Black Friday Blues

For the first time in a lot of years I ventured to the mall this morning, the day after Thanksgiving. I saw in one of the many advertising circulars included in the newspaper yesterday that the portable GPS unit that I'm interested in was hugely discounted at one of the huge "big box" stores nearby.

I'm incredibly directionally challenged - my sister always tells the story of one trip I took to the Florida Keys. There's one major road, Highway 1, going through the Keys and I manage to turn the wrong way. Not once, but multiple times. Hence the need for a portable GPS unit!

Anyway, I got to the store a little after 8:00 this morning. I didn't think that was too bad, even though it opened at 6. Apparently a lot of other people are directionally challenged too! The unit I wanted was long gone! Not that the store was deserted by any means. The parking lot was almost full - any space to be had was by luck or walking a long distance. People were finding lots of other things to buy, besides the GPS unit, because the line to check out wound almost all the way around the store! There were so many people looking at products in the store that it was practically impossible to walk.

I fought my way out of the store, on to the next destination. A craft store in the same mall. The crowd there wasn't quite as bad, but at 8:30 in the morning it was still densely populated! I met my sister there (on her day off) and we decided on the purchases to make. Hope was nice enough to stand in line there so that I could go to the hardware store before I went to work.

Even the hardware store was a popular destination for holiday shoppers this morning! I just needed some light bulbs and a timer, so was able to maneuver around there pretty quickly.

Whew! All this craziness before work! I need to hug my dogs! That always puts things in perspective.

Oh, Hope offered to go to another of the "big box" stores to see if they had the GPS. And they did! And she got it for me!