Where You WON'T Find Me on Black Friday...

Today is Black Friday. It is a day when the masses flood the retail stores to snag great deals on holiday merchandise. A day for merriment and joy. A day for glee.

But you won’t find me joyfully shopping, and here are the reasons why:

* It interferes with my dedicated plans for laziness:
I know there are plenty of families who love to round-out a weekend of eating and napping with a high-energy tour of the malls (it’s like retail exercise), but I don’t come from a family like that. Instead, I have grown up in a culture that believes that the four-day holiday break is good for one thing: doing nothing. We sleep in. We nap. We watch movies. We leisurely eat a mountain of leftovers. I just can’t break from tradition. My family needs me.



* I’m a holiday-shopping-procrastinator:
In other words, I’m not prepared for Black Friday. Yes, I’ve typed up and emailed my Christmas list to everyone, but I’m nowhere near determining my lists for others (I may have just confessed to a series character flaw here....). So though I suppose I could go out to the stores, I would just wander the jam-packed aisles with no purpose.

And with no purpose we all know what happens--I end up buying an armload of absolutely adorable gifts....for me.


* Finally, it’s absolutely crazy out there!
I’m not telling you something you don’t already know. The one and only time I’ve ever ventured out on Black Friday I reached the parking lot before dawn only to realize that there were no parking spaces left.
Who are these CRAZY PEOPLE that get up that early and camp out in front of retail stores?!!!

Please...please...if you are one of them, tell me what I’m missing. Is it the deals? The adrenaline rush? The thrill of the sale? The smell of blood in the air?

Because I’m dying to know. I just don’t get it.


So today, when the sun rises, you’ll know just where to find me: in bed, sleeping.

Merry Black Friday. Now leave me alone--I’m trying to rest.

Tales of Black Friday

Well...my holiday week didn't exactly go as planned.  All excited to work up some "embellishing" projects, and some DIY jewelry, plus my favorite pastime of musing on the handmade economy....I fear that the stomach flu (the day before Thanksgiving!  What timing!) and travel (we're headed up to the snowy Rockies) interfered with my plans.  So instead of creating and writing, I've been hunkered down in bed.

Such is life.   In any event, on this Black Friday, I thought I would venture a quick post, starting with a story.  The story begins last year, on the morning of said Black holiday (sounds kind of morbid, if you think about it).  Up until then, I was a Black Friday virgin, having never ventured into the stores on the King of all Shopping Days.  But there was a sale on flat screen tvs at Target, and my husband really wanted one for Christmas, so I thought--what the heck?--how busy can it be?  I'll just throw on some clothes, head out, and make it back in time to get ready for work (yes--I had to work.  It was a bummer.)  

Oh little naive one.  Against my husband's warnings of crowded streets and stores, I zoomed over to Target.  I was totally unprepared for what I saw.  I mean--I knew it was the biggest shopping day of the year, but I Had No Idea.  Of course there was not a single place to park.  People had obviously been camped out for days.  And there were even lines of cars strolling ever so slowly through the lot, hoping against hope that someone was actually leaving (good luck!).  I took one look and just kept on driving--back home, that is.  So much for starting a new tradition.  

Anyway, I share this story in case a) you, too, are a Black Friday virgin and think that maybe you'd like to try out all the fun.  Don't.  It's so not worth it, and b) to once again encourage a much easier and more sustainable way to shop for your holiday gifts--by purchasing them from local or online craftsman and women, or by buying used instead of new (and perhaps following through on some of that embellishing that I still haven't gotten to!).  

Needless to say, I can tell you where I'm Not going today--to the stores.  But I might just spend some time browsing on Etsy, or planning my homemade holiday gifts.  

And maybe finally eat some of that Turkey I've been too sick to enjoy! 

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday!