The craziest night of our lives

Happy Black Friday!! Allison takes black friday/thursday seriously. When she saw that Old Navy was giving away an undisclosed amount of free digital cameras, she was determined to get her hands on one. We don't need a new camera, but who can pass up a free camera? After spending all day wednesday planning out her walgreens transactions, she spent a good amount of time yesterday planning out our midnight extravaganza. It went down like this.

We were fortunate enough to have awesome friends who offered to take Louie for the night (yeah, ALL NIGHT!!!), so that allowed some serious deal work between the two of us. I dropped Alli off at Old Navy around 4:30 p.m.--the mall wouldn't open until 12:00 a.m.--to guarantee her a first spot in line (no one else would join her line until 8). Then, I dropped Louie off at her babysitters, went back to check on Alli, played some monopoly deal, and left for Walmart. I got to Walmart around 7--their deals started at 10--and was surprised to see about 100 people already bunched around the games. Luckily, most of them were surrounding the XBox games. I was the 5th person to the PS3 games. By the way there were no lines, it was more of a free-for-all bunch surrounding a pallet full of games.

I have never been so bunched up around so many people in my life! A thousand people, no, a million people filled the area around the pallets and the numbers continued to grow. Around 9 the police arrived to supervise. A lady walked over with a crock pot and coffee makers saying that someone had gone crazy and ripped open the pallet an hour before it was supposed to be opened. The woman speaking was complaining that she had thrown several crock pots in her cart only to have people grab them out. It was absolute chaos.

I've heard stories of people who died in walmart. I never believed it until 9:52 when a roar erupted and the wave of excitement slammed our pallet in the face. It started to the right of me. Someone couldn't wait any longer and ripped open their pallet. As soon as that pallet was exposed everyone in the whole place erupted. Faster than I could even think, I was on the ground, ripping off the wrapping, reaching for the two games I wanted. I may have elbowed a few people out of the way, and yes, I did grab the entire pallet and pull it towards me. I have never been so grateful for my small stature. I grabbed my games (from the floor) and squirmed my way out and directly to the registers. I was the second one to the registers. As I checked out I looked back and saw a giant mass of bodies crawling over bodies, punching and shoving, heard yelling, screaming, and witnessed lots of cameras rolling.

I made my way back to Allison. When I got there the line was probably 100 deep. I got a few jeers for cutting in line, but I didn't care. I had just won a war at Walmart. I let Allison sit in the car for a bit to warm up while I saved her place in line. When she came back I took our sleeping bag and blankies back to the car. The line was now around the building--I have no idea where, or if, it ended. At 11:59 The security guard came to open the door, but he wanted to be sure to open his door right at 12. He stood looking at his watch while we all braced ourselves in excitement. I looked back and saw another mall entrance had been opened. Our door stood still. Finally, the door was unlocked, and my Junior Hight track and field skills were tested. Allison had waited 8 hours for this free camera, we had to win it. I was the first to the Old Navy store.

They gave us wristbands. They told us that if we took it off it was void. The first 56 people with a wristband to make a $40 purchase would get the camera. I grabbed three shirts without thinking, Alli grabbed a few onesies, and I got in line. It was already huge. Allison went back to get more Louie clothes--since we each had wristbands we decided to try for two cameras--and in the rush ripped her wristband. She met me back in line, asked about her ripped wristband and was told that she was out of luck. She was pretty upset. But I reassured her that one camera was enough. We checked out. Got our camera and left the mall. We were out of there by 12:45.

On our way home we got a text from our babysitters. Louie Wasn't sleeping. Should we lie and tell then we'd be out for a while more or should we tell them we were on our way home to get her? We told them we were still at the mall. We slept well last night. At 8 this morning we picked up Louie.

Was it worth it? We've already started planning for next year. And, by the way, anyone want a camera for $40?