“Who left this on my desk?” I asked as I stared at a bag of candy that I hadn’t purchased and wasn’t there when I went to lunch.

My co-worker Tara replied, “I remembered you said you like sour candy. You also said you like hot candy. I saw this and thought of you. I just hope you can eat them.”

“Thank you,” I squealed. “I’ve never had this before. Im excited to try this. I’m don’t need expensive gifts, just the right ones. I’m truly a cheap date.”

I placed the bag of WarHead HotHeads next to my keyboard and began to work.

If I finish the next two stories in fifteen minutes, I’ll try one, I thought.
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Then, the voice of my co-worker Ashley rose over the top of cubical wall, “Have you tried it yet?”

“Nope.”

“I might want to try it.”

What? I wondered. Ashley rarely eats candy. Rough day?

I grabbed my scissor and cut the edge of the bag containing the gummy worms that claim to go from sweet to sour then hot. Ashley, Dave and I tried three different flavors. And, the candy delivered on all three tastes.

“Uh oh, there’s a lingering burn,” I said as I took a sip of my hot tea that was now cold. Ashley agreed.

For the next 45 minutes, I pounded my keyboard cranking out copy. I chose sound for the Ahmad Rahimi terror package. I wrote and cut stories about the Weehawken traffic changes, the New Hampshire lottery winner, a fire in New Jersey, a Nassau County law change, cemetery vandalism in Brooklyn, a school board lawsuit on Long Island, Governor Cuomo’s new dog, and chose a sound bite from the third African-American to be on the cover of the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. When all of that was nearly done, Ashley and I were ready to try another flavor. We giggled like little kids as we recounted our experiences.

This was a fun release in the midst of all the chaos and the huge workload today, I thought. Embracing my inner is reducing my stress, at least for a little while.

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