Wal-Mart, twenty minutes before Black Friday, makes you consider your own mortality.
Yesterday, I did the dumbest thing I have ever done. Just... it's so phenomenally stupid, I can't even.
It was time to wash the litter boxes. Toss the old litter, apply water and soap to box, refill. So I tossed, and washed, and swept the floor while I was at it, and went to refill the boxes, only to find no fresh litter left, on Thanksgiving Day, at 5:00, when only Wal-Mart and maybe Walgreens were open, and I thought to myself, 'You don't deserve to live.'
Alas. I threw on jeans and a questionable sweater, made a beeline for the door (Dad joined me as I was leaving, saying something along the lines of, "You don't deserve to live,"), and sped off in the Penguin. (The only upside to this tale? The traffic was really good. We were both surprised!) The Wal-Mart parking lot was another story, but we found a space in front of the Office Depot and hoofed it.
We entered. It felt like the calm before the storm. My god. No one was buying anything, they were just waiting, standing by palettes of large toys and cookware, with their hand physically touching it so they could get one when 6:00 came around. We walked right up to a check out lane because, like I said, no one was buying. It was 5:40 when we left, and people were asking for our broken buggy (all the buggies were taken; Dad managed to snag ours from an employee who was like, "You know this is broken, right?" and we replied, "YES, PLEASE DON'T MAKE US CARRY THIS LITTER ALL THE WAY BACK.") Also, the Office Depot parking lot? Totally full. There was a line for our space when we left.
People are crazy. People are just effing crazy, there's no other way to describe it. You're going to fight over Rachel Ray cookware? WHY? How much money are you really saving? DO YOU EVEN SAUTE ON A REGULAR BASIS?
We returned home without incident, I refilled the boxes, and all was golden. Black Friday scares the bejeezus out of me. I usually don't even leave the house on the 29th, and now with the new Black Friday hours, you can't even leave on Thanksgiving.
Just as I sat down to thank my lucky stars that we survived, the Troll called and asked if I wanted to go adventuring. As in... shopping.
I accepted this quest, under the condition it wasn't !@#$%^& Wal-Mart.
We swung by Starbucks and ate our traditional snowman cookie, and then hit Kohl's and Belk. There were long lines outside both stores, so we waited until 8:10 and then went inside. Waffle House, where we feasted for dinner, was surprisingly empty, especially considering it was the only open restaurant we could find.
And you know what? It was fun. The whole evening was really, really fun, mostly because of the company, but also because we so rarely get to spend holidays together. It's a blast just adventuring around, poking our heads in places to see what's going on.
Except Wal-Mart.
Because !@#$ Wal-Mart.
It was time to wash the litter boxes. Toss the old litter, apply water and soap to box, refill. So I tossed, and washed, and swept the floor while I was at it, and went to refill the boxes, only to find no fresh litter left, on Thanksgiving Day, at 5:00, when only Wal-Mart and maybe Walgreens were open, and I thought to myself, 'You don't deserve to live.'
Alas. I threw on jeans and a questionable sweater, made a beeline for the door (Dad joined me as I was leaving, saying something along the lines of, "You don't deserve to live,"), and sped off in the Penguin. (The only upside to this tale? The traffic was really good. We were both surprised!) The Wal-Mart parking lot was another story, but we found a space in front of the Office Depot and hoofed it.
We entered. It felt like the calm before the storm. My god. No one was buying anything, they were just waiting, standing by palettes of large toys and cookware, with their hand physically touching it so they could get one when 6:00 came around. We walked right up to a check out lane because, like I said, no one was buying. It was 5:40 when we left, and people were asking for our broken buggy (all the buggies were taken; Dad managed to snag ours from an employee who was like, "You know this is broken, right?" and we replied, "YES, PLEASE DON'T MAKE US CARRY THIS LITTER ALL THE WAY BACK.") Also, the Office Depot parking lot? Totally full. There was a line for our space when we left.
People are crazy. People are just effing crazy, there's no other way to describe it. You're going to fight over Rachel Ray cookware? WHY? How much money are you really saving? DO YOU EVEN SAUTE ON A REGULAR BASIS?
We returned home without incident, I refilled the boxes, and all was golden. Black Friday scares the bejeezus out of me. I usually don't even leave the house on the 29th, and now with the new Black Friday hours, you can't even leave on Thanksgiving.
Just as I sat down to thank my lucky stars that we survived, the Troll called and asked if I wanted to go adventuring. As in... shopping.
I accepted this quest, under the condition it wasn't !@#$%^& Wal-Mart.
We swung by Starbucks and ate our traditional snowman cookie, and then hit Kohl's and Belk. There were long lines outside both stores, so we waited until 8:10 and then went inside. Waffle House, where we feasted for dinner, was surprisingly empty, especially considering it was the only open restaurant we could find.
And you know what? It was fun. The whole evening was really, really fun, mostly because of the company, but also because we so rarely get to spend holidays together. It's a blast just adventuring around, poking our heads in places to see what's going on.
Except Wal-Mart.
Because !@#$ Wal-Mart.