Black Friday

It all began very late Thursday night, after way too much pie and eggnog ice cream. I was wondering about Black Friday jokes. People shoving old ladies, bodies run over by carts, etc. Until I could see one for myself, I decided not to make any final judgements. I convinced Dad to go shopping with me the next morning. After flipping through the dozens of fliers that had come in the mail, I went to bed at 10:15.

At 4 the next morning, I was up. We left at 4:30, and were met by a grand sight--stars!

Wal-Mart was our first stop. Since it stays open all night, and the sale didn't start until 5, people were waiting in lines beside the piles of items. I felt conspicuous walking nonchalantly down the aisles in front of all the slightly impatient shoppers. As Dad and I perused the store, we passed one woman with a satisfied grin on her face pushing a cart filled six feet high with boxes. Dad congratulated her, saying, "You win the shopper of the year award!" Keep in mind, this is about 5:10 am...

After Wal Mart, we drove to Best Buy. Finding a parking spot was literally impossible, and the line to get inside snaked around the side of the building (and Best Buy isn't a small store!) We went to Target. It didn't open until 6, and there was a line out front, so we went to Sears. Dad and I looked around, but didn't find anything. The sun was just beginning to creep up the sky. Back to Target. It was open now, and there was no more line outside. Inside, the store was abuzz with people. Luckily, we didn't have a shopping cart, otherwise we would have joined the jammed rows of carts and people. Tip: If you are in a crowded store, take shortcuts through the empty aisles, like 'greeting cards', and 'home decor'. I got two DVDs (Pirates of the Caribbean & Pride and Prejudice) for 5.50 apiece, and a Christmas present. The checkout lines were pretty bad--stretching across the store--but the cashiers were whipping along, so the wait wasn't too horrible. After Target, we crossed the street to Borders, where we browsed, glad for the quiet after the noisy stores. I bought one Christmas present there, nothing else--even on Black Friday, the place is ridiculously overpriced! Pride and Prejudice was on sale there, and it was still $16! (original price, $20...)
It was 8:30 when we got home, and people were just waking up.

Final thoughts? In some ways, it was just like I had imagined. There were the material people, waiting in line at indecent hours just to buy a piece of metal and wires. But it was also different than I had pictured. Black Friday is an adventure. You wake up while the stars are still twinkling, and go shopping with relatives. You buy electronics and Christmas presents and have a shopping experience like no other. When you get home, you nap and eat left-over pie for breakfast. Nearly everyone I saw was smiling.

Shopping trips involving ice-cream

Ice cream...shopping...very good combination. I went shopping with mom today for summer clothes...guys you can leave now, if you haven't already, because the rest of this post is going to be me flapping my jaws about SHOPPING. haha, girls, can't you see the guys running away screaming at the thought of having to...shop. Yes, very scary. Well, especially for Caleb. The poor kid got dragged around today in the mall after us, waiting in the boring dressing room, sitting on a huge, overstuffed chair with cotton coming out of a rip in the back. He was dejectedly (ooh, big word) staring around befuddling (ooh, big word) excuse me, fiddling with his thumbs, kicking the carpet, and making faces in the mirror. Luckily, mom had promised him a treat, something sweet, if he would come with us to the stores. So he HAD to agree. What nine year old wouldn't-after all, there was a reward-of who knew what? And he was good about it too, I guess, considering he's a boy, and a little boy at that. So I tried on all sorts of clothes, and tried them on, and tried them on...ugh, this post is getting extremely boring. OK, to make a boring story short, we ended up getting ice-cream, and it all ended up nicely, with some nice new clothes

The End~

Well, not exactly. We passed some lettered shirts for boys. One said, "You can have my sister" And mom and I thought we should get it for D., but it was an Ugly Yellow color, so we decided it would not look good on him, and put it back on the rack. Then we thought it would be super funny if all the boys got matching shirts of that, and wore it on the same day, but that idea was ditched for time reasons, (and I stopped laughing, after I thought about it) and we went on shopping. Mom and I could not resist the shoppers impulse to buy T. a little outfit, a red Basketball jersey thing (you know, the baggy, sleevless, shiny-material ones) it is sweet (thats the wrong word, I guess). Mom was a little hesitant, but I said, "Mom, you've got to connect with your inner punk!" and she was silly, and was like, "ooohhh!" and jumped up, and we bought it.

The End~

(for real)