HAPPY THANKSGIVING

And a Happy Thanksgiving it was indeed. It is true; Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday full friends, family, and great food. We were invited to my Aunt’s and Uncle’s home in Moorepark to celebrate the holiday and just hang out with the family. My parents and youngest sister were coming down and were going to spend a night at our apartment in Culver City. We were a little anxious about the whole trip, but with God’s grace, and a little planning, everything went well. So it was around 9 pm when the eating was over and the conversations started to die out – probably due to tryptophan overdose (relax, it’s the amino acid found in turkey assumed to be the reason for “post-thanksgiving drowsiness”) that I suggested my plan for the rest of the evening. You see, for the past several years, I have been hiding a secret. I am a Black Friday Warrior (much to the embarrassment of my wife). I can’t ignore the “Thrill of the Hunt” and the chance at finding a ridiculously good deal, even if it requires me to camp outside of a business many hours before the store opens, usually in the bitter cold and sometimes in the rain. Much to my relief, I was met with overwhelming concurrence from my cousins and sister, Cheryl still undecided, and proceeded in laying out the game plan. We began with a quick recon trip. While simultaneously driving around the city and checking the previous days Black Friday ads, we rated each store on the quality of its goods, the quantity of its goods, and the likelihood of getting our desired goodies based on the length of the line already forming outside the door. The time was 9:30 pm. We made our selection – Best Buy in Thousand Oaks. We had inside information on the layout of the store, compliments of Alex’s friend who is an employee, and it happened to be the place where most of us found something we wanted. 30 minutes later, we were on our way back with blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, hot chocolate/water, snacks…etc.

We set up camp and prepared for the long haul. Everything was going well until about 2 am. The temperature had dropped to the low 40’s and we were getting cold, really cold.

We devised a plan to conserve our warmth, make a spoon train.

In the end, I was victorious. A $900 dollar laptop for about $650 dollars! I got the last ticket at 3:30 am and at 5 am, when the doors flew open, I just waltzed right in to claim my prize. That’s working smart, not hard. This laptop is going to last me good and long - dual core, 250 GB HD, 2GB RAM, webcam, and Vista. Let us see what challanges await me next year...