OK, I found a new thing to add to my "Things I Hate About It" list this morning. Christmas cheer candy-asses (masking the fact that they're religious proselytizers).

I was in the over-crowded grocery store picking up last-minute items an hour ago. I was looking at my list, dreading the already long checkout lines, thinking about everything I had to accomplish today and tomorrow, and feeling a moment of keen grief about the fact that my sister who died of cancer late last year wouldn't be here with us.

So a lady walks by in the opposite direction, a woman in her late 20s or early 30s wearing too much jewelry, including a big diamond cross, and a gaudy, tacky Christmas sweater. She must have noticed my sober expression.

"Smile and be happy!" she said. "It's the Christmas season, a time to be joyful and celebrate Christ's birth. You know, 'Joy to the World. The Lord is born.'!"

I must have had a stunned expression on my face. I really HATE it when people tell me how to feel, and I hate it even more when they combine that with overtones of religious proselytizing. I stared at her for a long moment, thinking she must be the most overbearing idiot that ever walked the aisles of Kroger. She began to get a sort of less-than-cheery expression on her face before I finished staring at her.

Then I said, "Well, if it's OK with you, I was just thinking about the sister I lost to cancer some months ago. I'll choose to continue feeling the way I'm feeling instead of putting on a cheerful act. That's a lot better for my mental health, and it'll be a lot better for your health, I suspect, if you cease to tell perfect strangers in grocery stores how they ought to be feeling, especially when you have no idea about what they might be going through."

I left her with her mouth gaping wide open. I'm sure she's at home now, praying for my salvation. And smiling a candy-ass smile. Bah humbug.