Today’s post is going to be brief, because like most of you, I have a ton to do and I have to work today. Thanksgiving is a day of giving thanks, but for booksellers, or anyone in retail, it’s a day of gathering your strength and gearing up, mentally and physically for the next four weeks.
Getting ready for a major holiday, one that involves hours of cooking and hosting people, and in my case furiously cleaning the house, while also heralding the start of the busiest time of the year for the store, is a tall order. So, today I will divide my time between work for a few hours and then home for more work.  All this so I can get up early Thursday, call my mother and ask again how many minutes a pound should I cook the bird so I spend the day filling the house with yummy smells and good friends. Thankfully, there is some downtime on Thanksgiving, some time to take a deep breath and realize that the next four weeks are the most important for my store’s bottom line. Time to make a list of the books I fear I can’t live without during the holidays and time to learn to be zen about the chaos that is the next month.
I have one staffer who literally dances like she’s shadow boxing, as the holidays approach. She embraces the lunacy, the bizarre requests, the secret phone calls, the shipments that go missing, etc. I am going to emulate her attitude tomorrow when I’m cooking and it doesn’t go well. So if I forget to take the giblets out of the turkey or realize that I don’t have any vegetables to serve, can’t get the lumps out of my gravy and my dog won’t stop barking at my friend’s kid, I’ll just dance around the kitchen, have a laugh and enjoy my friends.
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!