Post-Thanksgiving Bliss

[hsapiens]

Oy. Shopping today was insane. I hope the local news programs asked those insane people who spent the night outside Best Buy what in the world it was that they hoped to purchase. We pulled into the parking lot of our local Best Buy at 5 a.m., the magic opening hour, and realized there had to be more than 1,000 people waiting in a line that stretched across the strip center parking lot and down a couple of blocks before disappearing into the dark beyond. Holy shit.

Being the shopping wimps that we are, Joe and I promptly abandoned all hope and opted for breakfast instead. :) Obviously, gift shopping was the motivator, but I also wanted another external hard drive. I take a lot of pictures and it has come to my attention that I'm running out of space on my existing external HD. Best Buy had some good deals and good selection of things on my various lists, but not anything to wait outside all night for. But maybe I'm missing a gene and this behavior makes sense to others.

I'd already found alternative sources for everything on our lists from Best Buy ("minimum 10 per store has," in my experience, has meant, "we'll sell 10 at this price and restock after the sale is over") so I wasn't unduly phased. Target and Radio Shack filled in nicely. Unbeknownst to me, Joe was shopping today for a Play Station 2 for himself. Obviously he wanted one as he waded into the quagmire of people at Target buying 19" LCD TVs. We may have been the only people in the store without at least one in our cart. I felt like may I, too, needed a 19" LCD television. Weird psychology but I'm blaming it on lack of sleep.

Nothing like a system being obsolete to bring the price of a Play Station 2 down to something almost reasonable. He has, since then, played Grand Turismo non-stop. Me? I have the new hard drive plugged in to my ancient computer's USB (so ancient it doesn't have USB 2.0*; the card I installed to upgrade never took despite our futzing) so transferring two years' worth of photos looks to be a really, really long process.)

While waiting in line to pay at 6:45 a.m., my phone rings. Must be Mom. I was greeted with, "I want you to know that waiting in line is part of the gift." I heart my Mom. She was - surprise! - at Best Buy. No line down in Corpus to get in but the line to get out? Two feet forward in 45 minutes. My mom loves us. :)

Got lots of gifts today - yay!. Still have lots to go *whimper* and I'm reminded of why I shifted to online shopping. Amazon is my friend. Land's End is my friend. Deep Discount DVD is my friend.

I extorted gift lists out of all five nephews in attendance at T-giving dinner. You know what they all want? Best Buy Cards**. Thank god I can get those at the grocery store when I check out. Makes my wrapping duties manageable, too.

I see I owe lots of people comments, which I shall get to as soon as I can. Tomorrow I'm making a pilgrimage to Fort Worth with my long-time friend Amy to gaze upon the Hatshepsut exhibit. I expect to find, upon my return Sunday evening, that Joe has melded with the Captain Kirk chair in our living room from having spent endless hours playing with his PS2.

* Perhaps I've answered my own question? Maybe those people outside Best Buy need a new computer, too, but they're just more determined than I?
**Okay, one wrote, "CASH $$$" large enough to fill the page. But then he wrote a tiny, "Thank you!" next to it. ♥

Comments

[elfcat255.livejournal.com]

you brave soul...all the names we have for christmas are getting gift cards...that or I'll by it on amazon(it is my friend too)...have fun at the exibit!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I'm not certain that "brave" is the adjective you're looking for -- batshit insane I think is more appropriate. *grin* I've since retreated to sanity and am ordering up gifts.

The exhibit was interesting but the real impresser was the Kimbell. Interesting architecture (from the inside, at least) and a stunning permanent collection.

[shadownyc.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you and Joe were able to get the things that you wanted/needed.

You should earn a courage badge for being so dedicated as to try to getting into Best Buy when they first opened. LOL

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I was thinking we should earn a free psych exam. ;-) Several years ago I promised myself to only shop online. I'd just forgotten why that was. I've been reminded.

I hope that you had an excellent Thanksgiving.

[tubin.livejournal.com]

So yeah, I can't imagine getting up before 5 to go shopping any day. And doesn't Best Buy have an online store? (Checks) Yup, http://www.bestbuy.com/
seems to be offering a T'giving weekend sale...

Gift cards... was thinking about whether I should wimp out and do gift cards for the nephews this year. Don't like the fact that it advertises how much I spent on them; do like the fact that it makes it clear that all is equal. I'd like the idea of taking them shopping at Best Buy or something, but I won't be there this year. So am dithering...

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

You were assuming that I "got up" to go shopping. *grins* Seriously? I could never do that. Rather I stayed up because once it got to 11 p.m., I knew I was hosed if I wanted to take advantage of the specials.

Best Buy is online but those special deals, the ones I'm guessing people slept outside for, weren't available online. They're all about whipping people into a shark-like feeding frenzy AND corraling them into your store.

I'm undecided on gift cards. Part of what used to be fun for me in gift shopping was trying to get the very best item I could for whatever my budget was. "Very best" might be an incredible deal but most often it was about getting someone something they dearly wanted. With nephews across the age spectrum, it might mean older ones got a slightly pricier gift but everyone got something that made him happy. It was never about the money to me so much as the happiness the gift gave.

So, yeah, just chunking a piece of plastic at them takes a lot of the fun *for me* out of gifts -- but it also relieves a lot of the stress of finding "gems" on a deadline to mail packages. I won't be facing Target on Christmas Eve to buy a Nintendo game because I finally got the last kid's wishlist. That's a Good Thing(tm).

So, yeah, I'm similarly ambivalent.

[tubin.livejournal.com]

As a curmudgeon: if a kid waits until Christmas Eve to send me a wishlist, he or she doesn't get something from the wishlist for Christmas. I'm a little ambivalent about wishlists in the first place but the late delivery suggests the kid wasn't that motivated to get those particular gifts from me.

Unless, of course, it was a parent's fault or something, I suppose.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

It was very much a parental problem. The kid was 6 at the time and the youngest of five nephews who would be at Christmas. Not having a gift for him was not acceptable to me -- and I didn't deem it acceptable to just get him something to wrap when I'd worked hard to get others stuff they really wanted.

I was complicit in my gift shopping misery because I preferred to get him something he really wanted over ease of shopping for me -- and I've changed my behavior since then. Thus, my T-giving antics to get lists. I really would have hated getting anyone a Barbie doll that he didn't want, but I would have done so to make a point. The kids are between 10 and 16 now so I would not cut the same slack as before and I have no qualms about extorting lists.

I've always relied on lists. I don't see the nephews often enough to know their interests. With little kids, I like having the parent filter so that I don't accidentally buy a verboten item. With teens, I have no hope of knowing what's in or cool. So long as everyone knows this isn't a demands list, it's good. That's something Joe's sisters have been very good about teaching their kids.

[ml-spikie.livejournal.com]

Oy, I was at work. You would not catch me in that madness no matter what the prices. The radio station I listen to on the way to work was having a call in earlier in the week for people who work in retail and what time they had to be at work. One woman had to be in at 4:30AM, but also said that last year, she got in the middle of two women who were fighting over something - they knocked her over and her tibia got chipped. She won the radio contest. Can you imagine? That's exactly the kind of thing that would happen to me. Nope, worked all day in a nice quiet office. None of the crazy co-workers to bother me. The lazy one worked *coughs* half a day on Wed - and did absolutely nothing. Grrr. Anyway, I prefer to do as much shopping online as possible!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Geez! There's something wrong with losing sight of the purpose of the season. That's seriously outside of peace and love and thinking of others first, yanno? I hope the radio contest was a good prize.

And yes, I've reminded myself why it is that I originally decided to do all of my shopping online. Of course, last night the warm slippers I ordered for one gift arrived. Not black as I ordered, but black forest, which at Land's End is this green-y teal that my stepdad will hate. So even online ordering is not without pitfalls. :(

[moondropz.livejournal.com]

Oh you have my sympathy on this. My sister and I did this madness yesterday too. Only insert the store Staples in place of! There were cop cars patroling so that we all played nice. And they didn't open the doors for another 20 munutes when we arrived. Oh yeah, people had slept outside the building in sleeping bags too. Can we say Idiots? No way! We got what we wanted but that was beyond insane. We also waited for an hour to pay a whopping 11 bucks for the 2 items we wanted. *Snorts* And why was I up at the crack or pre-dawn for again? LOL. Ahhh, g/c's are truly wonderous aren't they?
*Hugs to you for surviving it*!!!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Man, I hope that $11 represents a HUGE savings on something really cool to have braved the insanity. I've been reminded now why I promised myself to buy only items I could find online. I guess with giving so many gift cards this year, it'll be up to me to be creative in wrapping so that all the boxes are different sizes and weights, making the boys wonder if I really did give them the Barbie dolls I threatened promised them if they didn't give me a written list on T-giving. :)

[tubin.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you give me an inspiration based on a longstanding family tradition.

For years, we've enjoyed packing gifts in a box other than the box it came in. One famous example is when Dad packed the albums my brother dearly wanted inside a box for a toilet seat. The look on his face when he opened the gift was priceless....

Would be delightfully evil to pack nephew gifts inside barbie boxes. hm, I wonder which if my friends will be giving her kids barbies for Xmas?

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

A toilet seat box?!? That's...evil. I love it. :)

As a kid, anticipating what could be in the wrapped packages was quite possibly more exciting than the packages themselves. I try to make it difficult or impossible to guess what's in a package but I hadn't ever thought to extend the deception to the box itself.

[moondropz.livejournal.com]

Heee, yes it does! The one item was 60 dollars-on sale for 7-and the other was 30 dollars on sale for 2.98! But the lines, ughhh.
Ohhh online buying is another fun past time for me-no waiting in the long lines. LMAO! But hey, Barbies are cool-bet they will freak if you find a Barbie box for the g/c! The horror-lololol! And we do the same thing-find large/small boxes from the previous year from whatever-and freak everyone out. One year I got something and I thought it was fake-and I actually got what was on the picture of the box. *Snorts* That'll teach me I guess!
*Hugs*!!!