………or drink heavily. Oy. What a week. You know how it started. I blogged about it here. Debit card number stolen, bank drained, yadda yadda yadda. I was thinking I was through the crap – woke up this morning just chipper as a little bird in springtime. And then…..

1. My friend Leslie tells me someone is stealing her mail and stole her kids’ Christmas presents AND that people are coming home to find their Christmas cards ripped open under their mailboxes because thieves are looking for money. Or maybe they are stealing family Christmas form letters, because we know what scintillating reading those things are!

2. I discover that something I ordered thru Sears was really one of their “third party vendors” (Sears gave no indication while I was placing the order that such a thing even existed). Sadly, that third party vendor that Sears “allows to use our system” including making orders through and payments to Sears Holding Corporation is crooked, supplied a fraudulent shipping number, and no item is received. Sears tells me that it is my problem to work out even though I paid Sears – not a third-party vendor. They are refusing to refund my money.

3. My friend Karen mentions that her credit card number has been stolen, and people are using it to order stuff to ship to Japan.

WTH, man? I get it. I’m still blessed. I’m still lucky. I still have a roof over my head, a family I adore, health, etc. I also am just a little frustrated with humanity right now. Maybe more than a little frustrated.

I get it. Times are tough. But I don’t think it is people who are going through tough times who are stealing. I think the thieves are opportunists who aren’t going through a difficult time and haven’t been, because they’ve been stealing all along. I don’t buy the thought that when good people struggle, they turn to crime to support them. I’ve struggled mightily. I once had to eat lentils for an entire year (55 cents a bag – eat for a week!) because that was all I could afford. I didn’t resort to stealing. Although a few men tell me I did steal their hearts during that time. Until they caught a whiff of the result of lentils for three meals per day, seven days per week.

I wish I had words of wisdom, but the truth is that I am writing this angry. I’m guessing anger is okay from time to time. I’m guessing I’m going to get back in my happy space by finding something to laugh at. It’s usually how it works. Where’s my buddy Rick Hale when I need him?

So – tell me jokes. Make me laugh. I’m ready to be a chipper little spring bird again, and with a little laughter, I’ll get there.