Sunday Salon - A week off...sort of!

Around this time of year, I tend to feel like I blinked and lost a month or something because it always surprises me when Thanksgiving is almost here and Christmas is less than two months away. It sneaks up on me! I realized how close Christmas is when I watched a segment on the Today Show recently, about the tree - where it came from and how it was found - that will soon be put up in Rockefeller Center and lit on November 30th.


Macy's is unveiling their Christmas windows this Thursday the 17th!  Personally, I think Macy's should wait another week. I hate when retailers rush the season. I prefer to make December all about Christmas rather than starting all kinds of Christmas-related things in November or earlier. Of course Macys is trying to encourage people to come to the store in hopes they'll go inside and shop after viewing the decorated windows. I stay as far from the stores as possible in the weeks before Christmas - on-line and mail order shopping works just fine for me! I don't mind going to some stores to walk around and browse but I prefer not to be shopping for anything, it adds pressure and stress and the lines are so long! My favorite time to see the holiday-themestore windows in NYC is late at night: 9 or 10 p.m., even later if they're still lit up.  It's not crowded and for some reason it's more exciting, almost magical!


I didn't get a lot of reading done this week. Everyday it seemed like little things kept coming up that had to be taken care of...little things that take a lot of I had to work on, too. So I'm still reading The Lotus Reader by Tajana Soli. I could have rushed through it just to finish it but I decided I didn't want to do that because it's too good a book. I was only able to read a little bit of it this past week. I'm hoping this week I'll get a chance to sit down and really put some time into it! I'm really enjoying The Easter Parade by Richard Yates. His writing is phenomenal. It's one of those books that feels a little weird to say I'm enjoying it because it's not a happy book but it's so very good. I'm also reading Volt by Alan Heathcock. This book is a collection of short stories involving themes such as civilization vs. wilderness, grief, tragedy, remorse, law and lawlessness, forgiveness, judgment and loyalty. Some of the stories are intense and very emotional. They're all intriging so far.

This week I'm participating in Reclaim You Reader, an idea Molly of The Bumbles Blog came up with. Molly came up with this idea due to her frustration with not having the time to both write posts on her blog and visit other blogs to read the posts of other bloggers. This week is, therefore, dedicated to visiting other blogs and commenting on posts! I'm looking forward to the chance to catch up on many of the blogs that I don't often have the opportunity to read as often as I'd like! For all of you who entered The Winters in Bloom giveaway, I will be announcing the winners on Saturday the 19th!


Tonight the Jets are playing the New England Patriots...again. I'm hoping for a different outcome this game!


I hope you're having a wonderful Sunday and have a great week!
Happy Reading!