Shopping on Black Friday

Two of my 20-something daughters arose at 3 a.m. to hit two stores by 4 a.m. in 20 degree temps for their super duper early bird sales on Black Friday. Wow. They didn’t learn that shopping tradition from me. In fact, I typically do all I can to stay far from every store on that day. 
 Unfortunately, regardless of those efforts, I often find myself standing in a long line, usually between tired sets of parents and more tired and crying toddlers, late in the day, searching for those doggone tree lights to replace those that somehow stopped working while packed in their Rubbermaid boxes during their season of hibernation. Why they worked the day we took them down and do not the day we set them up 11 months later is beyond me. 
This year I decided to take advantage of our girls' touch of what I considered a bit of shopping insanity and sent them with my list of tree decorating needs before we discovered the dead lights (of which there were several, btw).

However, on Thanksgiving night I was informed of a 50% off sale on area rugs that I had been looking for recently. And when the dogs woke me up at 6:30 a.m. Friday, I decided to take the plunge by staying up. I was out the door by 7:40, thinking that surely in my entire life I had never gone shopping so early on any day. 

The parking lot was nearly full, with spaces up front being abandoned quickly – by the true early birds, I assumed. As I walked into the store, a woman walked out laden with many enormous, overstuffed bags. “You missed all the specials!” she called laughingly to me. I doubted it but went along with her joke.

I walked inside to a colorful sea of heavy coats dashing from rack to rack while Christmas carols and songs blasted overhead. I glanced briefly at the check out lines. They seemed long but not unbearably so. 

I went first to look at purses since after many years I had finally loved to death my very favorite everyday leather bag. It took more time that I wanted to spend but I found a perfect size, all fine leather with lots of great compartments to keep me organized, at 50% off. I went in search of the area rugs. Enroute, I found Turkish cotton bath towels. More than 50% off. Wow. Our bath towels were definitely in need of replacing. I picked up a few plush sets in the perfect pale shade of sage for the master bath. 

During my towel discovery, I also discovered a check out line at the back of the store. “How nice,” I thought. “They set up registers at the back of the store just for today.” 

Soft leather bag and luscious towels in my arms, I continued my search for the area rugs. At last, I found them. Oh, dear. Not at all what I had in mind. No biggie. I’ll get in line with my great finds.

And that’s when I learned the hard truth. The thoughtful line at the back of the store was as far from reality as my being on the moon. That line was wound all the way from the front of the store. Oh, my goodness. I looked at the bored faces of the shoppers behind overfull carts. I felt the pain in their backs and feet.

It took me less than two minutes to make a decision based on pure logic: 

a) I had no bottle of water with me and I was dying of thirst after having eat much salty food the day before, 

b) I had no book to read and 

c) I had to go to the bathroom. 

Subset logic: a) It’s not like we have no towels with which to dry ourselves, b) It’s not like I have no purse in which to carry my wallet and Bluetooth, and c) I have quite a lot of Christmas decorating to do at home.

Quickly I found my way back to the bathroom décor area and deposited the towels. I rapidly found the accessories department and left the purse where it really belonged. 

And then, as I passed by the lines, I smiled at the weary shoppers who obviously needed everything in those carts. Why else would they choose to bear such pain and boredom and to use many valuable moments of time that will never be available to them again in all eternity?

I stepped outside to the now 30 degree sunny day feeling absolutely liberated!