Ladies, Ladies, Ladies! What was I thinking? I wanted the Black Friday shopping experience. So get ready for my "ride".
Yesterday, after fixing our Thanksgiving meal, setting a table - complete with silver, crystal and china, after serving up turkey with a candle in it (Tim's birthday), and after loading the dishwasher to capacity, I decide we should go visit some special friends, Steve and Deanna. So I waddled into our car with Kevin rolling beside me, we head out over the river and through the woods. We stay less than an hour, after eating some homemade "man" made, carrot cake. All was going well. Then my friends announce they are going to Gaffney, SC to the Prime Outlet mall at midnight. They apparently have great deals from 12:00am to 6:00am. I am invited to go. Now, I wasn't so much wanting to shop but I love being with this couple. We ALWAYS have an adventure and someone laughs until they "well you know". Kevin declines to join us. He is identified as the only sane one. I go home and take a 3 hour nap and Kevin takes me to the Hardin home. We pile in the car and off we go. Guess What??? We have to turn back because the oil light goes on the car and apparently when the light goes on, it means there is no oil. We go back home and change cars, and off we go. Guess What??? We get down the road, and we have to go back home. We forgot our special savings coupons in the other car. Well three's a charm, and off we go.
We are going down Chesnee highway and we reach our destination...well almost. There is 3 lines of cars feeding into one lane to the outlet mall. We wait 35 minutes to almost get there. Guess What??? You see the car starts to billow smoke from under the hood. The car is over heating! We pull into a gas station/Burger King and ditch the car and walk to the mall. We are at the mall for a little over an hour. The lines are incredible and you can't shop for the lack of space. We snake our way through the crowds. We started out excited by the energy, but turned cold and the "merry" is fading. We were so excited for our first time Black Friday experience and all the good deals. I came home with ONE candle gift!!! Oh well, loved the company. We hike back to the car.
Steve decides it needs water. He searches through the wastebasket for a container at the gas station and makes about 3 trips to the bathroom with his discovered coffee cup and water bottle. The water just disappears as he pours it. It apparently is very thirsty, but then we discover it is pouring right onto the ground as we fill it. Deanna and I have been standing outside of the car to support Steve. We are frozen. It is 2:00am "ish". We want to cry. Steve discovers a crack in a pipe/hose. We decide to see how far we can get, so we load into the car and travel down the highway watching the temp gauge climb to bright red. Guess What??? We stop...in the middle of nowhere. No car in sight. This is a long stretch in the highway between acres and acres of nothing. It is dark. It is cold. The windows are fogging up. Deanna tries not to think of espisodes of CSI. I write my name on the window should I die. Rather than try and fill it up with water, let the car cool. I try to call for help. I call Kevin's cell phone. Guess What??? Dead! I call Tim's cell. No Answer. I call my nephews phone. No Answer. I can't call Cory because he's not home. This is my response for paying a $200 cell phone bill!!! I call my house phone by chance. It's a chance because the only phone that rings is in Kevin's office, plus its 2:45 ish. Be still my heart Tim answers the phone. He and James are watching movies on the computer! Guess What? There's a God!
After talking to Kevin and asking him to bring lots of water to get us home, I hang up. The Hardins and I pray...beg...God to get Kevin to us. He has never been to where we are....the middle of no where in another town and another state. If you know my husband, you would understand his sense of direction. We get the car running and head into the little town of Chesnee under the street lights to Kevin can find us more easily. we sit, We wait. We play silly games to past the time. Steve wants to kill me and Deanna I am sure. We all laugh because we are delirious. True and reliable my prince arrives on his white horse. The forever boy scout arrives with water, flashlights, tools, and electrical tape. It's 3:30ish. The pipe gets taped and water filled and we are off to our nice warm beds. We arrive in Polk County, NC...almost home. It is 4:30am. I am wide awake.
I ask Kevin if he will take me to Wal Mart for their big 5:00am sale. The store is 30 minutes away. It will be perfect. He generously agrees. We had to walk from the very back of the parking lot in one of the last spaces. He is fearing for his life as we enter the store a few minutes before the deals begin. There are huge pallets of items wrapped in black plastic. People are hovering over them. Surrounding the items. Everyone is territorial. Kevin and I missed the maps of the store where the special sale items were located. We try to see around the crowds for a particular item we are looking for. We give up. We stand back and watch as the store personnel announce the start of the sale. People are tearing into the pallets. The noise volume is tremendous and you hear the eager shoppers go crazy trying to get their items. We find our buy after a few trips around the store and quickly leave. No so bad for our first Walmart experience.
We get in the car. We are heading home. We past by Belks Department store. "Keeevvvinn...I whine. Can we stop?" My prince again generously agrees. We each get a free gift card. I get $5 and he of course gets $10. We get some great deals. We are so excited. We go pay and give our gift cards toward purchase, and we have an additional 15% off reg. and sale prices. Guess what??? Our coupon doesn't apply. We apparently bought all early bird buys, and they don't qualify. So we pay...still a good deal until we notice we didn't get our $10 gift card credit!!! We go back to the cashier and she gives us the correct credit. Not exactly as smooth as the Walmart experience but hey still good.
We are hungry. McDonald's sounds good. I want a diet coke so bad I can scream. The line is wrapped around the restaurant and spilling into the road, but hey Burger King across the street has no line, Yahoo! We order quickly and pull around. There are 3 cars in front of us. Not bad. It is almost 25 minutes later however before we get our chicken biscuit and MY DIET COKE. Guess what? McDonalds' car line is about gone....AAUUGGH!
We are revived and feeling fresh now. We are fed and watered. Look Goodys has a good sale. Can we go KEEVVVINNN!! He generously agrees. Once again we find some good deals. We find what we want. We pay. We are out. Whew! Guess What??? The doll house we bought Jayden, our special little girl friend, is missing an obvious part and the light up lights don't light!!! AAUUGGH!! I will be taking it back.
We are going to go home, but WAIT Kevin says he wants to go to Staples Office Supply because after all we are right here. I am exhausted, but hey, he has done all I wanted so it's his turn. I stay in the car and check on Tim and my nephew. They are asleep. Wish I was. It is 730ish. Kevin comes back to the car with a package and he won't let me peak. It's for me!! Imagine that. We try to leave the parking lot but before we leave we remember the coupons I have for the Family Christian store. Well we got to go, because it would be unChristian, right?? We find a parking space. It is a miracle for the small parking lot. People are parked on the grass. They have $5 door buster buys. Guess what??? Next to none left. We leave the store with nothing!!!
We are definitely going home! OUr legs are hurting, my back hurts, Kevin is extremely sleepy, and we both are DONE...well done.
Guess what???
We are almost to the highway home. We take a short cut. Kevin mentions he is going on a motorcycle ride. It is the annual Christmas Toy Run. Guess what??? His tags to his motorcycle is expired. Well we are right here in town and the DMV tag office is close by. We turn around. We park in the parking lot of the mall where the DMV office is. We drag our legs to the DMV. Guess what??? It is closed. Kevin wants to implode I am sure.
I see that Rose's is open. Hmm! Do I ask? Well of course! Does he agree? Well of course! Do we buy something? Well of course. I buy myself some jeans and 2 tops. Do they fit?? We'll see. I didn't try them on. Guess what? We head home. We make it home! We are in bed at 9:30am.
I am awake now. We slept until 2:30. I am babysitting 2 sweet kids now. Black Friday turned Blue but I am determined to make it pink. We will be tickled pink, eating popcorn, watching cartoons, and doing absolutely nothing!!!
Signing off until tomorrow, Love ya, Anna
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