I have never been one for big crowds and crazy sales. I think we ventured out for a Black Friday once years ago, back when doors opened at SIX AM! We vowed never to do it again. This year stores got the ball rolling on Thanksgiving Day with deals starting at 10 PM and doors opening at some places at midnight. I guess when your economy is based on people buying crap, you do what you gotta do to get them into your shop. I was lured in this year with the idea of getting a new TV. I am not exaggerating when I say that my computer monitor at work is bigger than my home TV. When Katrina told friends that we would be venturing out on Black Friday to get me a new TV, people would ask "why does she need a new TV?". Katrina would hold up her hands about 20 inches apart and the immediate reaction would be "Ooooohhhh". It was so small, I had been avoiding foreign films on Netflix because I couldn't read the subtitles. My niece Amanda found out about our plan and wanted in on the action too. She had her eye on a North Face jacket. So this is how we found ourselves standing in a line that wrapped around the back of Best Buy at 11:45 Thursday evening and when doors opened at midnight everyone politely and calmly entered the store. That's right. There was no trampling or screaming or shoving. There was no snatching items out of others hands or tug of wars of DVDs. By the time we made it in the store, they were already out of the TV I had planned on (actually, you had to get there at 10 and get a ticket for it, we didn't know this). We sent Amanda to wait in check out while Katrina and I looked at my TV options. They had a 32' Dynex for $180 and a 32' Samsung for $240. I had no idea what the difference in the two was, but I discovered that you could ask any man in that store what he thought about a particular TV and he would tell you. EVERYTHING. I went with the Samsung (it's remarkably light weight!). Easy peesy. Next on our list was Amanda's North Face jacket. She'd seen it in the Macy's add so Randy drove us over to the nearest Macy's. We searched around the coats, but didn't find it so I asked one of the store clerks. She told us that they didn't have them at this Macy's and we'd have to go to the other Macy's. Randy was not too thrilled, but Amanda pulled out the "but Uncle Randy" voice and there was no problem. Except that Macy's didn't have the jacket either. I talked to a floor manager there and he said he never gets them (I started my angry letter in my head at that point). Next stop was Dick's Sporting Goods and they did have her jacket. Yippee! We waited an hour in line to check out of Dick's and that was the longest wait we had all evening (morning?).

After that we ended up at Target. Katrina and I lost Amanda somewhere in the store and the two of us ended up in the Christmas isle so tired that we were making the Christmas ornaments talk to each other. Katrina said something about how her shoes kept falling off. I asked her why and her response was "because bub boop de boop". That was our end. Amanda was still bright eyed and bushy tailed, but Katrina and I couldn't even say our names and I still had to drive Amanda and I back to Mom's. We made it home around 4:30 AM. We never did witness a fight or see rudeness happening. Everyone was really calm and polite. We did see some crazy shit like a few families wearing matching Black Friday t-shirts and one guy camped out at PetCo. But there was no blood or gore or mangled bodies. Kind of a let down.