The Holidays and Goodreads

The holidays are upon us!  I hope you are enjoying this holiday weekend with friends and family.  It got me thinking about holiday decorating and shopping.  My autumn/harvest decorations will most likely stay up through this weekend.  I do not believe in shopping on Thanksgiving day.  I have never gone out shopping on Black Friday, but I do shop online if I find good deals that are on the shopping list.  I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet.  I normally start on Black Friday, but didn't find a thing that I wanted nor needed this year.  I try to send out Christmas cards around the second week in December.  I usually start putting up Christmas decorations in early December, but the tree doesn't go up until mid-December and stays up through January 6th.  We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas that way.  When do you like to do your shopping and decorating?  Are you an early bird or do you wait until the last minute?

As you can see by the new gadget I've added that I've recently joined Goodreads. I have spent some time building up my book list.  It's difficult to remember all the books that I've read in my life.  If I can't remember much about a book, I'll mark it as read, but I don't rate it.  I plan to review some of my favorite books when I find time.  Check out my page.  Can you tell what my favorite genre is? 

Enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend!

Veronica  

The Stranger

Just when I thought chivalry was dead, a younger man held the door for me at a restaurant today.  He really took me by surprise and I need to learn not to judge by appearances.  He was clad in a leather Harley jacket, complete with a bandana, sunglasses and stubble.  I guessed him to be in his early thirties.  He was just shy of 6 feet in height.  He had dark hair.  I am left to wonder what color his eyes were since he was wearing sunglasses.  He was in front of me and I remember thinking as he opened the door, that he'd only hold it for himself.  Not only did he hold it open, but he held it for my daughter and I to walk through.  She was lagging behind, but he held that door open for her.  I smiled back at him and thanked him.  He seemed the quiet type and replied unsmiling with a "Yep."  As I got on the road again, I kept thinking about that courteous stranger in the leather jacket.  I wondered what his story was.  I wondered where he came from and who taught him his manners.  He really intrigued me and I'm thinking he could be an inspiration for a potential character.  Isn't it funny where inspiration can strike?

What I love about driving in the country on a nice day is being allowed time to think.  I thought about a scene that I need to change in my work in progress.  It doesn't work the way I have it right now, so I have to ax a scene and revise another one!  The discarded scene will go in my delete scenes file, since I don't like to completely delete anything.  Hopefully, I can stay awake long enough tonight after the kids go to bed to work on it without falling asleep in front of the computer!  If I didn't need sleep, I'd have more time to read and write!

Veronica