Thanksgiving and the Famous and Dreadful… Black Friday

Thanksgiving:

The great and mighty Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the entire year! I love the food, family, and whole meaning behind this holiday; it greatly inspires me to be a better person. OH… I forgot to tell you one of my other favorite things, and that is………… SLEEP!! Ahh… of course, I get to sleep in on this awesome holiday!! So as all my other previous  Thanksgivings, I sleep and sleep and sleep, until I can’t sleep anymore or until I am forced to wake up, as Audrey bounces on the bed, rocking me back and forth to wake up, or screaming “Get UP Kelli I want you to play with me!!!”This year however, I have finally trained Audrey, not to wake me on the days I don’t have school, but instead to play in another room or play very quietly in our room, otherwise I might become a scary, loud, and mean monster. This Thanksgiving, she had followed her instructions and didn’t wake or disturb my sleep; I woke up around 11:oo a.m. and it felt great!! As many of our Thanksgivings in our family, my extended family (Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins from my mom’s side) will all go over to Mimi’s (Grandma’s ) house to celebrate and give thanks for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving dinner was at beginning at 4:00 p.m. Clara and I finally made our way to Mimi’s house around 4:20-4:30 p.m. Immediately we dug into the delicious food; the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes(my favorite), green bean casserole(my other favorite food), rolls, cranberry salad, rolls, and corn. Then our newest cousin, came to Mimi’s and of course all the girls wanted to hold the sweet, tiny little newborn. After I had my chance to hold her, I of course looked through the Avon books of which my Aunt sells and made my list of items I wanted for my Christmas. After about an hour had gone by since I had been there I received a text from Amanda, my manager at Bath and Body Works, asking if I could work from midnight to 8 a.m. for Black Friday instead of 1 p.m. to closing, at 9:30 p.m. the following day!!!!!!!! My first thought was, “You’ve got to be kidding me!!! I don’t want to make my Thanksgiving shorter than it already is!! That would mean I would have to stay up all night and wouldn’t be able to enjoy my sleep, which I knew I would get, also, I would have to go home earlier, and I wouldn’t be able to do a little of Black Friday shopping myself!” But without hesitation, I told her that I would love to work at that time instead. After two short hours of being at Mimi’s and being able to spend a little bit of time with my family, I left at 6:30 to go home and sleep a little bit before I had to go to work at midnight, the time that the mall would open at and that customers would be flying in dodging for assistance of checking them out at the counter.

The famous and dreadful… Black Friday:

I woke up from my nap around 10:30 p.m. packed up my things for gymnastics, ate a little bit of food we had and left for work. I had been expecting crazy drivers and traffic when I got to Telegraph Rd. expecting it to be backed up to the light where it meets Stewart Rd. However, to my surprise the traffic was bad at all, it was actually lighter than usual. I quickly ran into Meijer for a snack to share with my co-workers and a drink for myself, and one of my favorite movies, a Disney and Pixar film, Cars 2; it hadn’t been too busy inside the store, nor was it hard to get a good parking spot near the doors. After grabbing my things, I went to Wal-Mart to see if they had the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love I had been waning because I was told it was really good by my cousin, Leslie. I pulled in and the first aisle I turned into, I found an extremely great parking spot and grabbed at the first chance I had. I walked in, to see my eyes widen at the sight of the caution tape up for directing the lines for check-out, and customers all over, invading the store, I strolled back to the electronics, looked for my movie, all to find nothing. On my way back to my car I found myself pushing through the long lines trying to get to the ‘Exit’ doors and back to my car, the safest place, much safer than the store anyways, of which felt like a wild zoo, with hungry animals running around, looking for their desired food. As I pulled out of my parking spot, to drive back onto Telegraph Rd. I saw cars ALL over: on the grass, the curb, the Applebee’s parking lot, and in the way of coming in and out of which I hadn’t realized was so bad when I had pulled in. I finally got to work, where the parking lot wasn’t full of chaos and confusion, but the line in front of Bath and Body Works was already starting to get long. I got into the store, put on my Christmas Red Bath and Body Works apron on, took some Tylenol® and got ready to deal with crazy customers who were brave enough to actually come out and shop on the famous and dreadful… Black Friday!

Only an hour had gone by and it had seemed as if I had been checking people out for three hours because I had checked so many people out; the lines were long and ridiculous but I just kept on going: focusing on each customer, one-at-a-time as I checked them out, trying to be as fast, efficient, and pleasant as possible. Finally after eight hours of checking people out, 8:00 a.m. finally rolled around, and my shift was done and I was going home to sleep, just in time for me to go to gymnastics at 1:00 p.m. that after-noon. I got home, found everyone still asleep, and went to bed myself. I woke up at 12:20 p.m. and then went to gymnastics, which I had been dragging from working on the famous and dreadful… Black Friday on that VERY early morning before.