Black Friday Nightmares!

 image via news tribune

So there was a whole row of the cutest kids dress up ball gowns you've ever seen! Just beautiful! I went to grab one for Stella. Obviously the lady next to me was admiring them also, since she reached out to grab the same one at the same time. I won.  She challenged me with, "What size do you need"?  I responded vigorously, "4T"! Then challenged with "What size do YOU need"?  She volleyed back, "4T". It was a standoff. We both held our ground but I could tell she was going to stop at nothing to get the dress I held.

Then I woke up. 

Seriously, a Black Friday nightmare. 

 I've officially lost my mind.

Aubrey and I went down to one of the sales at midnight armed with the local circular and actually got everything I had "circled" minus 1 item.  Success!!!  We didn't get home until 2:30 though and so 6:30 comes early.  When I groggily woke up I realized I had been dreaming of a standoff with some random woman over a dress.  The funny thing is...there were tons of these dresses on the rack for 1 and for 2 Stella is no where near a size 4T. Black Friday obviously got to me. :)

I blame it on the year before.  I had never done Black Friday before. I'm sure at some point I had done some shopping later in the day, but I had never done the whole get up at some ungodly hour and jockey for items that the stores only carried 2 of to get you in to spend money on other things.  Last year I decided it was time.  I got up at like 3 am and headed out in the dark. I got to the first store right as it opened, grabbed a buggie (that's what they call a cart in the south) and jumped into the sea of others trying to make their way back to the toy section.  I quickly realized I was getting no where with a cart. I abandoned the cart and went in search of the items I had marked on this coveted circular with my sharpie. Nothing, everything I had planned on getting was gone.

I moved on to store #2 with said circular with similar sharpie markings.  FAIL.  OK, OK. Store 3? Nope, nada.  Even worse I had to drag 4 different play tents up through the maze that led to the checkout.  Each time to be informed that the tent in my hand was NOT the tent in the circular.  Every tent I brought up was a variation of the Disney Princess tent just not THE specific one.  I was getting mad by the 4th tent and asked the girl at check out to please have someone find this needle in a haystack only to be informed it was sold out. 

Fading quickly and getting more pissed off by the second I drove to the 4th store.  By this time it was about 6:30 A.M. and I had made not 1 purchase.  At this point I abandoned the circular and just started shopping for deals. Success! I finished almost all of my shopping and saved a nice amount of money. Was the whole morning worth it, probably not. I most likely could have saved the same amount just shopping for deals through out the season.  I had the experience though. The famous "Black Friday" experience. It has obviously scarred me for life. 

This year was a greater success. I still got out the sharpie and circled.  I started with what I had wanted to get the most. Upon arrival I staked out the 4 wheeler and waited for the clock to hit 12:01.  Well, actually 11:56.  People started grabbing their items 5 minutes earlier and who was I to stand there like a dummy.  I told the lady next to me that everyone had started getting things and she could probably go ahead.  She told me her husband was a lawyer and would kill her if she started early.  Her loss, let her look like the dummy.  There was only 1 item I didn't get that I had wanted and the clerk informed me that their store never received that item.  7 out of 8 isn't bad odds. 

Happy Holidays!!!