Shop 'til you drop (literally)

In the past 3 years, my aunt, Ruth, and I have enjoyed Black Friday shopping. This year we took it to a new level.

At 10:30pm Thanksgiving night, we were standing here:

One of the outside shopping malls is open from midnight until 3am. To entice people, they give away 1,000 $25 gift cards. The first person in line arrived at 3pm to wait for their gift card. To Ruth and I, $25 was worth getting there at 10:30pm. As we waited, however, we hoped that we were within the first 1,000. We knew it would be close. The line wrapped around one entire building and then snaked through a courtyard and started wrapping around another building.

They had lots of vendors selling warm drinks and food. They had a radio station there with contests and loud music. At one point the line in front of us disintegrated for an unknown reason and Ruth and I moved up quite a bit.

Here is us standing in the line. At this point, the place where they are giving the gift cards out is feet behind us. We were a long way from the beginning. We were thankful for the building that blocked the wind, our warm boots, and the crowds that generated warmth.

Midnight came and went. The line hardly moved. We saw people walking by with their gift cards. By 12:30am we were now getting cold and losing hope. Then, we turned a corner and there was the guy handing out our voucher for the free gift card and knew we did it! At that point, the past 2 hours were completely worth the wait. Although, we cut it very close; we were in the late 900s.

Ruth and I shopped until 2:55am. It was a blast. They had some great sales, but it was more of just the atmosphere and thrill of shopping while the rest of the world is sleeping.

From there, we went to I-HOP to get sustenance and plan the rest of the morning. I was dying after breakfast, and slept while we waited for Macy's to open. We then went from store to store and dropped at 8:30am.

It took me a while to recover from our evening out, but it was worth it because of the sales, the fun, and the hanging with my friend.

I can't wait 'til next year!