The Day After

Friday. What is it some people call it..Black Friday? The day after Thanksgiving when the stores open at 4:00 a.m. or some other unGodly hour and people actually get up and go shopping? Are you kidding me?

My son's girlfriend went with her aunt and cousin this year, for the first time ever, and she said it was insane. They stood out in the cold and dark waiting for Circuit City to open so that her cousin could get a nano pod, and her aunt could get a fax machine. People were stealing stuff out of other people's carts and her aunt actually got hit in the face when someone got mad about something and threw, literally threw, an item.

Me, oh I figured I could go to the fabric store and all would be calm. I mean, really, it's JoAnn's right? Who could possibly want to go to JoAnn's when there's all that other Christmas shopping to do? Well, evidently, every person in a three county area that's ever even considered sewing. The "big" sale ended at noon and I got there at 11:30. All I wanted was some flannel, marked down from $5.99 to $.99 a yard, AND with the use of my 20% off coupon, leaving the final price at $.80 a yard, plus a few other odds and ends; possibly some more polar fleece. It was crazy. When I went in the door, I went immediately to the cutting counter and took my number...I09...the number they were on? G50 something...with 100 numbers in each letter category and the rest of the G's and all of the H's left to go, before we even reached the I's, that's over 150 people ahead of me! (Was that confusing?) Then, after your fabric is cut, you get into the line to pay, which wrapped 3/4 of the way around the store. There had to be at least 80-100 people or more in line, just to pay.

I almost left. I went back to my car, keys in hand, ready to leave...then thought about the $10 in gas I'd spent to get there and back, and decided I might as well stay and at least get my gas money back in savings. I was there for 2 1/2 hours and spent $60. I probably saved at least that much, so it was worth it. And, once I adjusted my attitude, it was actually really fun. I got a lot of fabric that I needed, and some craft items, too, most of which were 50% off. I came home and started to work on a sewing project I'm working on for a Christmas gift, at which time my sewing machine promptly died.

Argh.

**EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to mention, after I paid for my purchases, I realized they had neglected to give me the marked down price on the flannel and I then had to go stand in another line to get my refund!