November 23, 2007

Diary of a Black Friday Shopper

9:00 PM: Arrive home from a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, with plans to sleep for a few hours before hitting "Midnight Madness" at the local outlets. (My parents kept the girls last night.)

9:01 PM: Realize that there is a new Grey’s Anatomy on, so sleep can wait.

10:01 PM: Turn on the football game.

10:30 PM: Mr. BBM goes to bed to get one hour of sleep. I decide I’ll take a nap on the sofa, but can’t fall asleep.

11:30 PM: Rise and shine (or something like that) and head out the door to arrive at "Midnight Madness." On the drive there, despite the steady stream of cars heading in that direction, we are convinced that our idea is unique and that it will be "dead."

11:59 PM: Realize we were very, very wrong. We have to park in a lot that belongs to a nearby restaurant and walk to the outlets.

11:59-12:10: Dodge cars filled with crazy shoppers while crossing the street to get to the stores. No, people didn’t slow down for a lady on crutches. I started wishing I had fluorescent tape on my crutches.

12:10 AM: Arrive at outlets and my legs are already tired.

12:15 AM: Realize that the toy outlet jacked up all their prices by $10 since the day before. Promptly leave.

12:30-2:20 AM: Shop until we felt like we were going to drop. We bought Christmas outfits for the girls, pajamas, coats, mittens, hats, etc. (Mr. BBM and I also bought ourselves new shoes.) I also realized that people could care less if you’re walking with a crutch. They will continue to ask you to move out of the way instead of asking someone better able to do so. They will also occasionally swing their bags at your knee and make you want to scream.

2:20 AM: Go to food court for breakfast buffet with plans to hang out until the next string of stores opens at 5:00 AM. Realize the line is too long, so we opt for a slice of pizza. Mr. BBM gets me an iced tea with caffeine in it, and suggests we go home to sleep for a bit.

3:00 AM: Arrive at home.

3:05 AM: Mr. BBM is out cold.

3:06-4:40 AM: I try to catch some z’s but I’m too jittery from the caffeine, so I listen to Mr. BBM snore for a while and do my leg exercises.

5:20 AM: Arrive outside Staples and make several laps around the parking lot. Mr. BBM decides he will not be standing in line for a computer or navigation system.

5:40 AM: Arrive at mall, and of course, buy the thing that is NOT included in the sale. We only realize this after we’re already rung up, after standing in line for 20 minutes.

6:05-7:45 AM: Mostly just stand in line at the Disney Store. Also, spend entirely too much money on Vera Bradley bags. Oh, and purchase a navigation system (Mr. BBM decided to do all his Christmas shopping for me with me.)

8:05-9:30 AM: Arrive at Walmart for the toy portion of our program. A cashier asks if I’d like a scooter. I really want a scooter, but truth be told, I’m afraid I’ll run into something. Crutch my very tired bod all around the store, frequently wishing I was riding a scooter. Find a better navigation system for a better price and buy it. Spend what feels like an eternity browsing toy aisles and trying to figure out what toys won’t clutter up our house too much. (We found no such toys, but bought plenty of them anyway.)

9:45 AM: Arrive at restaurant for a much-deserved rest.

10:30 AM: Arrive at specialty toy store and finish getting Lil C her Christmas presents.

11:25 AM: Arrive home and promptly fall asleep.

3:00 PM: Mr. BBM wakes me up.

4:00 PM: Arrive at physical therapy. Complete all my exercises, increase my weight by 5 lbs. again on the leg press, increase my time on the bike up to 10 minutes, and add on leg curls.

5:50 PM: Prepare to meet parents and the girls for dinner, all the while praying that my parents wore them out so we can please go to bed as soon as we get home.

Something tells me I’m going to have a 10:00 or 11:00 PM which says something along the lines of "Yeah right" and possibly "What was I thinking?"

***The latest review is up at The BBM Review. If you are a home schooling parent, or a parent looking for a fun and educational website and haven’t heard about Time 4 Learning, you don’t want to miss it.