Black Friday (or Have I Lost My Mind?)

After a surprise Thanksgiving (more on that later), I arose at an unholy and other-worldly hour that is known only as 4:00 a.m. - to experience for the first (and last) time, "Black Friday".

According to Wikkipedia, the term "Black Friday" was coined in 1966 by the police of Philadelphia to describe the mess of pre-Christmas madness that descended upon the city the day after Thanksgiving, and brought forth traffic jams, crowded sidewalks and jammed malls.

I can tell you that there was no such activity at my mall. A modest number of well-behaved, albeit half-dead, people showed up for it but let me tell you, it is still "black". If for no reason other than the fact that everyone there appears so painfully exhausted and strung out from the previous evening's feasts that the mall looked like a quarantined facility for black plague.

Both Amanda and Grace got up to go with me (Amanda to shop; Grace for bragging rights at school on Monday). We tried to get the early hour sales-on-sales and we were successful. From Pennys, to Macy's, to Urban Outfitters, to Brookstone, to Best Buy, ALL shopping is done and we got away with unbelievable and ridiculous savings (really!) but - at a price. The three of us are in a coma from which we may never fully emerge.

I cannot tell you what great deals I came away with because my girls sometimes read this but I sent Amanda and Grace off by themselves so that I could gather gifts for all the girls without them seeing. When I was done buying for Bob and the girls I had five bags, so bulky (mostly due to size and/or weight of gift and not quantity) that I could have used a fork lift to get to the car but alas - not a forklift to be found. So there I was, a lone woman, half dead, lifting, dragging, dropping, re-adjusting, swearing, gathering, huffing, puffing, dropping again, re-adjusting again, trying not to cry in frustration and drawing a tremendous amount of attention from everyone I passed, bumped into, or came in radius of 100 feet of, slowly making my calamitous way through the festively decorated hallways of the mall, through the parking lot and finally, to the trunk of the Volvo. I was surely the morning's entertainment: a virtual one-woman show illustrating everything awful and horrendous about Black Friday - the person everyone looks at, shaking their heads and whispering to their companions: "promise to shoot me if I ever look like that".

But in the end I was victorious - I am DONE! I do not have to buy one more thing. Nor will I. And BEST of all, I just finished wrapping all of it!! I am feeling your envy...

And now, I am hungry but there are no leftovers because (and I told you I'd get to this), there was a little misunderstanding about an invitation made last month to a friend to "drop by" on Thanksgiving, and about an hour before we were to sit down, he and his girlfriend showed up for dinner. Out came the extra leaf of the table, two more place settings and at the last minute, we made room. I was thankful, mostly, that they hadn't arrived mid-dinner which would have been so embarrassing for everyone.

In spite of the surprise, the change in plans, the unspeakable hour I woke to get my shopping done - I am extremely happy. I have the entire rest of the season to relax and enjoy. Further, I spent - on the whole family - less that what I typically spent for one person in previous years. Christmas will be small but unemployment has forced me into letting it be what it should have been all along. Christmas will be about what it is supposed to be about.

And to all a good night!