It Starts With Coffee

Here is her post:

Hey y’all! I’m Ashley from My Carnival Ride, and I’m super excited to be guest posting for Neely today! Neely is such a sweetie, and she is one of my best Blogger/Twitter friends!

For those of you who don’t know me, I am 24 years old, and I work as a family support specialist for an adoption agency. I am originally from southeast Oklahoma and currently live in the Oklahoma City metro. I have been blogging for almost a year to journal my life. I wanted to share a story with all of you about an experience I had during Thanksgiving week.

I am a shopper.

I love to shop.

I like to shop for myself and other people.

I shop when I’m in a great mood or if I’m having a rough day.

I shop for no reason.

I. Am. A. Shopper.

But, I don’t go Black Friday shopping.

There really isn’t anything that I want, for myself or for anyone else that I’m willing to sacrifice my sleep for. I don’t like the idea of getting up super early in the morning to go shopping.

Every year, my bestie Jessica begs me to go with her to Wal-Mart on Black Friday. Every year, I tell her no, I want to sleep. Yet, she continues to ask. This year, she asked me to go, and I said no. Thursday night, she called and asked me to go with her at midnight. She promised to take me home after “Round 1”, or 12:30ish. For some reason, I agreed.

Now, Jessica is a super, hard-core Black Friday shopper. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. For example, she had this made.

We got to Wal-Mart around 10:30 pm. Our goal for midnight: towels. I didn’t realize towels were such a hot Black Friday item, but if that’s what they were there for, I was going to help. Of course, I had to document our experience.

As it got closer to midnight, more and more people started gathering around the towels. Jessica started giving me a pep talk. Her exact words: “Don’t be afraid to throw elbows. I don’t care if they’re old people”. Um, ok…

At midnight, when the announcement was made to start opening the boxes, something happened. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but something happened. The only word I can think of to describe it is madness.

When the announcement was made, Jessica grabbed a stack of towels and handed them to me. I fought my way through the crowd to our shopping cart. When I turned around, I couldn’t see her. When she finally appeared, she looked like she’d been in a fight. When she got to me, she said she’d been pushed and hit in the head. All over TOWELS!

As we slowly made our way through the rest of the store, I just kept asking myself, ‘What am I doing here?’ I couldn’t believe the people who were fighting over things and running around grabbing things. I kept having to dodge the frantic, crazy people! At one point, Jessica leaned over and said, “Isn’t this fun? Isn’t your adrenaline pumping?” My answer: “Yes, my adrenaline is pumping because of FEAR FOR MY LIFE!”

Next on Jessica’s list was a TV. I waited in line with her until her husband could get there to take me home. We heard stories from other people that several people had been hit, shoved, scratched, even punched in the face. An older lady had a child-size jeep ripped out of her arms, and then she was punched in the face and was bleeding! Security looked up the guy that did it on the surveillance cameras and he was arrested.

We also saw some interesting people. I managed to snap a picture of this lady. Can you imagine shopping in the Black Friday madness wearing leggings and boots?

Why?

I will definitely never go Black Friday shopping again. Not only do I value my sleep too much, I also value my life! 🙂

Do you guys go Black Friday shopping? Has anyone gotten anything good that makes the madness worth it?