Quote:
At long last, your Holiday shopping is complete! Every last person is checked off the list, and you have time to spare. Maybe you deserve something a little extra special, too? Or is there someone you suddenly remembered? Are you just imagining that you’re done? What if you actually haven’t gotten everything finished? This time of year is always so stressful—how are you handling shopping at all?
Word Count: 508
Jessie sat back with a happy sigh, brown eyes taking in the mass of wrapped presents stacked on her table. She chose to ignore the balled up paper scattered on the floor where she had tossed them in frustration. Wrapping presents was not her forte so getting them all done without resorting to gift bags once was a huge accomplishment for her. She was proud of herself and rightly so. There were gifts here for her parents, for her employees, for neighbors, for friends, for her book club, and for others. Well over two dozen gifts were piled on the table that normally was hidden under books but she was finally done. The Christmas cards were done and mailed over a week ago, the cookies were baked… well burned really but still edible, sort of… the tree was up and decorated, so with the last of the presents done everything was ready for December 25. Just in time too since a glance at the clock on the microwave said it was two in the morning which meant it was the 23rd, two days before Christmas. There would be no way she could have found the time to finish anything tomorrow since the store would be open extra long for Christmas Eve to help any last minute shoppers find the perfect book for their loved ones.
The 24th was going to be long and hectic, no time to wrap any last minute presents. That brought up a bit of a worry… there was no time to handle any more gifts if she forgot someone.
Eyeing the stack of wrapped and beribboned presents Jessie mentally went through her list of people but when she got down to the small little things she wasn’t quite sure if she had enough. Crap. Biting her lip the brunette scrambled to find some blank scrap paper and a usable pen, her frustration grew with each pen that was empty and each piece of paper she found filled with writing. Bah! It was so damn early in the morning and she was opening the store in just a few hours. Why did she have so many lists of books scattered around?!? Why didn’t she ever actually compile them into a comprehensive list on the computer? The bookworm got distracted when she started to actually read the list. So many books and authors! This one she had, that one she was ordering, those three were shipped a few months ago but she hadn’t gotten the chance to read them. Oooooooooo! That's one she forgot about! With the lists in hand she wandered towards her bedroom, intent on looking up the various books on her laptop.
It wasn’t until she was a hour into her books list that she glanced at the time on the computer and nearly fainted. ********! Forget about making a list of presents/recipients she needed to go to bed if there was any hope of her being even halfway cognitive at work in….. Six hours? ********, ********, ********, ********, ********!
