Black Friday
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I seriously considered joining the shopping maniacs standing in line for stores to open at 4am. Well, not seriously, but the thought did cross my mind. However, for the past couple of years I've thought it might be fun to drive to Fernandina early in the morning just to shop in my pjs. For some reason that sounds like fun to me. Not sure why.
Here's something else I'm grateful for. There is really nothing I need, want or can afford that is worth climbing out of my warm, cozy bed to stand in line for. I'm more of a sleeper than shopper.
However, in an effort to get my son's birthday present to him on time, I did venture out into the madding crowd. Like a compass needle set on due north, I pointed my car in the direction I wanted to go and didn't look right or left. I was on a mission ... surf shop, toy shop, office shop and home.
I was luck in because my selection of stores was not the mob scene it could have been. If I had wanted to buy a surf board, I may have had to wait in line. But, since all I wanted was a few trinkets, I got in and out without too much trouble. I did have a moment of heart-stopping buyer anxiety when I heard a salesboy who was all of about 17 tell a kid who was about half that age that a particular pair of pants, which were sure to become an all-time favorite were a steal at the bargain price of $70.00.
Seventy dollars? For a pair of pants that the kid was going to outgrow in six months or rip to shreds when he crashed down from the top of a skatebaord ramp. Seventy dollar pants was the main reason I tried to stay out of Surf stores when Johnson was in his I-won't-wear-Cheetas days.
My trek to the office supply store was uneventful. In and out, just like the burger joint. Until I decided to check my receipt. I was stuck in a traffic log jam, not moving at all, so I went through my bag to see if I could decipher how the kid at the register had worked my return/purchase transaction. That's when I discovered the return had been handled fine, but the purchase had not taken place. I wasn't charged for the fancy dancy label maker I'd stuffed in my bag as the kid was stapling together old and new receipts. Yikes!!!!!!! I felt Bonnie MacDougal in the car with me.
By the time I had this figured out, the light sequence had changed three times and my position in the line of cars was second from the front. I just about had it made. I could turn the corner, hit the expressway and be home in ten minutes.
Wrong! Just like I was a movie cop I made a U-turn. Granted I cut off a pissant PT Cruiser, and ran over the roadside curb, but for a 1990 Dodge Caravan, I thought I made quite a brilliant maneuver. I went back into Office Max and the kid gives me a questioning look. When I explained to him what happened, he actually said, "oh you were buying that?"
"Well, yeh," I thought to myself, "that would be the reason I brought it up here in the first place."
The guy didn't seem to notice my incredulity. He wasn't impressed by my honesty. I think he'd had a long morning.
Ho!Ho!Ho! Merry Chrismtas! Let the season begin.
Merry ME
I seriously considered joining the shopping maniacs standing in line for stores to open at 4am. Well, not seriously, but the thought did cross my mind. However, for the past couple of years I've thought it might be fun to drive to Fernandina early in the morning just to shop in my pjs. For some reason that sounds like fun to me. Not sure why.
Here's something else I'm grateful for. There is really nothing I need, want or can afford that is worth climbing out of my warm, cozy bed to stand in line for. I'm more of a sleeper than shopper.
However, in an effort to get my son's birthday present to him on time, I did venture out into the madding crowd. Like a compass needle set on due north, I pointed my car in the direction I wanted to go and didn't look right or left. I was on a mission ... surf shop, toy shop, office shop and home.
I was luck in because my selection of stores was not the mob scene it could have been. If I had wanted to buy a surf board, I may have had to wait in line. But, since all I wanted was a few trinkets, I got in and out without too much trouble. I did have a moment of heart-stopping buyer anxiety when I heard a salesboy who was all of about 17 tell a kid who was about half that age that a particular pair of pants, which were sure to become an all-time favorite were a steal at the bargain price of $70.00.
Seventy dollars? For a pair of pants that the kid was going to outgrow in six months or rip to shreds when he crashed down from the top of a skatebaord ramp. Seventy dollar pants was the main reason I tried to stay out of Surf stores when Johnson was in his I-won't-wear-Cheetas days.
My trek to the office supply store was uneventful. In and out, just like the burger joint. Until I decided to check my receipt. I was stuck in a traffic log jam, not moving at all, so I went through my bag to see if I could decipher how the kid at the register had worked my return/purchase transaction. That's when I discovered the return had been handled fine, but the purchase had not taken place. I wasn't charged for the fancy dancy label maker I'd stuffed in my bag as the kid was stapling together old and new receipts. Yikes!!!!!!! I felt Bonnie MacDougal in the car with me.
By the time I had this figured out, the light sequence had changed three times and my position in the line of cars was second from the front. I just about had it made. I could turn the corner, hit the expressway and be home in ten minutes.
Wrong! Just like I was a movie cop I made a U-turn. Granted I cut off a pissant PT Cruiser, and ran over the roadside curb, but for a 1990 Dodge Caravan, I thought I made quite a brilliant maneuver. I went back into Office Max and the kid gives me a questioning look. When I explained to him what happened, he actually said, "oh you were buying that?"
"Well, yeh," I thought to myself, "that would be the reason I brought it up here in the first place."
The guy didn't seem to notice my incredulity. He wasn't impressed by my honesty. I think he'd had a long morning.
Ho!Ho!Ho! Merry Chrismtas! Let the season begin.
Merry ME
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