November 16, 2021 — Cardie Anne Scott-Putney sent us this fun message way back when we were all in lock-down, sweetly saying that it was our cardie newsletter keeping her sane. So how ‘you doing, cardies? What or who is keeping you sane these days? Or might you be the voice of reason in your bunch, keeping the wheels on everybody else’s bus? Either way, we sense it’s time to show you some cards that are great to send or receive, depending on which end of the “losing-it!” spectrum you might be.

We’re feeling a bit worse for wear here at Cardthartic because it’s what we call “Big Book Time!” No matter how early in the year we begin to create the 50 new designs and 100-page annual catalog we want to reach you in early January, we’re always still running ragged about now. Our CEO Ana put our non-stop well when she said, “Nothing like trying to tinkle while hearing that horrible Skype ring squawking at you from down the hall!”

Added to the craziness, last week I asked my Miami Beach apartment building’s property manager to please advise when the stairwell outside my second-floor apartment would reopen. Because it’s been closed for repair for the past FIVE MONTHS, the only way my sweet dawg Gracie and I can go down and out for sanity-saving beach strolls is to first walk 100 paces west on the second floor, use stairs there to the ground floor, then walk the 100 paces back east to the beach exit which is of course directly below my place. I acknowledged to the man that mine was a first-world problem, for sure, but beach access doesn’t come cheap and I am paying for it, after all.

He outright lied in blaming the town’s permit process when the town had already told me that the application had been sent back months ago for corrections, not the least of which was that the plans had been submitted IN PENCIL!?!? Nevertheless, the property manager in his email to me maintained, “You need to be patient and should the conditions in the meantime become unbearable and your quality of life so impoverished, then you should make alternative arrangements.” 🤯

Friends have had it no easier. Sunday, Lisa called from the grocery parking lot for a reality check. She said her dear darling husband was in doing the shopping for her sister with dementia so she could have a few quiet minutes sitting in the car, catching up with me. Lucky for us (not so much for Larry) that the first store was out of what he was looking for and we could keep talking as he checked the next.

Pamela spent the weekend shooing 200-plus harmless yet uninvited bees out of her house, not letting Parkinson’s get the best of her. “I’ve become quite good at leaning on the walker and fanning four chiffon scarves around at a time,” Pam said in her beguiling British accent tinged with the giggle that delights us all. Monday morning, Nancy called concerned that her husband Jim was having hammertoe surgery Thursday and well-meaning friends have been predicting everything from “It’s nothing!” to “Oh very, very painful … even if the toes don’t get infected.”

Yesterday afternoon, the daughter of an elderly couple who lives in the building next door called from Chicago asking my help … her 90-year-old mom drove her 99-year-old dad to the burger joint two blocks away in their massive old SUV and was stranded there with a flat tire. No roadside-assistance plan. Left the cell at home, so was calling from the server’s phone.

And guess what. “Friday’s full moon marks an emotionally tense time for the collective. A lunar eclipse adds fuel to the fire, igniting transitional changes and disruptions to our daily routines.”

Yo boy. Life. It makes ya just want to sit, sign, stamp, and try to stay sane. Good luck with that. 🤗

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative