# 5 My first Black Friday

I experienced my first American phenomenon known as "Black Friday." When I first told Amy that I had never done Black Friday before she acted as if I had just said I had never heard of chocolate. Apparently, Black Friday has always been a big deal in her family and she was very bummed when she realized she had to work that day. The only upside to working that day though is that she gets us super early anyway, so she decided why not get up a little earlier and drag me along with her and even though she might regret it at 7pm when she is at work this is exactly what she decided to do. The alarm went off in the 4 oclock hour, which is just not okay, I rolled out of bed, threw on some clothes and off we went with the masses. Our first and only stop was Target, and by the time we got there the doors had already been busted down, all the "punch someone out" worthy deals had been snagged up and the line was wrapped to the back of the store around both sides. I have really never seen so many people in a store in my life. People had these giant TV's that didn't come close to fitting in their carts, so they were coming dangerously close to knocking people around with every turn. Target workers were trying to direct traffic the best they could and huddling around yelling things like "Stand there and don't let people cut."(Really? Cutting in line? I had flash backs from childhood...I mean I know that adults in this type of situation do this, but it still shocks me that we are that childish and that self-centered.
We decided against the cart since I refused to try and steer it through the herds and went for the basket, which turned out to be a good choice. Our first stop was the movie section to pick up several $3.99 classics (not sure Elf is a classic, but it should be). We then headed to the electronic section where we got a few $25 itunes gift cards that were $20. I decided to go ahead and get in line and let Amy do some more paroozing, since she had less than an hour (and God only knew how long that line would take to move) and I wasn't keen on her leaving me in that line to prance off to work. As I stood there waiting and looked down at a basket that looked like this...
I told Amy that I was going to need us to find a more sought after, expensive item to put in that basket for me to think this ordeal was worth it. As much as I enjoy movies....they were also $3.99 on Amazon.....and there is no mile long line on Amazon. She continued to remind me that it was the experience that was fun, not really what you get. I am still unsure. Here are our "how we feel about Black Friday faces"...

While I waited in line she picked up a few other random things, including several things my sister wanted for gifts like a coffee pot and an Easy Bake oven. We made it out of Target before she had to go to work and after she left I headed over to Gap because I was already awake, everything was 50% off, I wanted jeans and I didn't think the masses would be fighting over cardigans. All in all, my first Black Friday was not too bad.....but don't tell Amy ;-).