Merry Christmas Season

Hello again! I haven't quite decided how often I will post works to the Creative Corner, since it depends how dedicated I can be during the holiday season. The book reviews do not pose this dilemma, because it is a bit easier to give one's two cents worth to something someone else has written than to actually sit down and come up with a piece of fiction one feels worthy of posting. Speaking of the holiday season, I have been tempted for the past two weeks to update my Facebook status to read "It's the Christmas shopping season, so let's all act like dicks". Even for a perpetual Christmas elf like myself, the inconsiderate crowds in the shopping malls mixed with the blaring music that has anyone scream for mercy (even if it is Christmas music) and the thermostat set so high that after 5 minutes in any one store we start to feel like beef jerky, it was just a bit too much. Yes, they are those people that push and shove and even drive into one (and crush one's purchases) with their foot as they treat a potential customer like an unwanted stray dog. This happened to me not a week ago at a Christmas market. I was angry, I felt humiliated and mistreated as a man twice my size used his leg to exert force instead of just using his words. At the end he forbid me entrance into the store at all after I told him clearly not to push me. From what I can only assume, this man was an employee of a store that had too many customers in the store already, so in order to reduce the chance of theft he decided to play bouncer for this particular store. However, this could easily have been achieved in a civilized manner as I was able to witness at the store next door, which actually had a security guard employed to monitor the entrance and who was capable of letting customers know when they were allowed to enter. It took a good hour until I was able to leave this incidence behind me and enjoy the rest of the evening. The next morning I woke up and of course the memory of this unpleasant situation crept into my mind again, but instead feeling my blood boil at the though of it, I had to smile, even chuckle as I realized that a man twice my size felt the need to ban a tiny woman like myself from a home decor store, because I told him he acted out of line. Having shared this experience, I hope it helps bring my point across that no matter how many people act like grinches, let it go; leave it behind. Don't let someone's unhappiness spoil your day or the holiday season. Be good to yourself. Treat yourself. Sit on the couch in your "jammies", sip hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies, if that feels good. And have yourself a wonderful Christmas season. P.S. I posted two new book reviews ("Gathering Blue" and "The Pierced Heart") as well as a short monologue I wrote ca. six years ago that was inspired by the movie "Miss Potter" (2006).