And without a need for anyone in lab coats, either. No trampling here! At 11:00pm last night Jason picked me up. Our first stop was Walmart, which we hit up at a good time — 11:40ish — for nabbing the few goodies we wanted (I found the Zhu Zhu Pets, Sims 2 and Club Penguin DS games for $10 apiece, sweet!), without dealing with the crazy onslaught that no doubt descended upon Walmart later as it got closer to the time to line up for the 5:00am big ticket deals. True to Walmart’s stupidity, only 9 of 25 registers were open. And that’s generous, seeing as how when we initially got in line only 6 or so were open. Checking out took at least a half an hour, and there were only four people in front of us. To say that the cashier was slower than a seven year itch is definitely an understatement.
Then it was off to Waffle House, since Target (my BF shopping store of choice) didn’t open until 4 and Best Buy (Jason’s BF shopping store of choice) didn’t open until 5. I picked out a fiesta omelette, figuring that the egg, cheese and diced ham were my best bets in terms of protein intake. After we killed about 45 minutes there, and I started to get drowsy, we packed up and headed across the road to a shopping center in search of a sporting goods store that apparently close. But Five Below soon caught our attention, where I found something neat for Dan (shh, it’s a Christmas gift!) and bought miniature Christmas trees & shatterproof glittery ornaments for Alyssa and Ryan. To say that they’re thrilled to have Christmas trees in their bedrooms is an understatement.
Our next destination was Panera Bread, but we got sidetracked by Gamestop, which decided to open at midnight. I picked up a green Nintendo DSi kit for Ryan — $149.99 for the DSi and a copy of Mario Party, and Gamestop threw in another free game — Starfly or something like that. A Nintendo DSi was high up on my shopping list, and I’m glad that we spotted Gamestop, since the bundle included two free games.
Then, Panera Bread. There’s nothing quite like enjoying a chocolate chip muffie and free wifi at 3:00am at your favorite cafe.
Then… Target. Heh. I knew they opened at 4am, but since I didn’t want any of the big ticket items (I’ll just take a $52 fire bowl for $26, thanks, as well as a [Christmas present!] for Dan, and maybe a few pairs of those $7 jeans for Alyssa, oh and a $4 Hello Kitty nightgown, too), we didn’t bother to get to Target until just about 4. And… holy crap. The line, which was five people wide, extended the entire front of the store, and went completely back along the side of it. We didn’t get a chance to join the end of the line — creating an entire new line — until close to twenty after four. That’s just how many people there were!
The store was mobbed, but I got everything that I wanted, and then some. Jason found himself a cute little piggy bank, and I talked him into a spiffy shovel. Then… it was time to checkout. We spent about a half an hour just trying to find the end of the line, which literally wrapped around the entire store. Rather than try to explain just how crazy and snakey this line was, I drew you a diagram:
But Target still rocks. They had all 18 registers open, so despite being in an insanely long line, we only stood in it for maybe 45 minutes. During that time Jason and I were pretty damn bored, and tired. My phone battery died, so I wiled away the time with Angry Birds and Sodoku on my iPod, and with the occasional attack of sleepiness-induced spacing out.
After Target, we stopped by Dan’s work place to drop off some decorations I picked up at Target, and then Jason and I went over to Best Buy. The place was pretty decimated, but fortunately we scored a Nook 3G + Wi-Fi – MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT! I’ve been wanting an electronic book reader for a while now, for completely practical purposes: my bookcase is exploding with books, and I have absolutely nowhere else to put any additional books. As I type this — from the bowling alley Dan’s bowling league is at — my Nook is at home, charging up. I can’t wait to try it out tonight. If I have any energy left to, that is. Thanks Jason. I’m super excited. 
I got home around 7:30am, I think. My fifteen year old brother and the kids were already up. My brother helped to hide the Christmas stuff (including a Hello Kitty comforter for Alyssa’s bed!), I took the fastest shower ever, and then collapsed into bed. After a fitful first hour of sleep, I crashed hard and didn’t open my eyes again until almost 1pm.
Today I did some cleaning and tidying up around the house, and then went out with Dan to Kohl’s (yay!) and Walmart (boo!) for a few odds and ends, mainly for him for his camping/hunting trip. Speaking of which, he is leaving early tomorrow morning. Right now we’re at a bowling alley for him to practice his bowling. Once he’s done I’ll be dropping him and six days worth of stuff off at his brother’s house. I won’t see him until next Thursday. 
While I’ll have plenty to do to keep me busy — including putting up Christmas lights and decorations around the house tomorrow — I’m going to miss him like crazy. Here’s to a very quick six days!
Holy COW!!! Our Walmarts are actually very good about having *all* of their registers open if it is busy. I just got back from there picking up a couple of items and they had over half the registers open with no one waiting in line. LOL
Glad to hear you got so many awesome deals though.
Sounds like you had a fun Black Friday experience! I was going to try and hit up Target ’cause they had a monster TV on sale but I was waay too tired and I had to work today so I decided for the first time ever to NOT do BF shopping.
My shopping day will be Monday when everybody does their online stuff.
I can’t believe that only a few were open. Ours had no waits at ALL. Target was crazy though, no carts or anything. Then again, we have a supercenter so it’s a bit bigger. BF shopping is crazy.
I got so excited, while reading that 5 Below sells Mini Christmas trees. I’ve been wanting one for my room for the longest time.
When Iworked at Wal-mart, they had a million lanes open on Black Friday and it was pointless. It was busy for maybe 30 minutes and.. not even that much. Ugh, I hate slow cashiers.