Black Friday, or Check your sanity at the door...

Was I crazy? Check. Was I insane? Check. Was it cold? Check. Was it fun? Check. What was it? I camped out for black Friday. In my life as an avid shopper of good deals, I have never camped out for black Friday, this year I decided it was time to check this off my bucket list.

My destination, Roberts Craft, of course!

Now originally I had no intention of camping out, so here is how it all went down..... My friend Sue and I in combing all the Thanksgiving day adds, decided we both needed the Cricut Expression which was on sale at Roberts for the cheapest price I had ever seen. Plus they had a killer deal on the cartridges that go along with the Cricut. So we formed a plan.

Our original plan was to meet at 5:00 a.m. and head down to the store for the 6:00 a.m. opening. I told Sue that I was going to stay up all night working on cases because I was really behind due to the holiday, so I was to call her at 5:00 a.m. to wake her up. On Thursday night Arianne and I went to Walmart because she needed cheap flannel which cannot be located in Oregon. We finished at Walmart shortly after 12:00 a.m. and drove through the Roberts parking lot to see if any type of a line had formed. There was one lady sitting in her mini van. It was at that time I decided that if I was going to stay up all night working on cases, I might as well do it in the Roberts parking lot and ensure myself a good place in line.

I returned to gather the necessary items for staying up all night sitting in a parking lot. Those items included, the cases I needed to read, a flashlight, batteries, a chair, a blanket, at hat, gloves and two power bars. I elected to avoid Diet Coke, because I did not want to have bathroom issues. It was off to Roberts. When I arrived around 1:30 a.m. the only person in the parking lot was still the lady in the mini van. I decided just to wait in my car until the line formed, after all it was warm and comfy.

As the night progressed, I saw an endless stream of cars, with a few checking out the Roberts, but mostly getting Mexican food from the all night Mexican drive through. (You would not believe the number of people that consume Mexican food between 2:00 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., who knew?) The night drew on, cases got read, and I continually checked to make sure a line was not forming without me near the front.

Around 4:00 a.m. the first two individuals got into line. This was my cue, out of the car came me, my chair, my blanket and my binder full of cases. I found myself third in line, right under a light for excellent reading, and giggling with a bunch of silly women who had been up most of the night. We were swapping stories of where good deals were at, who had hit midnight sales, and what Cricut items we were drooling over.

From where we were sitting we could see the very large, and long line that had formed across the street at Target, which opened at 5:00 a.m. When the doors of Target were opened, we could hear very loud screams of excitement from the shoppers as they stampeded the Target.

Here I am all bundled up!

Sue arrived around 5:15 a.m to keep me company in line and join the fray.

At 6:00 a.m. the door opened. We had a plan. Sue went and grabbed the machines, I was in charge of cartridges. In order to avoid mass craziness, Roberts had carefully crafted a plan for the cartridges. All of the cartridges were located in a roped off area, with about 5 Roberts employees. You had to present a list of the cartridges you wanted to the employee, and they pulled the cartridges, and then you proceeded to the check out. Of course I was prepared for this, I had surfed their web site and made my list and checked in twice. All registers were up and running, so check out was speedy. At 6:20 I was back in my car, with both Sue and I having scored the items we so desperately needed, er, I mean wanted.....

Here is my haul.

I went home and it took about an hour for me to wind down and fall asleep, with all the adrenaline of black Friday running through my veins.

Would I do it again? Perhaps...but at least for now, its one more thing this year I have done, having never done before, and one more item off the bucket list. (Not that I am planning on dying anytime soon...after all I have a new Cricut machine that desperately needs attention.)