Black Friday

I'm sitting here typing this on my new laptop. My $197 laptop. That's right, folks. $197. It's not an off-brand, tiny computer, either. It's an HP, with a 15.6" screen, with the new Windows 7 on it (which so far, I highly recommend!). And this is why Black Friday exists. And why Ryan and I got no sleep on Thanksgiving night.

We went to get in line about 9:00 pm on Thanksgiving. I went to WalMart (and got to stay inside in the heat all night) and he went to Best Buy (bless him, he was outside in the cold until 4 am). We were actually both in line for laptops, but I was in my line just as a backup. The one I was in line for (and I was the first person in line, by the way) was $298. Still a great deal, but not as good as $197. We didn't have a lot of hope for him getting the $197 laptop as he was at least the 20th person in line. But there was something else he was in line for also, which I can't talk about yet because it's a Christmas present for someone else ;) After meeting lots of new people and making new friends (hey, when you're in line for that long, you're bound to hear other people's life stories), I got a call from Ryan. At a little after 4 am. He had gotten a ticket for the LAST $197 laptop, so I could get out of my line and start shopping for other things. That was hard to do. But I did. I got out of line, shopped for several other things, and got out of WalMart before the real craziness started. I mean, it was crazy when I left, but it only got crazier after 5 am when the sales actually started.

I headed over to Best Buy to pick up Ryan with the new laptop and the aforementioned Christmas present and we hit Target. Got in and out of there in under 10 minutes (you have to have a plan and I, of course, had mapped out our whole plan the day before). Headed over to JCPenney. Which was actually pretty calm compared to everywhere else. In and out of there in under 10 minutes. On to Big Lots. Took less than 5 minutes there. Home Depot...about 5 minutes (like I said, you have to have a plan). Then to Chick-Fil-A (we actually hadn't eaten dinner the night before since we were still full from lunch, but by 6 am, we were pretty hungry), and on to our last stop. The one I dreaded the most. Kohl's. Ryan got in line when we got there while I went and picked up everything we needed, so by the time I joined him in line, it only took about 10 more minutes, which was not too bad. Especially for Kohl's.

And now we're done with our Christmas shopping. With almost a month before Christmas. And under what we had budgeted. And with a new laptop. Hooray for Black Friday!