It’s Day 2 of the Your Turn Challenge and I need to prove that I’m not just a one-hit wonder… or a one-whiff wonder.

Today’s prompt is “Tell us about something that’s important to you.”

The things that are most important to me are the ashtray, the paddle game and the remote control. That’s all I need…

Oh, and making people happy. That’s what makes me tick. Every day, I try to find humor in nearly every situation (funerals are notable, albeit understandable, exception). If I can make someone laugh, or just smile, that’s a successful day for me. Heck, sometimes I’ll settle for someone wincing from a bad pun.

I know life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. My mother died when I was three, and my father raised four kids all by himself. It was a struggle, and we grew up dirt-poor. I could have chosen to wallow in “why me?” self-pity for the rest of my life, but instead I made a choice to try to be optimistic, to try to be happy, and to make others happy. As my favorite author Ray Bradbury said, “Life is too serious to be taken seriously.”