it's beginning to look a lot like...Christmas.

Does it seem to anyone else that Christmas appears earlier every year? Some time last week I noticed that all the ads on TV have snow in them. Snow! I know that some of the country is getting snow at this time of year, but even the folks who are expecting it are crabby about it. Do we really need to be thinking about getting that cold yet?
Buuuuut...my workplace is increasingly filled with volumes of product that far exceed our capacity to store or display it, leading my boss to say things like "So, we have a visit from head office, and we need to be thinking about presenting the store the way we would want it to look. So that's the focus for the next couple of days. And shelving. Oh, and the International Festival of Authors." Could we have a little more focus in our focus? Crazy. Clearly Christmas-induced.
Books with bright red covers are trickling in, as though if they show up one at a time, I won't notice. Well, I see you, Christmas product, and I am not amused!
I just hope the holiday mood does not descend on the shoppers before, say, December first. I can't take much more than three weeks of it. For a season that is so hyped as a time of love and family and togetherness, it sure brings out the crappiness in people. I am not immune. Thinking "Lady, if I could make your head explode with the power of my mind, they'd be steam-cleaning the carpet for weeks," does not capture the Little-Drummer-boy spirit.

I propose a ban on all things involving snowflakes, jolly men in suits, holly, ivy, and stupid light-up reindeer (no matter how much they're supposed to teach us about how we're all valuable even if we're "different") until we learn how to be just a little bit polite: peace on earth. Goodwill towards men. Now those are sentiments I could live with all year long.