…and to me, lately they do indeed “loom.” One big one — the American Thanksgiving — is over. Whew. We did have a nice time visiting my husband’s parents, and now the hard part comes. Christmas. Ack!
Well, really, I love Christmas and the Christmas season, but the whole thing can be stressful. (Which I addressed, hopefully in a fun form, with my story Christmas Creep last year.) There are so many decisions: who to buy for, how much to spend, who to visit, when and for how long, and if you decide gift cards are the way to go, you often feel (well, I do) guilty for taking the easy way out. You end up in a vicious circle of sorts: with a gift card (or cash), you can be sure the recipient will get what they want or need; on the other hand, if everyone just trades gift cards, maybe we should just skip it all and keep our money. Because it does indeed feel like trading money around. But take it a little further, and because the money came from someone else, you’ll feel okay about spending it on something fun or frivolous.
Gah, it makes my head hurt.
Hmmm. Just had lunch and lost my train of thought. The perils of blogging.
I suppose I was going to get to the idea that I think any new stories, or new versions of old stories, will have to wait until the New Year. That’s a bit disappointing, but also a bit of a relief — the pressure’s off from one more thing during the holiday season.
But that doesn’t mean there’s not stuff to read. Literotica is running their annual Winter Holidays Contest. I think there may be fewer entries at this point than in years past, but check it out. Also, I’ve been having a great time reading these old Playboy interviews via Slate.com and Longform.org. (Nifty feature: they can be sent to your Kindle if you set up an account with readability.com and make the appropriate changes to your Kindle information. Very handy.)
So best of luck with your end-of-year shopping and other chores, and remember to take some time out to read. 😉