Black Friday Mania - 2011

Okay, listen up Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Kohl's, Macy's....

...All you crazy business who just HAD to open at midnight instead of the usual 4am on Black Friday....  "This. Is. Getting. Ridiculousness!!"

I got zero sleep since I hosted Thanksgiving, it was brrrr freezing out & it only got colder as the morning progressed, and those poor employees that had to go in to work extra early (or late rather) on Thanksgiving.

I mean, really?? I'm all for a good deal, and yes I know I supported it by actually going out at midnight - but this is mine & my sister's tradition. I'm not one to break tradition....but it was just really difficult, I felt like my brain was just not functioning correctly - no sleep and lots of wine just a few hours earlier will do that to ya.


Anyway - rant over - I just hope they go back to opening around 4am...even 2am if they have to....just not midnight. PAAAlease!!

So, my sis picked me up at 11:40 and we headed to 7-Eleven for some really crappy coffee. Ugh. Not off to a good start. Then we drove down the street to scope out Target & Best Buy...whoa lines! Nothing crazy like what I read/saw online or on TV...but definitely some dedicated people out there. And who knows how long they were actually standing out there! Same with the Best Buy line...which just happened to go past the Starbucks...only to find that they were open TOO, YAY! Better coffee here we come.

We tossed our crappy 'Sevie' coffee & stood in line for the good stuff - oh, and a sausage/egg muffin, yum. After we ate that, the BB line was gone. So we walked over & it was a mad house. Granted this BB location is definitely smaller than others, it was SO unorganized. Total chaos. I couldn't find the laptop or the external harddrive that I wanted. And Chels found her cheap Canon cam, but we couldn't even find the end of the line. So we put the cam back & left, empty handed. Weird for us.

Then we went to Target with higher hopes and it did seem better upon walking in...bigger store, newly renovated with better layout/grocery section/etc. But....then we got to the back where the electronics/toys were...and that was outta control TOO! Boo...we couldn't concentrate, we were flustered, we were empty handed yet again.


Walmart-bound. Definitely better. Picked over, yes. But easier to focus on the task at hand, yes! AND, I scored on this lil beauty:

Ahhh purty huh?! She was only $388 before tax...holy deal, yippee!! She's a HP Pavilion g7-1219wm laptop with AMD Dual-Core E-450 processor with Windows 7....this 17" screen is FAB and the keyboard is huge, feels as big as one for a normal desktop computer (has the numeric pad on the right side even!).

I also got K a few goodies like a Disney Princess table/chairs for her/my craft room...so she can sit & color or craft right next to me! Also some more Leap Frog Jr. Tag books, some cheapy cartoon DVD's, clothes/shoes/boots (at Kohls) and a couple little goodies for James too of course ;-)

All-in-all, within 5 hours, we went to Starbucks, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Kohl's, Macys (could've napped quite well on this bed:)

soooooooooo tired!!

...then back to BB (Chels got her cam without even standing in line!), and finally grabbed some breakfast at Einstein Bagels right when they opened at 5:30...SO amazing and needed after that much shoppin. Phew. So glad we didn't have to settle for b'fast at McDonalds or Dennys...ick. We didn't encounter any psycho people with pepper spray or theft in the parking lot at gun point - so I'd say it was a successful shopping adventure - zero drama for this mamma!!

the goods...

Then on Cyber Monday I scored on eBay (using Bill Me Later I got zero interest/payments for 6 mo!) - got James a lil somethin, got K a new plush Dora doll and her very own "Elf on a Shelf" - cannot WAIT to start this super cute Christmas tradition with her!