Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Black Friday!

I have been neglecting my blog recently. I think I can attribute that to a few reasons, not the least of which is the fact that not a lot of blog-worthy stuff has been happening around here. Also, I've not been feeling well and other than checking in on my email here and there I haven't had much motivation to sit at the computer. Because of the apparent sleep deficit, combined with the sniffles and coughs, my brain isn't exactly running in overdrive. Needless to say, that doesn't make for very interesting blogging.

In spite of the fact that I'm still not feeling great, I thought I would take a minute to pay tribute to my version of the Superbowl. This upcoming Friday is, to me, what election night is to Phil. I don't consider myself a shopper under normal circumstances. I've never quite understood the concept of going to the mall, just to check out the stores and spend money just because I can. I'm more of a saver.

In college I had several room mates who were shoppers. One, in particular, whom I drove crazy with my unwillingness to spend. I remember asking her to go to the mall with me once because I needed some socks. We came home a few hours later after she had spent a couple hundred dollars on a variety of items that she had no idea she needed when we first ventured out. I came home with no socks. I don't exactly remember why I didn't buy my socks, but I'm guessing that I simply didn't find any that I deemed worth the expense. I'm sure that I convinced myself that the holes in my current batch of socks weren't that big yet and that I would be able to find a better deal on socks if I just looked around a little more. My room mate, after perusing that day's credit card receipts, was quite frustrated with me.

My frugality serves me well most of the time. I've told Phil millions of times that he couldn't be married to anybody else just because most other women's spending habits would drive him crazy. My mom tells me that I married the only man on the planet who thinks I'm a spender. She's convinced that I still have the first babysitting dollar that I ever earned when I was twelve. In actuality I think I spent that dollar sometime during my freshman year of college on a frozen burrito or two. Either that or it was used to finance one of my older brother's many dates. After we were both grown with our own kids he confessed that, unknown to me at the time, I was the monetary backing for much of his high school social life. My piggy bank was apparently very accessible. He was apparently without conscious. And I was obviously not wise to the ways of sneaky older brothers.

Sometimes, however, my need to save a buck bites me in the behind. I have been known to search for a deal to the point that even Phil wants to strangle me. With certain purchases it's not uncommon for me to spend hours and hours and even days and weeks waiting for just the right deal to present itself before I will open my wallet. By the time I find just the right deal, the item has been updated and the good price on the old one doesn't look so great anymore. You see why it was so difficult for me to buy our new computer????

That takes me to Black Friday! It is good deal mecca. It is the one day of the year that my "wait-and-see" approach doesn't work. I don't have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for a better deal. It's liberating. Thanksgiving Day for me is filled with the background noise of football games, and the ads. I think there's some food there somewhere too and I think we generally have extended family around, but for me it's all about the ads and coming up with my attack plan for the next day. How sick is that? I have memories from Black Fridays past that are more vivid than many bygone Christmas mornings. Sometimes I can talk somebody into going with me, but this year it looks like I'll be solo. This year there is no single item that I am looking for - my once a year shopping spree will be entirely dictated by the deals in the ads and I'm already anxious to get the paper in the morning. Maybe I'll find some amazing deal on electronics or something for the house or something for the kids for Christmas. Maybe I'll come home with some socks. It doesn't really matter though, because for me Black Friday is all about the deal.

Now I just need to make sure that I'm fully recovered from this blasted illness before Friday morning. Phil and Adam are putting up the outside Christmas decorations, Noah just got out of the tub and is watching another hair raising episode of Dora, and I'm going to lay back down now.

3 comments:

Kelly Hill said...

I'm so sad! This will be the first time in forever that I don't go. Argh!! It wouldn't surprise me if I ended up going once I looked at the ads, but then again.....

I'm sorry you're not feeling well. None of that will matter come 4:00 a.m. on Friday. : ) Have fun!!

Nathan said...

Favorite line of the entire post:

"This upcoming Friday is, to me, what election night is to Phil."

Good luck on Friday. You'll have to tell me what you got

Lydia said...

I'm not into "black friday" but Robert likes to take off and fight the crowds.