oh the joys of materialism and retail therapy

So, today is Black Friday.  Today is the day where the whole of America's retail industry is supposed to be in the "black" for the year.  Rock bottom prices abound on this the day after Thanksgiving.  This day, weekend rather always just amazes me.

So, what did I do at 3:00 am this morning -- you guessed it -- stood in line.  Insert rolling eyes here.  Now, before any passing judgement occurs, I strongly disagree with most bargaining techniques to lure the public to spend way beyond their means only to go into greater debt.  We are not a credit card family.  Every year we come to this time of year and save up a little extra for Christmas and for things we actually need.

So, what did  I wait in line for at 3:00 am this morning?  Jody and I now own an Acer Aspire Netbook.  We have a computer that has limped along and gets more and more error messages lately.  There is only so many registry fixes and defrags and memory resets that a computer can handle.  The upgrade has come for awhile and the deal was right.

What did I learn from all of this?  You meet interesting people standing in line at Sam's Club at 3 in the morning.  We talked about a little bit of everything.  We talked about family and church and how crazy we all must be to be out there.  A benefit of Sam's Club was only members were fighting for the best deals.  (Hey and continental breakfast).

It was a fun morning.  I got what I needed, had some good connecting time, and hey I finished a knitted gift too.  What amazed me was all of the people that just went crazy at the anticipation of the hunt -- the thrill of the best deal.  As I have said many times before, I am not a shopper.  I don't get alot of excitement out of browsing stores forever.  I circled what I wanted at Walmart and we got 1 of the things (jammies for Cade).

It was just so bizarre to watch materialism at its best.  Last year we bought a tv.  A tube in our TV was going out the first part of October.  We knew it was inevitable.  We saved the money and again were part of the thrill of Black Friday.  I don't think I will ever be that into the sales.  I don't think I will EVER go from store to store -- but, if the deal is right, I will do it.

May everyone get everything they desire and live within their means this holiday season.

AMEN

(and Cade looks really cute in his new Toy Story jammies)