The blackest Friday there ever was.

I wasn't planning on going out shopping for Black Friday. I don't think I've ever experienced it. Thanks to a tip from my cousin Megan after Thanksgiving dinner, I knew that Borders had the collectible LEGO minifigures near the checkout. I really wanted to get them before they sold out, because I've been wanting those minifigures for a long time and I have not been able to find them anywhere. Most the sites on the internet that sell them give you them randomly so you don't have any idea what you're getting, and in some cases limit the number of them you can order to 5 or something. Since there are 16 in each series, that's ridiculous. Anyway, I knew my sister really wanted to go shopping on Black Friday because she's also never experienced it and loves shopping. We talked about it half-jokingly at first and then somehow it became a real plan where my cousin Patrick and his girlfriend and my sister and I were going shopping at 1 AM. I figured not going out on Black Friday is kind of like staying inside during the apocalypse or during a zombie outbreak. It's probably the smartest thing to do, but you're missing out on a unique experience. I wanted to have that experience at least once.

So we printed out a list of the special opening times for the stores in the mall, and I printed out the barcode "cheat sheets" for the collectible minifigures, and we were on our way. First stop was Toys "Я" Us. We didn't have any problem on the drive there or with getting a parking space. We walked up to the entrance and noticed yellow caution tape that we could tell used to hold a line of people, but had long before been trampled over. I was using the apocalypse scenario as a metaphor, but at that point the look of the entrance of Toys "Я" Us looked kind of post-apocalyptic. Immediately upon entering the store, I felt extremely judgmental as I witnessed all of the people in the crowded store, before realizing that I was one of those people. Still, we seemed to have a different mindset than everyone else, almost like we were just witnessing the events of the night. I realized the worst thing about Black Friday is probably waiting in line for the checkout, because I'm serious when I say that the checkout line wrapped completely around the interior of the store, and that is a huge store. There wasn't anything any of us really wanted, at least not enough to wait in that leviathan of a line. As we were walking empty handed back to the car, I declared that some aspects of Black Friday seemed underwhelming, and other aspects seemed overwhelming. The rest of my fellowship agreed and we journeyed to Carousel Mall.

It was pretty strange to be in the mall in the middle of the night. I've talked with friends before about how it might be fun to be locked in the mall over night or something, but this wasn't anything like that would be. It was actually not too far off from being like any normal day at the mall because there were people everywhere, and except for the lack of sunlight coming through the skylights, there didn't seem to be any evidence of it actually being night time. We went to various stores throughout the night, going to each one we wanted to go to just after it opened to avoid having to wait in lines outside the stores. Since there wasn't any specific items or deals we were going for in the stores, it didn't matter if other people got to them first. Everything was surprisingly casual. Like I said, it just seemed like any other day at the mall. I didn't witness any fights, and no one was even pushy or rude. Is Black Friday not nearly as intense as the media makes it out to be, or do I somehow live in a place surrounded by some kind of enlightened beings that only consume in peace? We actually witnessed a few stores opening, and there weren't lines outside them! The employees just opened up the gate things at the entrances, and customers very casually walked in one at a time at the pace of rainwater dripping off leaves after a storm. The only stores that seemed to have lines and heightened security were the electronics stores. Most of the stores didn't even have very long checkout lines.

Most of what I bought wasn't even for sale, so it kind of was like a regular mall trip to me, just at night. I got some new long sleeve t-shirts that were for sale, a Darth Vader sweater that wasn't for sale, and of course...

Collectible LEGO minifigures. When we got into borders, which was our last stop in the mall, I went straight up to the checkout to check out the LEGO figures. A young woman at the cash register asked me if I was ready to checkout and I told her "No," and that I was looking at the LEGO figures. All they had were Series 2 out of the 3 series available, but that was much better than nothing.


Patrick noticed another box of them a little ways away from the checkout so I went over there to avoid feeling weird about the young ladies at the registers watching me match the barcodes on the packages to the barcodes on my "cheat sheet". I was making a pile of the figures I wanted next to the box, and a couple in their 20's walked up and the woman picked up one of the figures I had already selected. I said "Oh, those are ones I already picked out for myself." and she set it down and apologized. I told her that she didn't have to apologize because I'm just a crazy person, and then I made an offer where if they wanted any specific figures, I could find them for them with the "cheat sheet." They immediately walked away, clearly weirded out by me and my weird display of weirdness. It was really kind of difficult to match up the barcodes, but after a while I was successful in finding all the figures I wanted. After hanging out and looking at stuff in Borders for a while, we decided to make our way back home.

I can say for certain, now that I've held it in my hand, that the tiny minifigure trophy the karate guy figure is holding is the cutest LEGO piece I have ever seen.