6 1/2 hours at Wal-Mart

Well, I am now part of the insanity that is Wal-mart on the day after Thanksgiving. About midnight Michelle and I decided it would be fun to just go scope out the crowds. Wal-mart was having a laptop computer for only $378 and Lee and I needed a new one for when we start our adjusting work. So we figured we might as well try! So we wondered around wal-mart for awhile because we were clearly the first people there. We put way more things in our basket than we intended too from the beginning. Then we saw a pallet full of laptops go by. Michelle immediately ran after the man. He put them down in the aisle right by the front door. Michelle came back and told me that we needed to be up there where they were instead of in the electronics section we were originally told to be in. In the time we were lingering in the electronics section, we managed to become in charge of a 16 year old boy named Edward. His mom was a wal-mart employee and had made him come up and get a computer for her because she was on-duty and could not get it herself. So we made sure Edward was with us and he sat next to us as we put our hands out our laptops. Now I'm betting you are not as crazy as I am and have never done this so let me explain Wal-marts strategy to you. They keep all the important sale items in the back, then roll them out completely shrink wrapped together and put them somewhere randomly around the store. If you want this item, you must stand there with your hand on the item until 5:00am when the associates are allowed to cut the shrink wrap and you can take your item and run. There is a sales associate with the stack of items at all times to make sure you don't cut the wrap yourself and to make sure things stay under control. Our associates name was Wendy and she was incredibly fun and crazy. She was probably in her 60's and started helping us cut the wrap long before it was time. So Michelle and I settled in for what we knew would be a long night. It was about 1 when we started standing with our hands on our computers. Slowly more and more people came and did the same. We got to know the "inner circle" of people very well. We swapped stories and pictures. They were pretty much our best friends. All the while Michelle and I are keeping an eye on Edward. So we stand there and stand there and slowly the time passes. About 4am there is a huge crowd of people around us. The manager came and said he had heard of a disturbance and would take the whole pallet away if they needed to. Wendy told him that there was no need, we were under control. Then we all began to mock the fact that the manager had been misinformed, there clearly was no disturbance. Anyway, there were only 30 computers for about 75 people. And at around 4:15 the manager came and took 4 of the computers away. There was no explanation, just took them away. So now the crowd is getting irate! Then around 4:30am the same manager came and told everyone to move back. He had a police officer with him and one of those things that moves the pallets around the store. He got everyone out of the way and picked up the pallet with all the computers. He then walked all the way around the store and took them back to sporting goods. He put them inside the area that is surrounded by a glass case. While he walked them over there, the crowd of people only got bigger. Michelle later referred to this as the Exodus because there were so many people following this one little pallet. Anyway, the computers are not in this area with the police officer and some poor sales associates that have no idea what is going on...one of whom is pregnant. So those of us that have been there the longest are furious. We beg with the management to please get Wendy because she knows who has been there the longest. At about five minutes til 5 Wendy and the manager show up. Michelle and I are surrounded by white trash at this point. There are girls with huge X's on their hands because they have clearly come from the bars and people missing teeth. It was crazy. So it finally turns 5:00am and they make the announcement that the associates can finally cut the wrap. Since ours was already cut Wendy started handing the computers to people she thought had been there. Now she was a little crazy so she may not have been entirely right. Michelle and I are looking at the manager going TJ, you know we were here. So he tells us to come around to the side of the glass. We do and literally have to push 0ur way through because people will not move to let us get to the counter. Michelle finally gets there first and pays for one computer. Then she holds onto it for dear life and I get mine. As we are walking off we see Edward standing behind all these people. We tell him to push his way to the front and Michelle yells "don't forget Edward" loud enough for Wendy to hear. We have no idea if he got one or not and we feel a little bad about that! Once we are finally out of the crowd we run into my neighbor Niki and decide to shop with her for a little while. We are hugging our computers because if we put them in our carts they will undoubtedly be stolen. As we get to the front of the store we see two policemen and they ask how we managed to get computers...Then they tell us we should take them and leave. Basically we are not safe anymore. So we go check out and go home. I finally got back home and in bed by around 6:30. Then I woke up around 11 and went to Dallas with Molly to get her puppy. On the way home Michelle and I were starting to feel our lack of sleep. Molly had to drive and not hold her precious little Dakota. It was a fun day though! I think next year I will wake up early and just go watch the insanity...I don't think I ever want to be apart of it again!

P.S - The Wal-Mart in Bellmead only got 18 computers and a fight broke out and pepper spray had to be used!! Let's hope Wal-mart comes up with a better strategy next year!

Woo-hoo: To a great first Thanksgiving being married.
Boo: To missing my family while being with Lee's.