I Am Offically Crazy

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We certainly did and I have photos to prove it although I forgot and left my digicamera at my mom's house. I have LOTS more to say about Thanksgiving but I need a little time to formulate my thoughts before posting (you will learn what I mean very soon).

Today I did what I thought only a crazy person would do - I went shopping at 4am. Yup, I got out of bed at 3:20, brushed my teeth & hair, put on sweats, poured a cup coffee into a travel cup and out the door I went. The roads were delightful! There were just enough cars to feel safe in the dark and everyone was parking and walking to the store at about the same time so that felt safe as well.

I quickly discovered that I am an amatuer. The "others" had already figured out exactly what they were going to buy, knew where most of it was located in the store, and went right to the items. When I walked in the doors of the Kohl's store at 4:07, there were already people at the check out (with single, large purchases). Silly me - I hadn't even seen the ad! I believe I may have been the only person in the store browsing. The amaizing part is that at 4am the shoppers had busy cell phones. Who were there people calling & texting? Friends in Europe?!?!?

Apparently I missed the boat on this early shopping in other ways as well. Seems many of the people were talking about having started their adventure at Ellenton (a discount mall about 30 miles away) at midnight, when they opened, and then made their way back in time for the 4am & 5am openings locally. Respecting their experience & shopping wisdom......

I made my couple of small purchases (but all really good deals of course) and drove across the road to the mall where the stores were opening at 5am. I got there before 5am hoping to sip the remainder of my coffee but JC Penny's was already open so I kept moving while I had the shopping momentum going. Next, I went to Macy's which I was looking forward to and had scanned their ad but bought nothing. Then to Game Stop for an advertised items, and finally the Pièce de résistance, Target, where I bought nothing. They had some excellent values but the one thing I wanted from the ad was already sold out.

I decided to call it a morning, went thrugh McD's for an Egg McMuffin, and was back in the house at 6:23am. On a normal day, I couldn't travel between those stores that quickly simply due to traffic on the road, much less the volume of people. All in all, I would say it was a good experience and I would do it again just for the peace, quiet, and good parking spots! (Note to self: really study those ads and get organized next time :)