'Tis The Season To Be Crazy...

Right after coming home from our family thanksgiving celebration, I hopped into my truck and drove to Circuit City in the City of Industry, where a few church friends were waiting in line for the busiest retail shopping day of the year - my first Black Friday ever. It was 10:30pm and there were already about a 100 people ahead of us. Geez. So for the next 7 hours, we broke out the blankets, folding chairs and table as well as our poker chips and PSPs to pass the time. Between playing and snacking on a few treats, we even chatted with other waiting customers about what we wanted and how our holiday went earlier that day. When the time clocked 5 am, the store opened and everybody was running. Unfortunately, the 100+ people ahead of me wanted the same things I was planning to get (32" HDTV for $474 and a $300 laptop - unbelievable, huh?), but I luckily did my research and had other electronic goodies in sight - like a $3 1GB SD memory card and three 1GB USB memory stick for $4 (I know I have a better one in hand, but...dude, it's only $4!). Our group of six split, dodging (and some cases, leaping over) people to grab what we can. We regrouped at the cashier to hand over the greens and drive to the nearby Best Buy to repeat the process for $2.99-$5.99 DVDs ("Field Of Dreams", "The Office: Season 1", "Big Fish", "Jerry Maguire", "Hitch"). I came home at 7:30 am with my prizes, only to find my mom covering my back by bringing home a 7" widescreen portable DVD player for $59.99 (retail: $99.99) AND a 32" LCD HDTV for just a $100 more than the one mentioned above at RadioShack. BOOYA!! After some sleep (until 3pm), I rounded out my shopping with some $8 Chris Tomlin CDs and a $10 One-Year Study Bible from New Life Bookstore in Alhambra, ending at a "debrief" dinner with the guys in Pho 79 across the street.

Although it was an interesting and fun experience altogether, I don't think I can go every year unless I bring a heated bed (or a portable jacuzzi) to withstand the freezing cold that night. Then again, I just might be waiting out there for one of those suckers when it arrives in stores. =)