(And instead go buy stuff for yourself)

I do Black Friday.

I did Black Friday.

And I somehow survived Black Friday despite a sinus infection and a course of antibiotics that has left me queasy and with the taste of pennies in my mouth (don’t ask me if it’s working yet, because so far I am keeping the folks at Kleenex in business and have been on a mad hunt for cherry Lifesavers since my doc said that it would help the penny taste).

After a day spent with family on Thanksgiving (primarily curled up on the couch, trying to not be that one family member that falls asleep – I know my family – that person’s picture always ends up pictured on Facebook – drooling on their pillow), I was not quite geared up to wake up at the gruesome six o’clock hour. To shop.

(I didn’t wake up. I overslept. Got ready in five minutes. Like a boss.)

Hit Starbucks for a venti with an extra shot and was good to go.

Sort of.

Okay. I was along for the ride.

See, the thing is… I never really need anything when I go shopping for Black Friday. There is almost never anything I need quite so badly that I’m going to be upset if I’ve missed the deal. Frankly, I’ve been doing Christmas shopping for over a month, so I was kind of winging it.

Shopping with my mother is an interesting experience anyway – and toss feeling like road kill into the mix, and it was a morning of slow-going. At one point, I wandered into the shoe section of a department store just so I could sit down and stare blankly for five minutes amidst hordes of people trying to get a deal on ugly footwear.

I promise I wasn’t a scrooge all day.

I really wasn’t.

Especially once I wandered into Old Navy and found something I wanted for myself. And then bought four of them. What? That’s half the fun of Black Friday, right? STIMULATING THE ECONOMY, one five dollar camisole at a time. It was Old Navy that I ran into my sister-in-law. She and her mother had been shopping since FOUR IN THE MORNING. I’m just not quite that dedicated.

I did end up picking up some gifts for the kids – easy because there seems to be nothing they don’t want (Pumpkin asked for an iPad – but if mama doesn’t have one, the kids sure won’t).

Today? I’m so exhausted and confused about what day of the week it is and thinking of things that I might have bought yesterday but didn’t (uh, hello slippers to replace the ones the dog ate). I’m on a mission to be done Christmas shopping by mid-month – I didn’t put too much of a dent in to the process yesterday, so, we’ll see.