Black Friday

I tried to get Martin to blog, but no such luck. So I will have to tell this story.

On Thanksgiving day Martin announces that he is very interested in this "Black Friday" thing and wants to go see for himself what it is all about. He spends much of Thursday combing through the newspaper ads, drawing up shopping lists and noting stores and their opening times. I think he's kidding. He's not.

Friday morning he is out of bed and kissing me goodbye and all I know is it's dark outside. I have only one eye open. He's nuts. Before I know it, it's daylight and he's climbing back into bed and I think "oh, he decided not to go." I couldn't have been more wrong. Here's what he did and some video to prove it.

3:00 AM gets up, gets dressed and is out of the house by 3:30. First stop J.C. Penney's. He has a list: pots and pans sets for the business, on sale for $19.95, down from $59.95; a projector for the computer $60, down from $179; digital photo frames $9.99, down from something he doesn't remember. The projector appears to be sold out. He encounters a crazed female shopper who comes up where he is standing looking for the projector. He tells her they are sold out. She says that can't be and calls a manager to go look in the back. She also says that since she was first in the store, she has dibs on the first one the manager finds in the back. But she acknowledges that he was in line first for the projector, so if there is more than one, he gets second (interesting rationale, that!) Fortunately, the manager shows up with the last two projectors. Martin goes back to the pots and pans and witnesses a woman finding a ladder, climbing the ladder up to the top and reaching to dangerous heights in order to retrieve a $12.99 crockpot. What idiot left that ladder where crazed shoppers could get it? Martin says he thinks she would have climbed those shelves ladder or not. He only gets two of the kitchen sets because he simply can't carry any more.

Second stop: Walmart. It's 10 minutes until 5 in the morning and still dark out. Driving down Fallbrook Ave., he sees the giant glow in the distance - MECCA! What he finds there is incredible. You'll have to see the videos below. In the end, he doesn't even bother to go in. Especially since it turns out they are only letting people in 10 at a time with several minutes in between groups. It could take all day to get in!

Third stop: Best Buy. The crowds in the store are so thick, that like cattle in a herd, you simple must go whichever way the crowd is moving or risk being trampled. It's a mob scene. He gets a Wii and tries to get into line to pay. The line snakes to the back of the store. A security person takes pity on him and just puts him in line.

By 6:30 he's back home with a trunk full of stuff. He didn't make it to Kohl's because that wasn't opening until 9 AM.

In the end he reports that the anxiety is thick in the air and very contagious. I don't know if he'll be trying it again next year. As for me, I have never stepped into a store on the biggest shopping day of the year and never intend to.

Friday night we went with the Hansons and others from the old ward to see Cirque Du Soleil's Kooza! It was loads of fun. A good ending to Black Friday.

Cruising the High CEs

Kaiser decided to organize a cruise for one of the Nurse Practitioner Educational Symposia. I signed up for it along with a few of my friends of work. It was a cruise to Cabo San Lucas and it was for 5 days. Never having been on a cruise before, I was not at all sure what to expect. We left San Diego on Thursday, the 12th of November on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas. Friday was a "sail" day and thus a day spent in classes, Saturday was spent at port in Mexico, then Sunday we sailed back, docking in San Diego Monday morning.



Our Stateroom - very small for 4 grown women, one bed came down out of the ceiling, and another (the one I slept on) was a fold out arm chair.



This display welcomed us in the Windjammer, where we had our lunch.



San Diego skyline as we set sail.





First dinner on board: Me, Velda, Li-Chym and Judy



Formal Night



Velda and I only "partook" of some of the entertainment one night - it was wild, and very funny, but I won't even try and explain it. A photo is worth a thousand words (and yes, those are passengers):



Rounding "Land's End" as we sail around the point into the Bay. Note our escort.



After a bit of shopping, Velda and I spent most of the day relaxing on the beach and being pestered by vendors.












Our attendant was a whiz at "towel folding" One night he left a swan, and one night, a towel monkey:



In the end I would say that the food was just okay - not bad, not memorable - and there was (unfortunately) too much of it. If you like hanging around a fancy hotel or hanging out in Vegas, this is your kind of vacation. I've had more luxury without being constantly nickle and dimed for stuff (paid $27 for "unlimited" soda pop, still cheaper than $2.25 plus tip per drink). Still I might consider a cruise again if it was to Alaska. And I did enjoy feeling the sway of the ship, and sitting in the solarium watching the ocean, seeing flying fish and a whale blow (from a distance.) And I enjoyed my massage in the spa! Mostly I enjoyed spending time with my friends. The CE classes were just okay, but it's hard to complain about CEs you earn while practically on vacation!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I definitely have the best birthday date: November 1st - All Saints Day, and the day after Halloween (which is really All's Hallowed Eve!) I had to work that day, but it was only call, meaning I get to stay home and get paged all day by the various skilled nursing facilities when any of our patients gets sick (or sicker) or when labs come in, or whatever. I don't actually see patients, just order whatever labs or tests I think necessary, or medications, or treatments, or sometimes send patients back to the hospital. This Sunday was pretty busy, but by 5:00 pm it was over and the fun began. Chelsea made dinner for me: chili dogs (that's what I asked for, good Fall fun food), onion rings from Hungrygirl.com, grilled corn on the cob, and salad (provided by Liz Shelley). For dessert Chelsea made delicious low calorie pumpkin caramel pudding cupcakes (also Hungrygirl). Delicious!

In addition to Chelsea, Trenton, Natalie and Martin, our friends Brian and Liz Shelley and their adorable little boy Porter came to celebrate with us. I had an opportunity to iChat with Nick, Jamie and Andrew earlier in the day and got to play video peek-a-boo with Andrew. Skyler & Sarah called later that evening as did the Dubrows. Lots of love!

I was also spoiled rotten with amazing gifts - the kids bought me this (don't be jealous):


I don't actually have it yet, but it will be mine by the end of the month!

And Martin gave me this:



This is a Tiffany necklace I wanted to match a bracelet I already have. Actually, there is a funny story about the bracelet:

When Chelsea and I went to NY 4 or 5 years ago, we went street shopping down on Canal street. I was looking at some little sterling silver bracelets one of the shops had. The woman says to me "I have something you like better" and brought out this really pretty thick mesh sterling silver bracelet.


It was $25.00. I loved it and bought it immediately and wore it quite a lot. Then about a year later, I happened to see a Tiffany's display, and there was that bracelet!

Of course my bracelet isn't really a Tiffany's, it is just a knock off. But since I'm not much of a shopper, nor a fashion plate, I didn't know that the one I bought was supposed to be a knock off and I never bothered to try and read the tiny little hallmark on the inside. I just thought I got a really pretty bracelet for not much money.

About two years ago, I asked Martin for a Tiffany's mesh ring, similar to the bracelet although not exactly.


He bought it for me for an anniversary gift. I guess he got the idea to buy me more Tiffany's stuff so last Christmas he bought me . . . the same mesh bracelet only this time the real thing! But he didn't know he had done it until he saw me wearing my original bracelet to a Christmas party before he had managed to give me my gift. He said "where did you get that?" I told him I had it for a few years and that I had worn it often and where had he been? LOL! It's no wonder he thought I would like it since he had seen me wearing it so often. Anyway, I told him that since I already had the bracelet, he could trade it in on the necklace sometime. And that's what he did.

Now I'm tempted to buy earrings to match - I see a pair on eBay - but is it weird to buy them for myself? I suppose I could wait for Christmas . . .

Anyway you look at it, I'm a lucky woman.