Black Friday Convert

First of all, all I knew was that it was a day after Thanksgiving. I knew that it was a day when all that people would think of is to shop. But I never thought that it was really huge. Actually, I felt that it was quite a chore to do it, because it was a day after one of the biggest celebrations of the year. Other than stuffing yourself with turkey, delicious ham, pumpkin pie and everything that was on the table, it was a day to be with family and friends. So, I'd like to think that, pretty much, Thanksgiving is a good day, but it is tiring. Therefore the following day should be a day of rest.

Secondly, the term Black Friday was quite confusing for me. Being raised a Catholic, I was quite aware of the Good Friday and Black Saturday. But Black Friday?

So now I have to look at wikipedia to find the origin of the name for a day that was supposed to be a huge shopping day. I gathered that the term Black Friday came about because of the tremendous number of people going to the stores and malls, things become quite chaotic and extremely stressful. Traffic becomes terrible, you cannot find a parking space, escalators are filled with people going up and down, lines to the cashiers seem endless and the stores are just too crowded with bodies. Busy bodies, at that, who wish to grab the best bargain deals of the day.

Actually, I had a different shopping scheme for several years. My Christmas shopping started in September. When the stores were not crowded. When I could take my sweet time choosing the right gifts for the right people. When I did not feel rushed by the thought that there would be a mile-long queue of people wanting to pay for their stuff.

By October I was happily done and avoided stores, lest I would feel upset in discovering that what I bought earlier was being sold for half the price. But I was fine with it. There was less pressure.

Until last year when a girlfriend invited me to tag along. She picked me up at 5:00 a.m sharp. We moved from one mall to another, trooped from isle to isle, and got mostly what we wanted. By 11:30 in the morning, we were done. When I got home I knew I had a blast.