Black Friday. Great Bargains ???

Thanksgiving was the best time to eat and visit with family and eat some more.. In the week preceding Thanksgiving I did some  rummaging thru the Black Friday.info ads trying to decide if it was really going to be worth the horrible crowds of rude, pushy people. In talking with a couple of my friends I decide to take the plunge and join my friend Tammy ( my garage sale / thrift shopping  partner in crime ). We had discussed all week which stores we wanted to go to and what items we were wanting and tried to come up with a plan. Another friend of ours, who mind you likes to strategize the whole shopping trip, changed who was going and where to start several times trying to come up with the best plan. As Thanksgiving approached I still wasn't completely convinced it was worth the hassle but was on board for whatever the plan was..

Thanksgiving night on our way home I called my Tammy to get the details of what time to be ready and where we were to start.. She told me she wanted to leave our comfy little town of Wilton, IA and head to Wal mart in Muscatine (for those of you who don't know Muscatine is about 20 mins.south of Wilton) around 3:00 or 3:30am Yes that's right AM before the sun is even shining. I am not a morning person at all so I kind of  whimpered a little at the thought of getting up so early. Knowing that there was a deal out there I headed to bed at 11:00 pm knowing that after shopping I could take a nap.  My objective was to grab a Cricut Expression (priced for just $188.00) at Wal mart  that was over half off the $400.00 price tag at Michael's Crafts or on the nice little infomercial  I sometimes watch and drool over like a kid who sees the best toy in the world. That is all I cared about . I have saved for this Scrapbooking  Heaven of a machine for a month now in the hopes it would either go down in price or be in the lovely little Black Friday ads on sale.  I was so excited to go now and I even get to pick the color(blue, red, green, or silver).

At 1am my phone was ringing and it was my  friend calling to tell me that she went to Walmart in Davenport at midnight and was in line for a E Machine laptop computer that was being offered to those lucky enough to get on for $198.00. She said that they were all sold even tho  you couldn't even purchase it until 5am. She was telling me that all the good stuff was going fast and that I had better get a move on if I wanted anything in particular. I went back to sleep. Tammy then called me at 1:30 and said we should get a move on cause our  friend called her and told her the same thing.. I still went back to sleep until 2:30 whaen Tammy arrived to get me. There was hardly anyone therewhen we got to Wal mart but figured we might as well find out where the items we wanted  were placed.. I found the line for the laptop my  friend was wanting and there was only 9 people in line so I called her and offered to stand in line and try to get one for her.. Call me crazy but I stood in that line for 2 1/2 hours.. The things I do for my friends.. As the store started to fill up I started to panic about my prize, the Cricut Expression. What if they sell out of them before I get a chance to get one??

At 4am one of the employees at the store was walking down the line I was standing in and assigned a number while another followed and wrote down names.. I was number 10 and they received 21 of the laptops .  Whoo hoo I got one.  People were still lining up to get one so another clerk stood in the area I was in and was telling people they were sold out . I was looking thru the ad and when I came to the page of the prize. I looked at the clerk and asked if she knew the location of it. She noticed it was an all day item and said "you can get one now if you want." I got excited for a moment when I realized I didn't want to lose my place in line. She  told me to tell the other clerk that I needed to go to the bathroom and me being honest said that I didn't have to go, so she went and got me a bathroom pass which held my place in line and told me to go.  I got over to the spot and there they were so I called Tammy and asked her what color she wanted cause she like me had been wanting one as long as I have and she wanted to make sure she got one too.. I walked back to my spot with not one but 2 Cricut Expressions( 1 red and 1 blue ) and 2 cartriges( that were offered for $30.00 and they normally run $69.00 each.) and the biggest smile on my face. At 4:45 they started to hand out the laptops and I was able to get one.I met up with Tammy and we finished picking up the rest of the things we wanted and headed to the check out ..

We headed to Davenport and shopped until 4:30pm. Needless to say I was able to get almost all of my shopping done and have fun. I have just one more gift to purchase and I am officially done.. So that is the end of the Black Friday experience and I actually enjoyed it, in the stores there weren't that many rude, pushy people but waiting in line was long and probably the part I enjoyed the least. Yes, there were some great bargans but you need to be both patient and yet persistant in order to get them. I will probably do it again. I am crazy I know..