The American Mall Experience

I never understood the whole Black Friday wee-hours-of-the-morning shopping rush thing, but now that I have children and we had stuff on our list, I decided to brave the crowds. Was it worth it? No, but maybe it's because I wasn't organized enough. I got up at 4:15 a.m. and was out of the house by 4:45 a.m. I waited in line at Toys R Us for 45 minutes, for things I ended up returning because I found them for a much better deal at the next place. I stopped at a home-improvement store, of all places, to get this floor puzzle alphabet thing but left because I realized there was no way I would get through what I'm sure would have been another 45-minute line in 15 minutes (I was on a timetable, as I had to get back to relieve Mikel so he could go into the office.)

After all the morning madness, I ended up taking the children out to the mall because we needed to get the car's oil changed at the Sears auto center. It was their first American mall experience.