Notes from Home

I talked to my sister on Thanksgiving (she's up North, I'm down South) and caught up with what was going on with her family. It was great talking with her. Then she told me she was going to get up at 5 AM the next day, and head to Wal Mart for a TV set she had seen in their flyer. You know, one of those day-after-thanksgiving "door buster" specials. Seems she and her husband re-did their den and found that the 13-inch TV they'd been using was just too small. She had found a 19-inch LCD HDTV in the Wal Mart flyer for $198. A bargain to be sure. Although "black friday" is not something she has ever gotten involved in before, she decided this would be worth it. And Wal Mart is right up the street. The following is the email she sent me that day, after I left a message on her answering machine asking if she was successful in getting the TV. I just love this, and had to share!


So. I get up at 4:15, have a cup of coffee, browse the ad again and find a few more amazing deals to buy (I'm feeling compelled to buy anything I might remotely want someday because this deal ends at 11am and this is my last chance in my entire life to buy this...thing). Somehow it feels that way. In retrospect I can see that early bird specials bring on a special brand of insanity. Anyway, I wake up Katie and soon we're out the door. At 5:20. Which seems frightfully early to me, to be going to Walmart, shopping. Uh uh. That was actually LATE, apparently. To my horror the parking lot was full and there was a stream of cars LEAVING already. Driving through the parking lot was an obstacle course full of running shoppers. Running right to Walmart's front door. Looking tense. Conversely the post-shoppers are leisurely strolling to their cars with their loaded carts and looking very smug.
After parking some distance away, we find ourselves, oh, scurrying a bit. But INSIDE the store is where the real terror begins. I have never seen so many people in one store. And unfortunately they all have shopping carts, and unfortunately I do too. Getting from point A to point B is unlike the everyday experience. It's really more like using the expressway. There are on ramps and off ramps and you have to watch for your opening, slip in, and by gosh you'd better go with the flow of traffic. I didn't personally see any incidents of aisle rage today, but the potential was there without a doubt. OK, I'll cut to the chase. I got the last TV. There it was, sitting right in the middle of the aisle all alone, and I just picked it up and put it in my cart. Ha. I beat the system. I was NOT sitting in the parking lot at 3:00 am.
I was not standing in a line outside the door in 30 degree weather at 4:00 am. I wasn't even crowding in the door at 5:00 am. I walked in a full half hour late and I got my trophy. I wasn't able to get many of the miscellaneous items that I can't live without because pausing to look for them is considered rubbernecking and I just couldn't see them from the expressway. Getting on to the side streets was even worse, so we decided it was time to pay up and go home. Success! A trying experience to be sure, but worth it. Well, it would have been if we had kept the TV. It was a little small for the room...........
Thanks for asking.
Vic