I'm not buying it

Thanksgiving is over for this year and we have all suffered and even struggled through Black Friday, the Christmas decorations are coming out and most likely already in their respective places.

I always say that I'm not going to participate in Black Friday, not going to do it, you aren't going to catch me in a store! No way, no how, don't even ask because it ain't gonna happen. Then every year Cindy tricks me into going somewhere that involves a Black Friday sale...Yes folks she did it again this year.

She is getting pretty good at this, last year I once again thought we were going to Walgreens to pick up prescriptions and the next thing I knew I was standing in a line so long that you couldn't even see the registers holding an arm full of stuff that I didn't know we needed...but "Jimmy just look at these prices!" Hell I was still wondering how I got there.

This year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Cindy and her dad were going through the grocery store ads, talking about things that we needed, you know things like food, milk, Cindy's Shasta cola, because now she does have a full 12 pack of damaged cans and it is time to restock.

After lunch every day Ray takes a nap, and after all the grocery store talk Cindy says to me. Hey Jimmy, I need to pick up a few things at the store, you want to ride along with me?...innocent enough of a question don't you think.

Next thing I know, we are pulling into the crowded parking lot of a store with Black Friday Sale proudly posted on the doors, I only need to go inside "just for a minute", Cindy explains. Because evidently she has a 10 dollar coupon that expires at 1pm and we just can't let a coupon go to waste.

The plan was to find a 10 dollar item, check out with the coupon before it expires, and be on our way. She even went so far as to tell me. It's not like I'm buying it, I'll be using my coupon so really it'll be like I'm getting it free. "It" would be the unknown 10 dollar item that she was going to find. I can now see that "It" was the coupon, and the coupon was this year's ploy to get me inside a Black Friday sale, and I again fell for it... yes it happened "again".

We didn't get a shopping cart when we first came in because "I'm only getting one thing" One thing turned into two sets of bedsheets, a new pillow, a pair of pajamas, and several other items that I honestly don't remember what she added to the armload of stuff that I didn't know we needed.

Cindy tells me. Just look at these prices Jimmy! You can't find bedsheets for this price. I reply but Cindy we have bedsheets, it's not like we need them! She shoves a partially opened package towards me and proudly states. I say we need them and I like them, just feel how soft these are. I agree they are soft. I mistakenly say. She lays the package on top of my ever increasing armload of stuff that I didn't even know we needed, and adds a second one. I just have to get two at this price!

The next thing I knew I was standing in a line so long that you couldn't even see the registers, still holding an arm full of stuff that I didn't know we needed. We really should have gotten a shopping cart Cindy! It's too bad that you didn't find a ten dollar item over in jewelry so we could have only gone there and left. I say to her, and just like that she walks away.

I have an idea! Cindy says as she is looking through a line of watches marked "Prices lowered, Today only" she holds one up. What do you think of this one? It's nice I say, and she turns and plops it down on the counter. Will that be all? The clerk asks Cindy. to which she points to me and replies, My husband has all of that stuff, can you check that out too? Sure thing the clerk tells her.

Cindy says to me, For nineteen bucks, you are getting a watch for Christmas and you don't even have to stand in that line. Remember to give her your coupon I say.

So for about one hundred and thirty bucks we supposedly saved two hundred and two dollars, Cindy used her coupon, I'm getting a watch for Christmas. Cindy told me. Now remember, you never saw this watch before, OK, and we never made it to a grocery store...I'm thinking that actually going to the grocery store was never part of the plan.