You Gotta Dance to Your Own Beat

Today has been a nice, peaceful family day. Tried to go Christmas tree shopping but the place we want to get our tree isn't starting sales until December 1st. We buy our trees from the American Legion because the money goes to care boxes for deployed military and other veteran programs. I'm also a member. We went to the Legion Post here for the first time today and 2 minutes after walking through the door it felt like I had known the guys for years. It was really nice. 

After leaving there we went out to eat. My daughter just came into a little unexpected cash and treated me to Olive Garden. We ate until we could hardly walk and then ordered dessert to go. No way we were passing up black tie chocolate mousse cake!

Once we could move it was off to do a little clothes shopping. Her boyfriend got to stand around holding purses and looking uncomfortable. She FINALLY found a coat she was willing to wear too which is nice because she walks to the bus either really early or very late, when it is cold out there. Stubborn kid! She bought a few more clothes and then we just wandered around a bit.

We went to this place called Gifts From Afar that has all kinds of art and clothes and things from India, China, Africa, all over really. When you first walk in there is a wall of saris and belly dancing costumes. The music in the store was very high energy belly dance music that I immediately fell in love with. Poor kids, they were looking at things and I was roaming the aisles doing little dance moves I remembered from a belly dance class I briefly attended. Now, I thought I was hidden from view but it seems, not so much. I turned around at one point to see the man who ran the shop just smiling at me. When we got to the cash register for my daughter to make her purchase, he grinned at me and handed me a copy of the CD that was playing in the store.

I have the music, I have the little wrap skirt with the coins that jingle, now if I could just get that body I'd be in business! Maybe a little less pasta and chocolate mousse cake would help. But where's the fun in that?

Later folks, sweet dreams.

Survivor Saturday, Recovering From Black Friday

This was the post I would have written yesterday if the planets had aligned well enough for the internet to work properly where I stayed this weekend.

I have never gone shopping on Black Friday. I guess I just don't possess the competitive gene required to spend hours waiting in the cold to fight over some item because it's on sale. I seriously don't believe I'd do it if the items were being given away free! 

I can remember seeing all the ads for after Thanksgiving sales as a kid. This has traditionally been the time the best sales were held for decades, starting with Macy's in 1924. The name "Black Friday" was first used in 1961 by Philadelphia police and it was called that because of the traffic jams and increased pedestrian traffic associated with the start of the holiday shopping season. It took a while to spread but by the 80's it was being used across the country. Many merchants however were adverse to the negative connotation of the name and tried unsuccessfully to change it. Eventually the idea that this was when merchants started making more money thereby being "in the black" financially and that version seems to have stuck. 

Somewhere along the line things got crazy. I can't say if the deals just got better, if the media just gave it more attention or if it was because the stores themselves manipulated the sales hours to create more urgency. Maybe people just became more primitive, who knows?  What I do know is that around the mid-2000's Black Friday shopping became a sometimes violent contact sport. How does the thought of saving some money cause people to absolutely lose their minds?

A few examples:

Tallahassee, FL - 2 people shot over a parking space

San Antonio, TX - a guy punches someone to get into the front of the line so another guy   with a permit to carry a concealed weapon pulls his gun

Holland Township, MI - 2 shoplifters pulled a gun on the clerk who spotted them

Kentwood, MI - gang fight at a mall leads to pepper spray being used 

Covington, WA - apparently intoxicated 71 yr old runs down 2 people in a parking lot

Every state - robberies of people in parking lots and countless fights that haven't been widely reported by the media

And the TOTAL IDIOT of the year award goes to a man in Springfield, MA who left his girlfriend's 2 yr old child in the car while he shopped for a TV. The child was spotted and police broke into the car and had him sent to the hospital as a precaution. Meanwhile the guy was tracked down AT HOME! He said he lost the boy while shopping, panicked and called someone else for a ride. Notice he called someone for a ride; he did not call the police, or someone to help him find the child, not even the child's mother who was at work. Just what the hell did he plan on telling her when she got home?!!!

At least this year, at least as far as I can tell, no one has died. No employees or shoppers were trampled to death like the guy in Long Island, NY in 2008. No pregnant women have miscarried such as the one who was in the same crowd. No fathers shot each other to death, in front of their kids, like happened in Palm Desert, CA on that very same day.

Now, I am not Catholic. I am not really of any organized religion, but to me Black Friday seems to embody most of the 7 deadly sins: greed, envy, gluttony, and wrath for sure, probably a little lust and pride are also in the mix. If you think about it sloth fits in there too. Because if you do your research and take the time to really look, deals can be found all year long without putting your safety at risk.

I hope your shopping was problem free and you got all the deals you wanted.