So my husband has never known that the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. He’s also, magically somehow, escaped the Black Friday experience. I can’t really say much, last year was the first time that I ever went out willingly on the biggest shopping day of the year. In fact, I was at Target at 5 in the morning, drinking my coffee and reading my book waiting patiently with about 2,000 other people for the store to open. I buzzed through and I was out by 7 with all of my Christmas shopping for the kids done.
This year, I’m a great deal more circumspect. But my husband got himself up at 3:30 this morning to head to Best Buy and to Fry’s (another electronics store) – he called me at 4:15 on his way home from them because the lines were already ridiculously long at both stores and the parking lots were jammed with overflow parking everywhere from the grassy fields to the local park and rides. Since what he wanted was only going to be there in limited numbers – he decided to forgo the overall experience.
It was pretty funny. He came home and at 5 a.m. I tripped back out and drove over to Target. The lines were already phenomenally longer than they were last year and I sat in my car, drinking my coffee and reading my book. At 5 minutes to 6 a.m. the Michael’s opened up and I sailed past all the people waiting for Target to pick up the last bits of Christmas crafts supplies I needed — with everything marked way down. After I left Michael’s, I strolled over to the zoo formally known as Target and yes – it was a zoo with it being packed wall to wall with people.
I ventured back into the toy section and found the three toys that were marked down with their holiday sale prices and carried them back to the front. Thirty minutes in line later, I was out and on my way to Toys R Us. Now, you’d think Toys R Us would be a bigger zoo – but it was actually phenomenally better organized than it was at the other stores. All of their big ticket sale items were right there in the front and I found what I needed and then strolled through looking for any other ideas that might jump out and get me.
All in all, it was a very successful morning – course as soon as I got home and everything shuttled away and hidden – my husband approached with a half-smile on his face. He wanted to head back out to the stores – he didn’t care if we could find anything on this trip – right now he just wants to go and see that great sea of humanity – so here we go – diving back into Black Friday.
What are you and your spouse doing today?
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