Black & Blue Friday

Click on photo

How did you spend Black Friday? If you were smart you spent the night sleeping off your turkey and vodka hangover. What did my friends and I decide to do? Face down the shopping horde! I’d never done it before so I thought it could be an interesting trip. Well ‘interesting’ is one way to describe it. We got to the Seattle outlet mall and began looking for a parking space… and looking for a parking space and looking for … People were hoarding spaces, blocking access to vehicles. We began to stalk people with the car. We would follow them until they disappeared into the trees separating the parking sections. We began to ask people if they were leaving. At one point Ye (my friend) jumped out of the car and be asking if people were leaving. We lucked out when two girls were taking off, Ye stood watch and blocked other cars from getting the coveted spot. It only took us an hour to find a spot. We walked towards the crowds… against my better judgment. HUMANS! SO MANY HUMANS. We met up with some people I vaguely knew, but still cool. There were 4 and sometimes 5 or 6 in our group, so we were better able to take on the crowds. At the first store one of us began looking for something, and if we were really smart one of us would’ve began waiting in line for the other person while they found what they needed. NOPE we didn’t do that. All 4 of us wondered around looking at outfits with horseys on them. The line literally stretched around the back of the store. I attempted to get a photo of this, but, no such luck. You can’t really see how far back everyone is. We were also attacked by friendly staff at this store.

Friendly attacking staff
 

Moving through the throngs of people we managed to get into a popular jean store. At this point it was around 2 am and still busy. Ye decided to find a pair of jeans, but the line for the dressing room… was almost out the front door. Well we are 4 creative smart women… with large jackets and the store has many places to uhm… hide yourself away while you take your pants off. Well we did that next to the display window. There’s a space there people can’t see into very well, but they did see me holding up a jacket awkwardly in front of  another girl doing the same across from me. Nothing like making eye contact with strangers while someone is without pants in front of you. The staff at this store really needed at least a room temperature I.Q. Unfortunately I believe we got the one person who did not posses this when it came time for us to pay.

Some of us dealt with the
crowds in our own way.

For the first time ever I went into a panty store with a group of girls. Entertainment at it's best! We picked up panties and looked at designs and styles. As I held a pair up I happened to look out to see a guy staring at me through the window. Nope that wasn't awkward ... at all. Then the lady at the counter wanted us to drag our MALE friend in for a discount. Now I'm a pretty brave person, no fear and all that, but I WILL NOT drag a guy I just met (I mean like an hour before) into a panty store for a discount!

On another note, the next day he went into a frilly skin care shop and let me chase him around with and eyeliner pen, so I don't think it would've been so bad, but nonetheless.

Getting out was a lot easier than getting in. I was grateful I didn’t need my machete or even a baseball bat, but kind of disappointed too. I did come to the conclusion that if there's too many people around you, just listen to In This Moment's song Blood... it'll make you feel better in a crowd of people, and if you start singing it loud enough, it will also thin out the people within about a 10 foot radius.

So after a productive day of being good and not buying everything in site (and trust me there was a pair of black lace up boots I wanted SO friggin' bad, thank you again Ye, for suggesting "No") we retired home to a the kitchen floor and ate some peanut butter ice cream pie. Made everything worth it. Oh that and the company, they were the best!