Black Friday

Is today Purple Saturday? Or Green Day?

I've done "the black Friday thing" twice. Once was in 2002 and I
perused the fliers and decided that Aames in Blacksburg had the best
variety of deals and I went there at about 6am and did all my shopping
by 7am and was back home by 7:30. So I was hooked! No better way to
shop, said I.

I was wrong. I tried it again in 2005. My mom and I brushed our
teeth and hair and got in the car and were at Walmart before dawn. It
wasn't very crowded (as in, nobody died. For 5:30am, it was really,
really, really crowded). Here's the thing: Where the "best deals"
were located; you couldn't get near them. If you were in the market
for electronics, you'd better just forget it that day. No way. Same
with toys. We split up and stayed in touch via cell phones.

Being the Kitchen-Diva-Geek that I am, I wasn't there for the Plasma
TV or the newest edition of Monopoly. I wanted the $5 coffee maker,
the $5 mixer and the $5 toaster for myself. No crowds there. Mom was
there for the $3 pajamas.

We met back at checkout about 5 minutes later. Check out was a HUGE
pain, but we survived. That was the worst part of the trip.

We got back home less than an hour after we left, patting each other
on the back and sleepy.

Update: the coffee maker never worked. The mixer burned out the first
time I used it and I don't remember the toaster's fate, but it's not
in my kitchen now... the pajamas were much smaller than they were
supposed to be and just down-right crappy. Not even worth $3. I
think she got 5 of them so we each wasted $15.

Never again, my friends. Never, ever again.