---

Thanksgiving evening, my husband and I went out on a date.  We left a few hours before Black Friday and the title of our date was Operation Lap-top.  We left early before most of the Black Friday sales had started.  For fun, we cruised by Toys-r-us to scope it out.  They were having a sale beginning at 9:00 PM and it was 8:30, so we thought, “Why not?”  We drove by and after seeing the never ending line stretching around the building and well into the parking lot, we kept on driving…not!

Our next stop was Best Buy.  Best Buy was going to have a lap-top that my husband thought would be the best for the money.  We drove through the parking lot and upon seeing the line of tents…I know TENTS…as well as people wrapping around the building and into the parking lot, we again, kept on driving.  It would seem that Operation Lap-top was not going so well.

After a little thought, we decided to swing by Wal-mart and see how things looked there.  We pulled into the parking lot at 8:45ish and thought it was good luck that there were actually parking spaces.  We debated about going in as there seemed to be tons of people going in and no one coming out.  We chose to go in since we were there and parked.  Might as well see what things looked like inside, right?  We went in and it really wasn’t too bad.  There were lots of people there.  We purposely neglected to grab a shopping cart.  I’ve learned through past experience that carts work against your efforts on Black Friday because it it impossible to maneuver a cart in shoulder to shoulder traffic.

We headed straight back to electronics and managed to get a ticket for a lap-top.  The tickets are nice because they guarantee you the item, but the down side to the ticket is that you have to stay in the line designated for that item.  You cannot leave the line, or you forfeit your ticket.  What if you need to go to the bathroom?  Well, you must surrender your ticket and it is returned to you when you get back in your spot in line.  It was only 9:00 PM and I decided to stick it out in a three hour line to get my lap-top.  I know, crazy…stupid…insane…but I really wanted to go home with a lap-top.  Our old lap-top crashed and burned I really wanted to replace it.

My husband at this point had decided to abandon our date and head home to trade places with my sister who was watching the kids for the night.  He wasn’t feeling too well after over-eating on Thanksgiving and wanted to go home to rest.  I was content to stay in line and facebook on my iphone while waiting for the minutes to tick by.  I waited and actually got lucky when the line moved up a little and I could sit on a large treadmill box with a few other holiday shoppers.

I heard back from my husband about 45 minutes later, saying he was on his was back to meet me at Wal-mart.  Apparently he was feeling much better.

Then, something was happening.  Sitting there on the treadmill box at about ten minutes to 10:00 PM, I could hear that something was happening.  A sound started low and then started to grow and grow and grow.  I stood up along with several others in line to see what was happening.  When we stood up, people were everywhere, scrambling around grabbing stuff.  The 10:00 PM sale had started and it wasn’t even 10:00 yet.  I could hear the most activity coming halfway across the store from the meat department where the movies and games were located.  What happened is that some over anxious shoppers started ripping into the sale items early which started a chain reaction that couldn’t be stopped.  The Wal-mart store manager ever got on the intercom and announced to cut the plastic of the 10:00 items early because everyone was going crazy.

I was getting worried about my husband because he was supposed to meet me in line and hadn’t gotten there yet.  He was stuck in the mob of people grabbing things.  About 2o minutes later, he made it back to me in the lap-top line.  He took my spot and I proceeded to venture out into the store to see if I could grab some of the leftover deals.  I lucked out and was able to grab five dollar pajamas, Tupperware, and a few other gifts that were a steal.  With my arms loaded, I took the items back to my husband in line.  I dropped everything off and then grabbed an abandoned cart to keep with my husband in the lap-top line while I went to gather more items.

Another item on my wish list was the $69 dual screen car DVD players.  I wanted one to take on our trip after Christmas.  The life span on these things seems to be about a year for our family, so I in fact wanted two of them.  After much searching, I found where these items were being displayed, but they were wrapped in plastic and a couple of people were standing by them, waiting.  These were part of the midnight sale, so I had to stand and wait with the others for another hour.

As we waited there, a small crowd began to gather.  We all wanted the same thing and wanted to make sure we got ours.  After about 30 minutes of waiting, a relative of a woman waiting came up and told her to just take one.  She refused saying we had to wait until midnight.  He told her to take one.  She said no.  He said, “No one’s looking, how many do you want?”  She said, “Two.”  Then he proceeded to rip open the plastic and take out two.  Then other people started grabbing.  Not wanting to miss out on the deal, I reached in and grabbed two.  Just as I had two in hand, a Wal-mart worker came over and said, “Hey, what are you doing?  Those aren’t on sale until midnight!”  I just walked off back to my husband in line, two dual DVD players in hand.  Redneck Christmas shopping at its finest!

As midnight approached, I waited in the lap-top line with the cart as my husband went out to see what he could find.  About 10 minutes before midnight it happened again.  The sound started low and started to grow.  It was a rustling sound and it got louder, and louder, and louder.  I stood up to see people grabbing all kinds of stuff.  One of the most dangerous items to grab at midnight was the $20 color printer.  People were getting pushed over, scraped, and trampled.  Needless to say the printers were gone in less than a minute.

A few minutes to midnight, the lap-top cart came out, heavily guarded by a bunch of Wal-mart employees.  They pulled the cart to the front of the line and that’s when the chaos began.  A huge mob of people started to rush the front of the lap-top line.  Yes, the line that we had been waiting in for over three hours!  All of us in the lap-top line started to worry that we wouldn’t get what we had been waiting for all night.  After about five minutes of confusion, some arguing with employees, etc., the lap-top line started to move.  One by one, people collected their lap-tops.  The moment finally came and we handed over our ticket for our $250 HP lap-top.  Yay!  Operation Lap-top was a success!

The check-out lines were out of control, so we just walked around Wal-mart a while to see what was left.  We managed to get our hands on some $2 movies for stockings and a few other odds and ends…we even grabbed a couple gallons of milk and some cheese to make the shopping trip complete.

This was my husband’s first Black Friday experience.  Black Friday isn’t for everyone.  I always tell myself every year that I will NEVER do that again, and I always end up out in the crowd, fighting for a deal.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!  Sending you best wishes from my new HP lap-top!