BLACK FRIDAY
Saturday, November 29th, 2008I went over to Michael’s house for Thanksgiving, and to watch the Titans game, since I wasn’t going to my Mom’s until Friday. After we ate lunch we decided to take a ride in my truck past the Best Buy around 2:00 p.m. to see if any people were getting in line yet. The Best Buy near my apartment had about twenty people in line, most wanting the laptops, which is what we were both looking for. I want a laptop for the move, my desktop is junkie and a laptop would be much more feasible. Michael was getting a laptop for his girlfriend’s father.
We decided to get our gear (jackets, chairs, heater, portable dvd player) and haul ass over to the Best Buy in Franklin to get in line so we could get our laptops. We got there just before 3:00 p.m. and were numbers fourteen and fifteen (of a guarenteed fifteen) in line for the laptops. Thankfully (maybe) there was a lady who was power-trippin’ from her crossing guard job that was trying to organize a list and order of who was buying what. We threw our names down on the list, made a list of our own, had everyone in front of us sign it and that was pretty much a guarentee that we were getting our laptops. So we pulled out our chairs and sat down at the end of line and began the wait for 5 a.m. when the store opened.
We played a forty minute game of War (the card game), in which I lost. I felt like I made a valiant effort to stay alive even though I wasn’t dealt any aces. After that game we didn’t touch the deck of cards again until the kid of the crossing guard lady who was in the tent right next to us showed us a magic trick. The magic trick was good, I couldn’t figure it out and he could consistently show me my card. Good magic, uncool kid. He was alright until he wouldn’t leave me alone.
For the next three hours me and Michael sat at the end of the line with no one showing up behind us other than two young kids who eventually left after about an hour or so. Around 6:00 p.m. more people started to show up. First was a black girl, named O’nassi (sp?), followed by two sisters, Renna and Danya, and then a guy in a Titans hoodie and a St. Louis Cardinals fan. After them no one showed until 8:00 p.m. then gradually the line started to increase and wrap around the building.
Me and Michael killed the rest of the night by ordering pizza, throwing a football 2x, watching The Forty Year Old Virgin (until the battery died about 2/3 of the way through), and talking to O’nassi, Renna, and Danya. O’nassi brought up some interesting random topics (transgender youtube videos… wtf) and named dropped like nobody’s business. Renna and her sister Danya, who was like thirteen, were cool. They called their other sister and who brought them a football (for us), and a soccer ball for them. So while me and Michael tossed the football around with Titans Hoodiey Guy, Renna and Danya kicked a soccer ball back and forth.
I feel like I need to stop the blog right here and dedicate the next paragraph to Renna. She was awesome. She had a personality and didn’t seem to take offense to the majority of the inappropriate things I said. She was very good looking too. There was something different about her though, she had a kind of hotness to her that is very different from other good looking girls. Her style and personality just gave off a kind of respectable sexiness that other girls lack. To me there is a difference between being hot and being sexy. Spending those twelve hours with her made me regret, just for a minute, that I was moving to Alaska. I don’t know if I’ll ever talk to her again, but she sure did make an impression on me. I’m going to try and myspace/facebook stalk her down sometime. ***EDIT*** I found her last night on facebook. It’s spelled Rena, not Renna. I didn’t send a friend request, cause that would really be stalkerish.
Around 3:00 a.m. employees started showing up and we were growing tired of heckling Cory, Renna’s friend who showed up at 1:00 a.m. to keep her company. He was a cool enough guy and we had fun giving him a hard time. Then when they started handing out vouchers for the big ticket items is when it became every man for himself. People in the very front of the line were taking vouchers for every kind of laptop and accessory they were giving out. There was a group of three Asains up front whose final combined total was around $25,000.
I got my voucher, went in the store and stood at the register until it was 5:00 a.m. At 5:00 on the dot, I signed my reciept and headed out the door into the parking lot where about 300 more people were waiting to get into the store. They had let all the laptop people with vouchers in first, niice! So I was the FIRST person out the door and I had gotten what I wanted. It had only taken me fourteen hours. Michael sooned followed and then we were back on our way home to sleep in the rest of the day.
Of course, I had to get up and go to my Mom’s for Thanksgiving so I only got to sleep for about six hours. Also, some religious people with t-shirts that said “What’s Up Facebook” came by to interview us. They said we could watch our interview here, but the crazy crossing guard lady took offense to something and may have convinced them not to post our video. As of this blog, our video is not up yet. Here’s a few pics of the night.
Pockets before we left for Best Buy.
The line at Best Buy when we got there at 3:00 p.m.
Our position in line.
Michael setting up the propane heater.
My truck all alone in the parking lot.
People relaxing in line.
Yes we ordered pizza.
Double thumbs up for heat.
Watching a movie.
