Don't Do Drugs, and other stories

On Wednesday (Income Tax Day, also the day I got my tax return) I got a call from 1-800-830-8574. I didn't answer it, but I got the tail end of a message about my bank account and debit card. I thought, "Yeah right, it's probably some scam." But I checked my bank account anyway--and I'm glad I did, because the phone call was not a scam. According to my bank account, I spent $45 three times at a Walmart in Elk City, Oklahoma. Fortunately, card services suspected that I did no such thing and alerted me to the fraudulent activity. I'm getting a new debit card and hopefully everything will be straightened out.

There's no way for me to know, but I suspect that the thief was using the money to feed a drug addiction. And when my bike was stolen in Provo in 2010? Probably for drugs. I would suspect that most thefts are motivated by, or at least connected to, drugs. Nearly everyone has had stuff stolen from them at some point, and I bet they're usually connected to drugs.

Illegal drugs such as meth, cocaine, and heroin are, in my honest belief, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) banes of our society. We must do what we can to get rid of the problem. I understand that there are problems with severely punishing addicts, because then they become stigmatized and it becomes harder for them to get help and turn their lives around. So perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on those unfortunate souls who abuse drugs. However, producing and manufacturing drugs (and by "drugs," I mean illegal drugs) is an endeavor that should not be tolerated at all. Drugs kill people, destroy families, ruin buildings, lead to poverty and ignorance, make people make unwise decisions, and cause crime. I don't think there's a penalty too harsh for those who make drugs.

Anyway, I was going to make this an entire rant about drugs, but I decided I'd rather stick to happy, frivolous thoughts.

On Monday night, my stake did a musical performance about Joseph Smith in our regional center. I was amazed that someone thought it was an appropriate place to take her dog, even a well-behaved dog.

When I went running on the Wild Rose Loop yesterday, there were lots of big yellow wildflowers, something like a cross between sunflowers and daisies. (I'm not a botanist.)

When I was a little kid, probably no older than 3, I remember hearing a bird call and thinking it said "Big Bird!" (I was a Sesame Street watcher.) I always wondered what kind of bird it was. This week I learned it was a chickadee. The mystery is finally solved!

We had our stake conference today, and there was a guy who seemed a little awkward sitting near us. His awkwardness was confirmed when he said to one of our members, "So, are you from China or Japan?" (She's actually half Korean.) For a period of time when I was thirteen, I used to watch King of the Hill (I watch cleaner things as an adult than I did as a kid), and there was one episode where Hank asked his Laotian neighbor, "So, are you Chinese or Japanese?" It was TV come to life.

I went to home teach some guys in my ward, Lant, Nik, and Luke. When Nik let us in, he said he was keeping the door open because it's a nice day; I said something about bugs getting in. Pretty soon, a bird flew in! It did a typical bird thing by flying into the windows, so we worried about it. Lant wanted to cover up the window above the door to discourage it from flying there, so he put a blanket on a broom and put it at the window to discourage it from going there. That ended up being the solution, but not in the intended way: the bird perched on the blanket, so he was able to lower it down to the level of the door, at which point it flew away.

Last night I had a dream that Taylor Swift was at an intimate work meeting. She now is on the list of celebrities I've dreamed about, joining the ranks of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Neon Trees, Kelly Clarkson, Mitt and Ann Romney, Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Vito Scotti, One Direction, and Justin Bieber.