Black Friday

1:00 AM We wake up and start getting showered and dressed.

2:45 AM Arrive at Best Buy. Discover that a couple of hundred other people are already there. Many have sleeping bags and apparently have been waiting since the day before.

3:30 AM LP and JR leave to get breakfast while JP and I save our place in line. Suddenly, there is a stampede. Uncertain as to why everyone is running, we run as well, hoping to keep our relative place in line. For unknown reasons, the line has changed from single file, to 10 across.

3:45 AM Police cruisers arrive at the scene.

4:30 AM Best Buy employees try in vain to get the line to return to single file. Late arriving individuals start to glom onto the side of the line. Some succeed, some fail.

5:00 AM The doors open and store employees begin to admit customers in chunks. Once in, we are able to find everything we want, with the exception of the laptop JP and LP hoped to get. Checkout goes smoothly.

5:30 AM JP and I head for Kohl's while the guys go to Circuit City. JP gets a great deal on some luggage.

6:15 AM JR comes back to Kohl's to pick us up. LP has stayed in line at Circuit City.

6:30 AM JP and I have stopped in Staples and joined the guys at Circuit City. They are closer to the front of the line, but there is still quite a wait. The temperature is approximately 90 degrees. JP and I fish through the bins of $4 movies to pass the time.

7:30 AM (and on) The guys check out and we head to Target. After a quick stop, we head back to the apartment to unload the car and refresh ourselves.

We head downtown to shop in the Loop. After lunch, we stop at the Daley Plaza to see the Chriskindlmart, which features booths with handmade crafts and tasty treats.

We finally make our way back to the apartment, where we collapse. After napping, we wake up long enough to eat leftovers and watch Elf.