Black Friday

I told myself I was not going to do it. I was going to stay home and sit back and avoid the throngs of people at the malls. I was going to avoid the meandering circuitously through parking lot after parking lot searching for that one elusive parking space. I was not going to engage in the lunacy of Black Friday, that day after Thanksgiving where hordes of crazed people get up at 4:00 in the morning to brave a world gone mad where everyone searches for goodies at some deep discount. This is the day of the year when the world puts aside sanity and reason for that one special day of the year where discounts or perceived discounts reign. I had even told the kids we were going to tighten our belts because of the economic crisis, and not buy a lot of stuff. But I too was infected with this lunacy.

At four in the morning, I hear taps on our bedroom door – short taps in rapid succession. This was not Hillary Clinton's 3 AM call, it was my 18 year old daughter waiting to hit the mall. She wanted to buy a classy pink camera which she saw in the previous day's newspaper. I was not about to get up – I wanted to sleep. But my wife did go. When my daughter and wife finally returned home later that morning around 8:00, I decided to go with them to Costco. So off we went to Costco – but only to watch others shop – not to shop ourselves.

We walked to the entrance of Costco, showed the clerk our Costco card, and continued on. And, what did our eyes behold - 37" LCD High Definition televisions flying off the shelves for 499 dollars (with a 100 dollar coupon.) There were only two left. I grabbed one of the two remaining – come on - it was a sale. "Ka Ching", I continued to look around Costco. Every other shopping basket had a 37" LCD high definition television. I asked myself "Where is this economic slowdown?" We walked a little further; a blue ray disc DVD player caught the corner of my eye. It was 90 dollars off the original price – a mere 189 dollars after the discount. That would go well with my 37" LCD High Definition television, "Ka Ching." We finally left Costco.

As we arrived home, I left the television set and DVD player in their original packaging for my son to install when he arrived home from work. My son came home, and he began installing the television and blue ray DVD player, but he noticed he couldn't install the surround sound system because the receiver I was using was twenty years old and I needed a receiver that was capable of using fiber optic cables. So, it was off to Circuit City (you know that bankrupt chain of stores) to buy a receiver 30% off the original price, 399 dollars and I also needed to buy two fiber optic cables for 26.98 each. "Ka Ching", "Ka Ching", "Ka Ching". I think I was finally done.

My Black Friday shopping was now done. The total 1,235 dollars (taxes included) – Ka Ka Ching, So much for my low-key, not spending, stay at home, take it easy Black Friday. I now have one problem. How am I going to tell my kids we need to cut down this Christmas because of the economy?