Mayhem

H-O-L-Y   C-O-W.

I went Black Friday shopping earlier today.  It was nuts.  I was (am?) nuts.  I'm still shaking my head from the spectacle.

After reviewing some upcoming birthday and Christmas wish lists, I realized that a few certain items were significantly reduced in price if I were able to roust myself out of my post-Thanksgiving turkey slumber and get shopping early today -- waaaaay early.  Normally, I would shy away from reduced sleep coupled with ridiculous crowds, but these items were upwards of $40 off each and all these savings can be combined to spend on other glamorous purchases like a new dryer since ours shot off a giant spark recently.

So, I got to Target by 4:09 a.m. today.  Yes, that is completely crazy, I know. Target opened at 4:00am, and I really thought that I would have the store to myself.  Wrong!  At 4:09 am there were people pouring out the door pushing carts and trolleys with flat screen televisions, already finished with their purchases.  Person after person after person after person with TVs.  I must have passed at least 20 people pushing televisions from my car to the front door.  There were more people in line with TVs and even more TVs in the aisles.  It was really something to behold!  Obviously there must have been some kind of amazing special.  I've never seen anything like it.  Fortunately I skipped all the electronics, found my three sale items and left by 4:25am.  Score.  (By the way, a large thank you to the kind Starbucks employees who were working at 4:20 this morning.)

Next stop, Toys R Us -- but the item that I was looking for was already sold out at 4:40.  Bummer.   Then, onto Walmart for two other "doorbuster" deals that seemed too good to pass up.  I'm going to be honest here, Walmart is not my favorite store.  I can never find anything, and today was no exception.  After wandering in a daze for a while, I found someone with a list who said they didn't know exactly where my item was, but I could find the line for it if I found a balloon with the letter E on it.  Huh???  Then, I realized there were letter balloons flying around and I got in the E line.  And waited.  It's probably good that I was so sleepy because I am pretty sure it was a looooooong wait.  And an even longer wait to check out.  But, all this foolishness paid off!  Savings galore.

I do realize that this post would be a lot more interesting if you knew what I was shopping for....but that would really spoil the surprises now wouldn't it??

I'll spare you the rest of the itinerary, but the short version is that I made a bunch of other stops and made it home to unload by 8:30 or so.  I really thought I had "done" the whole Black Friday shopping thing last year, when I made it to a toy store by 6:15am and made one other stop and was home by 8:30am. But that was nothing compared to this year.  I just can't get over how many people were out and about.

Scott jokingly suggested that I should go and see the new Harry Potter movie this morning since I was already wide awake.  Before he could take it back, I was already at the theater with movie ticket in hand.  AWESOME!  And, then, since the theater was next to King of Prussia mall, I thought I'd go into the mall for a quick peek -- but I quickly retreated to the safety of my car.  I am just not ready to face that kind of Black Friday shopping yet.  Maybe next year.