Adventures in shopping

Thanksgiving was nice. We had dinner with my family at my moms house. After we ate we played Rockband and Guitar Hero for a while. Asher got tired early and begged to go home and to bed. Funny kid!

Matt and I watched the game (go Brian Westbook! 39 amazing fantasy points!) and then Survivor while I put together the Black Friday Binder.

Becki and I have shopped Black Friday together forever. My mom doesn't come anymore, but she's the one that got us started. I can remember waiting with her in the dark, sometimes in line, sometimes in a parked car. Always cold, always excited.

A few years ago I started putting together a binder the night before shopping.

I hate Wal Mart - I really do. All year long I avoid it like the plague - but on Black Friday it's the only place to go. They open at 5am! They don't make you wait outside! They have really great deals! And, best of all, they price match!!! So we always go there first, get what we need - including all the stuff from stores we know we won't make it to for them to price match - and check out in the sporting goods department, avoiding the long lines.

Target opens at 6am, so we're usually able to get there just as they unlock the doors and join the crowd of people pouring inside.

After Target we hit another store or two before ending up at the mall. JoAnn's is our last stop.

Anyway - you have to be organized in order to remember everything you need! So I started making the binder. Here it is - in all it's glory.

This year was crazy. The ads weren't nearly as good as they were last year (or any year I can remember, really) but there were more people by far. And more men than I ever would have thought possible. Black Friday is a womans game, imo, but this year it seemed like lots of ladies had called their husbands in for backup. My local Wal Mart had about a dozen police officers - including a K9 unit! - in store to keep order. Kind of crazy, since I've never even heard of anyone getting hurt here. Can't say I object, though - especially since hearing of all the craziness in New York and California stores.

My top priority this year was a Power Wheels 4x4 Jeep for Asher. It was on for only $88 - limited quantities, of course.

Becki wanted the 8" portable DVD player, so we split up. Our items were at completely different ends of the store - mine was on the last pallet in the back, next to the tire and lube center, and hers was up front, near the produce department. I took the shopping cart, since I'd need it if I managed to snag a jeep.

When I got to the power wheels pallet, I struck up a friendly conversation with a husband and wife who were stationed so close to the boxes that they were practically on top of them. They wasted no time telling me that everything had already been claimed, and that they'd been waiting for a long time. He, especially, was quite outspoken about the fact that I would NOT be getting a jeep. I smiled, politely, and moved away from them ASAP. The next woman I stood next to didn't even wait for me to say hello before she told me everything had been claimed in her vicinity, also. It went something like this "me, and him, and her are all getting the boy ones and those two over there and that guy are all getting the girl ones, and that's all of 'em."

There were only perhaps 20 jeeps to be had, and many of these people had been waiting for 60 minutes or so, so their attitude is somewhat understandable...

but please.

You think you can just tell me I can't have something because you've already 'called' it? HA! This is Black Friday, people, and I'm a pro.

I moved around to the other side of the pallet and managed to avoid conversing with anyone on that side - though they were equally vocal in telling anyone that would listen that everything had been spoken for.

At 4:55 a WalMart employee came over and cut the black plastic wrapped around the jeeps to about halfway down the boxes. Then she backed out and ran away. Seriously.

At 4:59 the people at the product next to us began ripping into their pallet, which sparked those at the front of our throng to do the same. All hell broke loose.

I bulldozed my way through 6 or 7 people (all of whom had already claimed a jeep) and threw myself on top of a box, not knowing if it was a boy jeep or a girl jeep. I figured if it was a girl jeep maybe I could get lucky and trade with someone that accidentally grabbed a boy one. Next to me two women wrestled over a box - both yelling at the other that she had it first. I curled my fingers around the sides of the 26x39inch box, which was clearly labeled "Team Lift", and jerked my body backward, into a standing position. The box wasn't heavy - maybe 40 pounds? - but it was so big and unwieldy it was incredibly difficult to carry! Before I could fall forward I began to walk across the pallet and into the opposite side of the aisle, where I'd left my cart parked. Several people pushed past me as I tried to get the box up over the edge of my cart and into the basket before I asked one woman to help me. She guided the box in (to my heartfelt thanks) and was gone a split second later.

The trek through the massive horde of people back to the toy section took forever with a cart to pull behind me (I didn't trust pushing - didn't want to be that far from my prized possession!)

The adrenaline rush I got from grabbing that jeep is unrivaled by anything in my life.
Sadly, I'm not kidding.

I shook, trembled, for a good 10 minutes after. It was such a rush.

We got so much great stuff. I left the house at 4:05am and got home just before 2pm. 10 hours of shopping.

Both kids are almost completely done! That feels good.

Tomorrow we'll put up the Christmas tree and I can start wrapping :)