a bad week

my wallet was stolen this week.

i was furious. i cried for about 48 hours. i have been ready to chuck it all and head back to oklahoma. it has completely knocked the wind out of my sails. tim thought that reminding me that our car stereo was stolen and used to bash our neighbour in the head while we lived there would help.

it didn't. he means well but sometimes has no idea what he's doing.

my allowance money i had been saving this month, an in store credit for clarkes that i was hoping to put toward new boots this autumn, and my completely filled free drink card for cafe nero are all gone. i cancelled my cards which was relatively painless...once i found the numbers. i hate this new thing of "email our company". whatever happened to 1-800 (0800) numbers, pressing one for the customer service line, holding for 2-47 minutes, then talking to a person. i know, i'm getting old.

the first time it happened i was devastated, felt violated, the whole thing. of course, half my money for my vacation was taken. money that my husband had given me from his own allowance for my trip. yeah, that sucked.

the second time, i was in denial. i had only been in london a couple months. i have kinda blocked that one out.

the third time it was a coin purse that only had my cash card(not debit because this country is not yet sure i can be trusted to spend my own money that i have chosen to place in their care!) and about 5 pounds. no biggie. just embarrassing.

this is the fourth time and i have lost my mind. something snapped. i have been homesick before. actually, its not that uncommon. but not like this. not the whiney, i miss sonic, nostalgic kind. its been more like staying here is not an option, this is too hard, they don't want me here (no, i don't know who they are), why am i fighting this, when is the next flight to oklahoma...that doesn't go through chicago?

okay, it had been a tough week at work, plus i think i am having some hormonal issues...we'll leave that one at that. so, it was the last straw.

a couple things have eased me up abit. first, in our cell group wednesday night we discussed the serious possibility of our cell leading an esol class (english for speakers of other languages) for our community service. i don't think community service is one of the categories lined out in the official cell model, but we have added it. the details and serendipity are too long for this post, but i am really excited about this possibility. friday morning i was the special guest at a choir festival held at the church of england 2 minutes from my house. the theme was who is my neighbour. putting little girls in their african (i'm going to guess nigerian) costumes to dance on stage and listening to children sing about friendship regardless of color helped too. plus some of our kids from our after school club were there and they waved at me from the audience the whole time i was on stage. i mean, who wouldn't melt at getting to present awards to elementary kids by bringing them up on stage and making them feel special.

it would be a tidy, sit com ending if i felt better. but i don't. the good stuff has just helped ease my crisis thinking. i am considering not going with a traditional wallet. let's just say i have found something, not intended to be used as a wallet, but could serve that purpose so the robbers won't take it. i can't say what it is because my blog is so widely read that robbers everywhere would catch on.

i told tim about my plan. he said it was sad to resort to that, but he thinks it may be a good idea too. it sucks that i am thinking like that.

yes, neall, its 5:30 in the morning.