Black Friday Insanity

I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to battle the crowds on Black Friday. Yes, I wanted the laptop that was dirt cheap. But, I didn't expect Barry to get it for me anyway, as he left at midnight to go scout Sprawl-mart.

Imagine my surprise when he called me to say, There are only 25 of them, and 8 people are already in line. If you are willing to stand in line until 5 am...it's yours. I threw on clothes and woke Cory to tell him he was in charge, then off I sped. I got there and was 11th in line. We were all having a nice time, until around 2 am. The Sprawl-mart employees started calling us names and telling us that there was no line and it was going to be a mad dash to wherever the laptops were. In spite of the fact that we were in line as directed by Sprawl-mart employees. One employee even had a daughter in line, so we knew we were in the right. Things got worse from there. Newcomers began cutting in line, issuing threats and using intimidation tactics. The woman in line in front of me got smart though. She went down the line and took names and phone numbers in order of all of us who had been there from the beginning. It was then taken to the manager. At 20 minutes till 5, it got even worse. Pushing and screaming and arguing about who was right and who was screwed. Management had the list and was trying to decide whether or not to use it. Finally, the manager came out and said they were going to do a lottery and draw 25 names. We long-time line standers came unglued! What right did someone who just got there have over those of us who had stood in line for hours!!!!! Well, we were MAD, and while one manager was handling the lottery....those of us on the list were told to move to another area??? They kept moving us until we got to the gun section of all places.

Where we were informed that we were getting the laptops! Sprawl-mart handled it poorly to begin with, but they made it right in the end and we were all very pleased. They changed the 1 per person rule to 1 per household in order to get them in the hands of as many as possible, Several families were there intending to get one for each. There was a little grumbling at that, but we all told the grumblers to shut up and back down gracefully under the circumstances. Which they did.

And I got my Christmas present early. (and probably my birthday too LOL!) I finally have a laptop. This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but you didn't see me pathetically hauling my desktop with the HUGE old-fashioned monitor all over Flagstaff when I went up for Extreme Makeover Home Edition. That began my quest for portability.

It was insane. And I will probably never do it again. But it was a wild experience that I will always remember!