Black Friday

O.K., People who know me know that I actually hate about everything that has to do with the Black Friday sales extravaganza. I hate the way impatience, arguing, rudeness, and other completely ludacris behaviors that entail the shopping melee. I also generally hate being around large groups of people, waking up at 2:00 in the morning, then standing out in the cold to buy something no one really needs (or sometimes even wants). I've done it before and vowed never to do it again, but this time, I was swayed by Colleen to come out with her and her family. Being the dedicated and loving husband I am, I agreed to go through this torturous event if, for no other reason, because it would make her happy. After the Thanksgiving feast, we dropped Christopher off at Pop-Pop and Nana Culley's house to have his first sleep-over. This was our first time having the house to ourselved without him...it was pretty tough (honestly tougher for her than me). I reminded her that her parents were really excited about having him stay over for the first time, which seemed to help her a lot (admittedly, it also served as a reassurance to me as well...)

We got to Circuit City, which I guess is where they go every year, around 2:30 in the morning and was surprised that the lines weren't too bad. I contributed it to the failing economy, but I'm no financial analyst. This was also slightly awkward for me because I had a part time job there last year and quit due to a lot of things that were going on...lets just say our split was not amicable. So I wasn't sure of how my entrance into the store was going to go. The wait wasn't as bad as I thought. I 'm thankful that a lot of people in Colleen's family are very funny and we ended up laughing a lot of the time. And my aforementioned awkwardness quickly subsided as I entered the store and was greeted with open arms by the few people I actually got along with during my stint at Circuit City. Here are some pics of the wait...

After Circuit City, we headed to a nearby diner (not the Blue Falcon for those who ate there during my wedding out here) for breakfast, then headed out to Target and Kohl's. We all separated after that and went our different ways. Col and I headed home for a nap, then went to pick up our son and that was that for the Black Friday fun.

All things said and done, we ended up with a few gifts (2 for Colleen, 6 for Christopher, and 3-4 for me). So it wasn't a completely awful experience, as I figured it would be. The obvious question remains, though....and the answer is "probably never again." Colleen can pretty much talk me into anything.