Black Friday 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME, Y'ALL! I got what I wanted for Christmas. YAY! Behold my consumer Christmas bootay!


My good friends know that these past few years I have been a fervent fan of Black Friday. It is one of the most anticipated days of the year for me even more so than my own birfday. ;)

This year's "fait accompli" would be acquiring a Cricut Personal Electronic Cutting Machine at Jo-Anns on sale for $99 regular retail $299 along with the Cricut cartridges on sale. Now, had I taken the time to consult the Thanksgiving Day newspaper ads, I would have known that Wal-Mart had the Cricut Expression Cutting Machine on sale and that Michaels had the Cricut cartridges on sale cheaper than Jo-Anns. :: headdesk :: but, no matter because I figured it out as I went along that day... :) Now, back to the events of the day...

For the first time in my Black Friday shopping outings, I got out of bed and was on the road by 5:40 AM for the 6:00 AM store opening. First stop was Jo-Anns Indepedence Store, I got there just as they opened. Walking in the parking lot at approximately 6:05 AM I saw a woman already running to her car with her Black Friday haul. I inquired at the customer service desk about the $99 Cricut and found that they had ALREADY sold out. :( But, they did have the Cricut cartridges in stock and I was resolute that I would find a Cricut on sale somewhere that day, so I went ahead and selected the cartridges that I wanted to buy when it was time to checkout later. Surprisingly enough, shopping that morning was quite civilized and I did manage to find the other items on my list (Rowenta® DZ1500 Iron and Conair Fabric Steamer, Holiday Inspirations™ 7-Ft Pre-Lit Tree, Darice Bead Spinner, Fiskar Stamp Factory, 4 Cricut Cartridges). I had all my items in hand and was ready to check out within 30 minutes. While standing in line to checkout, three (3) White women were talking to each other in front of me (probably friends or related to each other). One of them looked across at the magazine rack next to us and pointed to a People magazine featuring the Obama family on the cover and said to her friends, "I bet you guys are not happy about this are you?" and her friends shook their heads and said "NO!" then the one woman said, "Well, I am! HA!" I grimaced and stood there thinking "Those other two women must be racist, why else would they be mad 'cause Obama won?" and a rush of anger washed over me. I reached across and caressed the magazine and made a point of making eye contact with those two women as they just happened to be looking back at me at that moment and I looked back at them with disdain and disgust at once. Now, I am intelligent enough to know that just because a White person voted for McCain/Palin that they may not be a racist, that they may disagree with his political views/agenda, BUT UNFORTUNATELY the Republican party and most importantly many of the most vocal McCain/Palin supporters have been very vitriolic, bigotted and some quite openly racist in their views and those are the people who have been most vocal and publicized, so it goes without saying that as a Black person, I have to wonder about some White people who voted that ticket. It ain't right, but that's just how I feel right now.

It didn't take that long to checkout at Jo-Anns and I was back on the road by 7:00 AM. This time to my old familiar stomping ground of Overland Park. Back to Jo-Anns again to use my other 20% off your entire purchase coupon where I bought a knitting book and some sewing notions. This time standing in the checkout line, I noticed that the lady behind me had a Michaels ad and I asked her if I could just take a look at it and she obliged. That's when I saw that Michaels had the Cricut cartridges on sale. :: argh! :: Now, I gotta return the ones I already bought (later for that). I handed the ad back to the lady, she removed the Michaels 25% off your entire purchase coupon she wanted and let me have the ad! YAY! So, now I was on a mission to Michaels where I snapped up the same cartridges I already had, but cheaper and an armload of Lion Brand Thick & Chunky on sale to finish an afghan. Next, WAL-MART! I was on a mission to find the ever elusive Cricut machine. As luck would have it, they did have a few left in stock and I snapped on up immediately. When I saw the price pop up at checkout, I was even happier because I thought for sure it was going to be more expensive that what it was...it was on sale! FAIT ACCOMPLI!

Later that day, I unboxed my new big daddy Cricut machine, watched the Cricut User Manual DVD, plugged the machine in, mashed the "ON" button and NOTHING! :: wags fists :: :: curses :: WHAT! The m*therf^cking machine won't power up! I tried unsuccessfully to revive the machine, but sadly after consulting the Cricut support page, I realized that I had a dud machine and would have to return it to Wal-Mart and get another one. Only one problem! FINDING ANOTHER ONE! By now, I could see that the Cricut was a HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER BLACK FRIDAY PRESENT, so I had to figure out just where exactly I might have the highest likelihood of finding one in stock. :: brain gears whirl :: I tried calling around to a couple stores, but eh..no luck. Can't find anyone in the craft department to answer the freaking phone, so all that was left to do was get back out there and hunt one down the good fashioned way. One store at a time. Getting in my car, I realized that there was one Wal-Mart store that would probably have some left so I hightailed it over there. As luck would have it, THEY HAD AN ENTIRE DISPLAY FULL OF THEM! Not one was gone. YES! MAMA IS HAPPY!

Sitting at my dining room table, monkeying with my new toy, I decided it was time to de-clutter and organize my scrapbooking/card making materials again. So, that prompted me to take a closer look at the 40% Jet Max Storage Cube sale at Michaels and that was when I decided to take the plunge and started the "Clutter Offensive".

Saturday morning, I hightailed it over to Michaels again to buy the Jet-Max Storage Cubes and use my 20% your entire purchase coupon. I got 9 cubes and another armful of Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn.