Until they start breaking my heart all over again.

I can’t wait for January 16th.

Back in my bookstore days, this would be the week of calm-before-storm. Sales would have picked up a bit, with the early Christmas shoppers getting a jump start, but the madness of the Christmas season was still just over the horizon.

We’d be stocking the store, anticipating the rush, staring at the schedule in the back room. (”Holy shit, we’re open ’till when?”)

I miss it year-round, but during the holidays, my missing the bookstore goes up to eleven. I know, I know - long hours, flustered customers, frustrating days trying to get the hot titles back in stock when the publishers run out - but I loved it. Even when I was feeling the burnout on December 23rd, I loved it. It never bothered me to work on Christmas Eve.

So, this year, with the economy being gorram scary, I thought I’d remind those of you starting to compose your gift lists to keep your local bookstores in mind.

Smarter people are way ahead of me. Two websites to check out:

Books = Gifts has some great suggestions and contests running. There are links there to several online retailers. Indie Bound will help you find your local independent bookseller. Powell’s is one of the biggest indies in the country.

And tomorrow, November 22nd, is America Unchained Day. So, if you’re thinking about getting a head start on your shopping, or you just feel like finding something good to read for yourself, why not go tomorrow and support your local independent bookstore?

Don’t know where one is in your area? Indie Bound has a search page just for you!

Need recommendations? Want to recommend something to any of the six other people reading this? Comments are open!

I have a whole bunch of posts floating around in my brain, most of them book geekery. I should be reading for work (and truly, I have read a couple of titles off our spring list that I loved. There’s one that I’ll be demanding everyone I know - especially the gamers - read.)

But, I’m also reading a ton of things that aren’t for work. Soon, I’ll take a picture of the stack of books I intend to read or finish. I think I might work a bit of a contest into it, too, but first things first - let me get the picture taken and uploaded before I start dangling swag in front of you all.

I ended up passing on NaNo this year, though November still has twelve days remaining. I might attempt some made up challenge of my own, to get things flowing. More to come on that as well.

So, who wants pie?

CNN’s recommended stories widget makes my head asplode.

Stories you may be interested in based on past browsing:

My REAL life as a call girl
Check out Michelle Obama’s fashions
Three important steps to take after pink slip
Make money in your spare time
Male victims of abuse speak out

Pretty much all I click on at CNN these days is the political ticker and the technology stories, with occasional outraged forays into their idiot fluff pieces.

I have to wonder if my security settings in Firefox or the awesome that is NoScript is messing something up.

I’m also afraid that the “Make money in your spare time” and the call girl articles are one and the same.

I woke up this morning feeling like a weight has lifted. I will admit to you my superstition - yesterday was a good day. A bloody brilliant day, and I was afraid that things couldn’t be that good without the night ending in heartbreak. I got up early and voted, and felt like a part of history. The day was gorgeous - sunny and warm, and because it took us a while to get out of the high school parking lot, I had to take a later train into work. I sat on the platform and read in the sun for a half hour, waiting for the commuter train to arrive, and felt wonderful.

When I got to work, a coworker had done something very sweet for me. I’d given him some audiobooks I had lying around, and he in turn brings them to various places around the area - a hospital where people undergoing dialysis can listen to them while they receive their treatments, a nursing home, a center for the blind, all good places where they’ll be appreciated. I don’t do anything. I just toss them in a box and every couple of months, he takes what I have and spirits them away.

Well, it took a few minutes of asking if anyone had seen who left a $25 Dunkin Donuts gift certificate on my keyboard before I realized he’d been by last week to take another box.

So that was awesome.

Then my boss comes out and says our department has made our goal for the year, and we still have a month to go. We missed last year. I don’t think I’ve hit my personal one since, oh, 2002, or if I have I’ve only just squeaked by. Now, (dear sweet zombie Jesus, please don’t let me jinx this) the last 8% looks potentially achievable. This time last year, I was at 72%. So, wheeee.

It was a good day, and a good evening, so yeah, I went into the electoral-vote-vigil with a feeling of dread, thinking something had to give.

Well, it didn’t. I sat there with a goofy grin on my face from 11:00 on, and that feeling has carried through. For the first time in I don’t even know how long, I haven’t felt my heart sink listening to the morning news.

We have a long way to go still, I know that. There is no Secretary of Making Shit Better, nor is there a Magical Fix-It wand shoved into a drawer in the Oval Office.

But I feel good, and I feel hopeful, and I feel like maybe this momentum can carry through and get people involved and invested in ways they haven’t been before.

The idea of taking the day off occurred to me. It’s another nice day (though they’re predicting rain later), and I just want to run around outside, arms outstretched, whooping with joy. Maybe hugging random strangers.

But that kind of behavior would probably freak out the neighbors, so, y’know. Probably a good thing I came into work instead.

Onward. Upward.