Recalling Pineapples

Question 39/424:  What was your favorite job, and why?   I’m one of the very fortunate few to currently be working at my favorite job.   To be fair, I haven’t had very many different jobs.   When I was about ten or twelve years old, my parents became self-employed meaning that I did help in both my dad’s welding and manufacturing business as well as my mom’s rental and house rehabilitation businesses.   I did anything from the actual physical labor to helping my mom sort through receipts and itemize out what charges were for what for tax purposes.   I really enjoyed the office side of things quite a bit.   I liked looking through the receipts and noting what they were used for and keeping track of which materials went to which job and how to bill out.   One summer when I was sixteen, I was hired by one of my mom’s tenants to watch and drive her twelve-year-old son to and from school and to do some activities. I was never interested in babysitt...

Question 37/424:  Are you quick to apologize, or is it difficult for you? I think how fast I am to apologize has a lot to do with the context.   If I truly felt that I was in the right during an argument after something said or done, then I will probably not rush to apologize.   I don’t believe in saying that you’re sorry for things you don’t actually feel sorry for.   However, if it’s a situation where there was a misunderstanding or something said out of anger or hurt that I didn’t actually mean, then in those situations I am usually pretty fast to apologize.   I also like to make sure that when I apologize it’s genuine, and I don’t want to just say that I’m sorry, I want to actually think about what was said or done and what I am actually sorry for and what I will do to prevent that from happening again.   One of my favorite quotes is “Apology without changed behavior is manipulation” and I never want to fall into that category. I will admit, though,...

Question 35/424:  As a child, did you find it easy to fit in? I think that as a child I generally had a decent time fitting in.  I always had a group of friends to talk to or hang out with.  I struggled the most with making friends with boys.  This was a huge disappointment because prior to going to school, most of the kids I hung out with were boys.  I had an older brother and my mom ran a daycare where she watched primarily boys (in fact, it’s possible the only kids she watched were boys).  There are many stories told about me as a young kid, from age 1 to age 3, where I would get so jealous of my brother having friends that didn’t want to hang out with me that I would be violent with them, or I would unplug their video game system mid-game.  I was devastated when my brother went to school and I was left home with my mom all by myself, I wanted nothing more than to go to school with my brother (which I of course didn’t realize how school operated s...

  Question 33/424:  As a child, what were your favorite candies? I have always been a foodie and food motivated. I know that’s a term usually meant to describe animals but it’s the truth.  I was also the youngest of three, meaning that if we were trading for the good stuff, my siblings usually took the best and I was left with everything else, which didn’t really bother me because I eat pretty much anything. I was always a chocolate person, so was my sister.  My brother was more into the fruit variety candies.  I remember thinking as a kid that I wished I liked the fruity candies better because they were healthier – I don’t know where I got that idea but it’s what I believed for a long time.  My sister and I would often bicker over Reece’s in all forms because chocolate and peanut butter are obviously the perfect combination. My mom introduced me to other candies I loved, too.  I remember the first time I tried peanut butter M&M’s.  I be...

Question 31/424:  Have you ever been financially broke?  Do any memories come to mind? So I actually wrote a lengthy post about mydebt history back in April of 2021 , it was actually the first post I made to this new blog attempt. I won’t go into too much detail since I already did in that post, but the short answer is yes, I have been financially broke.  In fact, I have spent pretty much my entire adult life being some version of broke.  I’m fortunate to have good credit and that has certainly helped me along the way but as far as being financially flush enough to pay for everything with cash (or money out of my checking account), that has never been my situation.  I think the hardest time I remember being in financially was during the years 2011 through 2014.  I moved out right around my 19th birthday in November 2011.  At the time I was working full time at a law office making $10 an hour and my rent for my one-bedroom apartment was going to be ...

  Question 29/424:  What are your thoughts on risk?  Is it scary, exciting, unavoidable? Risk is unavoidable and stressful.  Two of the most important things to me are stability and security, so risk takes me out of my comfort zone.  For the most part I try to only take calculated risks, which means I’ve stayed in the same city and worked at the same job for my entire adult life, because the risk associated with moving away or find a new job or a new boss seems to high to chance.  There was a time in my life where risk was exciting and I didn’t shy away from it as much, I wasn’t reckless per se but I certainly didn’t have as much anxiety about making decisions as I am now.  I don’t really hang out with risk takers either, I guess because risk takers usually want their friends to participate in the risk taking behavior and I know that’s not me. I admire the risk takers of the world, and I often wish that I had the nerve to do half of what they do....

Question 27/424:  When have you been in a scary or dangerous situation? So I’ve already written about my almost drowning experience in question number 22 so I won’t repeat that one.  I’ve been a few scary or dangerous situations in my life, some beyond my control, and some partially my fault. The first really scary situation I remember was when I was an early teenager, just turned 13 or so, and my dad had been sick, just typical flu or pneumonia.  My family wasn’t a huge fan of going to the doctor so I’m sure my dad just took some over the counter sinus medication and assumed he was good to go.  I don’t really know what all happened but one night when he was falling asleep on recliner seat of the couch like he often did, he started having a seizure (or at least seizure like symptoms) and none of us really knew what to do.  My mom had to call 911 and essentially sat on top of him to hold his head so he wouldn’t rattle his brain and my siblings and I just had...