Black Friday

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and the mashed potatoes were plentiful!  We had a great holiday and Baby Girl was so excited to see all her relatives!  This is the first time she would actually interact with them without me practically holding her the entire time.

This morning, for the second time in my life,  I braved the Black Friday crowds.   The first time was a few years ago,  I woke up at 3:30,  got to Kohl's by 4 when it opened and bought the sweater I had my eye on, and went home to go back to bed.   It was pretty uneventful.

This year was slightly different.

We have needed a new TV for awhile,  ours tended to do a weird squiggly line thing and be funny colors that was somehow related to the HDMI input.  We've tried to fix it,  but everything was a short term fix and it was clear the end of its useful life was coming.  We decided to watch the Black Friday ads to see what was going to be on sale and if we could get a good deal on a TV, we'd do it.   Target had a 46" Westinghouse for $298  so we had plans to get it.

We knew there wouldn't be a lot of inventory for this TV,  it was well marked that each store had limited quantities.  Andrew though we should get in line at 9.   I thought he was being rediculous.   9:00?  Three hours early in small town NH?

We did a drive by past Target at 8:00 before heading back to the hotel to get ready.   I told Andrew 30 times it was ridiculous to check,  that there was not going to be a line.

There was a line.   At 8:00.   Luckily for me,  it was still a relatively short line and Andrew hopped out with nothing but a mostly dead iPhone to keep him company.  I went back to my in-laws' house to get a camp chair, and some gloves for him.  Why I didn't get TWO camp chairs and a blanket is still unknown.  Not my brightest moment.

I went back to the hotel and tried to figure out what to do,  now that we were going to be sitting in line for 4 hours in the (literally) freezing cold.  I put on my flannel pajama pants,  put my jeans on over them (thank god I don't wear skinny jeans...),  put about 3 shirts on,  packed flannel pants, jeans, and a sweatshirt for Andrew and that was the best I could do.  I grabbed both of our Nooks (and mine isn't backlit, so clearly it wasn't going to do me any good.   Andrew had requested a coffee,  but hello - coffee and 4 hours without a bathroom is not a good combination.  

The first few hours were awful.  It was freezing - I had to go back to the car a few times to warm up my feet since I decided not to bring my Uggs to New Hampshire with me for this trip.   What can I say, I'm an idiot.   We only had one camp chair, so we had to trade off every 10 minutes.   I couldn't ready my Nook.   Andrew's phone was practically dead.  I wanted to cry I was so cold.  It sucked.  I almost went back to the hotel about 30 times. 

At 9:30 the manager came out,  explained how the TVs were going to work.  They had 43 tickets for 43 TV's.  They were going to give out tickets and you'd bring your ticket to the changing rooms and get a TV.  Sounded easy enough.  Then he handed out Luna Bars and I decided to name my firstborn after him.   (I'll explain to Baby Girl why her name is Manager Jason from Target later).

At 10:00,  he actually handed out the tickets and we knew were we guaranteed a TV!   It almost made the past 2 hours worth it because there was a VERY long line and most people had to give up the 46" TV for $298 dream.   Not us though!  Just two more hours to wait!

Around 10:40ish,  two of my brothers-in-law,  my sister-in-law ,and niece showed up to get in line for X-boxes (and they ended up being lucky to get them,  they ran out of them before we left the store!).   We chatted for a bit and then the BILs went to get me and Andrew coffee!  I have never been so excited to get a decaf coffee.    After that,  the time flew buy.    

For crowd control purposes,  Target was letting 30 people into the store,  waiting 30 seconds and letting another 30 in,  rinse and repeat.   We part of the first 30 in the store,  ran and got in line for our TVs,  ran over to the x-boxes and grabbed three of them and handed over two when the ILs came in,  paid, and hit the road.   We ran into a slight snafu when the boxes didn't fit in our car,  but some car shuffling today took care of that.

So....  long, freezing, boring night of Black Friday insanity yielded a new TV and somehow Andrew ended up with a new x-Box too.   I'm still not quite sure HOW that happened. 

If we had been more prepared it actually wouldn't have been that bad,  but we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants.  I hope to not need a new TV for a long time... but we desperately need a new laptop.   Good thing Black Friday only comes once a year, and Cyber Monday can be done from the comfort of my house!