, old-school rap, old-school hip-hop, some older stuff from the 60s and 70s and 80s, Fleetwood Mac and Simon and Garfunkel, the Police, 70s and 80s easy listening, some modern pop, some modern hip-hop, although please miss me with the autotune.
I don’t have a specific favorite genre. I’m all over the place, which makes for a very interesting playlist. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Describe your most memorable vacation.
A similar question was previously asked, as is the way here at WordPress.
Rather than answer this again, I’ll link below to my poem about the road trip leading to my most memorable vacation – The Cincinnati Open, 2006.
The roadtrip to my favorite vacation
On what subject(s) are you an authority?
I’ll have a proper post on this later, but the sneak pic is this:
What’s your definition of romantic?
How do you express your gratitude?
It’s really simple. This is what I do: I wake up, open my eyes and say, “I’m grateful for everything I have been given.”
At some point during the day – especially if it’s summer – I will venture outside and say it again. Then I will find happiness in the simple things, which aren’t that simple when you think about it.
Two days ago, I found myself kneeling in the dirt with my face in a coreopsis, watching and listening as a honeybee buzzed around my head to get the sweet nectar from the flowers. The bee had no pollen on her legs, so I knew she wasn’t collecting pollen, she was having a sweet drink. No, I am not scared of bees. Yes, I have been stung many times, but each of those times have been accidental, and not the fault of the bee. Last summer, I stepped on a bee and yes, the pain of the sting was excruciating, but all I could think of was that I carelessly and foolishly killed a honey bee. We need every honeybee we can get, and if I had looked down, I would’ve seen that I shouldn’t have put my foot there. I now make it a point to look down before I put my foot down, and try to walk away from the clover, not through it. I also now always wear shoes when walking through the grass, which I’d rather not do, as feeling the grass on my feet in the summer is one of the best sensations of the season. But, I don’t want to kill bees with my feet.
The point about the bees, other than we desperately need honeybees, so please don’t kill them – if they die, we die – is this: I am grateful for the bees. They are essential to our survival, and they are fascinating. They are not buzzing around outside trying to get us. As I’ve written before, most of the flying creatures I chase are actively trying to run away from me and my phone’s camera.
Yesterday, a worker bee tolerated my presence and allowed me to capture her on video.
After this encounter, I said hi to my wasp friends. More on that later. And no, nobody stung me.
What are you most worried about for the future?
Worrying is pointless, yet it is difficult to stop doing it.
Worrying about the future will cause anxiety.
Thinking too much about the past will cause depression.
Does worrying about anything solve anything? Does trying to control the outcome of something that hasn’t happened yet really work?
Is worrying about something you cannot control at all a good way to spend your time?
No.
If you can make small steps today so that tomorrow (which is the future) looks a little less scary and a little more like you hoped it would, then do that today.
Don’t overthink it, don’t overplay it, and please don’t waste today thinking about tomorrow. What if you don’t get a tomorrow? 
Have you ever had surgery? What for?
Isn’t there a better way to word these ridiculous prompts?
I’ll play along today, WordPress.
Yes, I had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy at the age of four. Repeated ear infections were causing me to lose my hearing, so the adenoids – along with the tonsils as a bonus – had to go.
I woke up during the surgery, and a nice nurse told me to go back to sleep. Many years later, I would end up working in that same hospital. But I could never find my tonsils or my adenoids. They must’ve hidden them well. 
My hearing came back, and all was functioning well until recently when the ear infections returned, and now I am almost completely deaf in my left ear. No one really knows why, except repeated infections are known to do that. Does that answer your question, WordPress? Is this prompt data mining for the selling of organs on the black market?
