My Black Friday Experience…

Yes, Black Friday. Yummy! Nothing like freezing weather for a camp out. To be honest with you, it was a lot of fun. I made a remarkable memory. Here’s the deal: I arrived at Circuit City at 4:30 PM on Thanksgiving Day. Yeah, I’m not kidding! I took a two man tent and put it right in front of the door. If you have a small ceramic type blower heater I’d take that too. It was a lifesaver.

Pillows, blankets, the whole nine. Wear layers, gloves, etc. Don’t forget the earmuffs. If you have a laptop and DVD’s … that’s the bomb. Take several DVD’s. It’s a long night. Take chap stick, maybe something for a headache or whatever. I needed some allergy pills because I had not used my little heater in a year, so it was blowing some dust out. Just think through what you usually struggle with, e.g. headaches, allergies, etc and be prepared.

Take a 100 foot extension cord and power strip and you’ll be golden. You can plug your heater and laptop up. You may want an adapter just in case someone beats you to the plug outlet. Be careful not to plug too many things in because if you trip the breaker you won’t be able to reset it and everyone will be out of power. Bummer. They typically have an outlet somewhere around the front or side of the store. That’s why you need a 100′ cord.

And, btw, they don’t mind you using their electricity. I went back the following Sunday to pay for the electricity I used on Thursday/Friday and they said they didn’t care because they were grateful that we would line up outside their store. It was money to them for us to be there.

Take some camping chairs as well.

The employees will come around, say about 3 or 4 AM, and ask you which vouchers you want: a voucher for a laptop, video camera, TV, etc. They will only have a certain number of them, e.g. 50. They’ll pass them out to the first fifty in line or the first fifty people who want one. At that point it doesn’t matter if you stay in line or not because no one can get a laptop w/o that piece of paper (voucher).

At some point before they open the store, around 5AM, you can pack your stuff up and put it in your car and then get back in your place in line.

Oh yeah, one of you can go get some pizza, around 10 PM. Just check ahead of time to make sure the pizza place is open. I’d also take a thermos or two of hot chocolate/coffee and some sodas in a cooler.

Yep, toilet paper may be a plus. Depending on the store you’re camping at, there may be some local establishments open where you can go potty. If not…you’ll figure out the rest.

The tent, btw, will keep the wind off you, because if it is windy the wind will cut around the side of the building and cut you in half. The tent, w/a heater in it will be your best friend.

As for which store? Go to BFADS (Black Friday Ads). Determine what you want ahead of time. Friday morning is not the time to figure that out. Also, don’t plan anything on Friday. It took me two days to fully recover, just in time to worship God in the church meeting on Sunday.

Enjoy!!

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Challenges are landing fast and furious on Capitol Hill. So Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, feels he has to arrive at the top of his game every day. And Ryan says he has found a way to do that: He meditates for at least 45 minutes before leaving home.

Ryan, 35, sits on a floor cushion, closes his eyes, focuses on his breath and tries to detach from any thoughts, just observing them like clouds moving across the sky — a practice he learned at a retreat. “I find it makes me a better listener, and my concentration is sharper. I get less distracted when I’m reading,” he says. “It’s like you see through the clutter of life and can penetrate to what’s really going on.”

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It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Read the entire Proclamation Here

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I am unable to believe in God. Most of the other atheists I know seem to feel freed or proud of their unbelief, as if they’ve cleverly refused to be sold snake oil. But over the years, I’ve come to feel I’m missing out. My friends and relatives who rely on God — the real believers, not just the churchgoers — have an expansiveness of spirit.

When they walk along a stream, they don’t just see water falling over rocks; the sight fills them with ecstasy. They see a realm of hope beyond this world. I just see a babbling brook. I don’t get the message.

My husband, who was reared in a devout Catholic family and served as an altar boy, is also firmly grounded on this earth. He doesn’t even have the desire to believe. So other than baptizing our son to reassure our families, we’ve skated over the issue of faith.

I assumed we had stranded our 4-year-old son Luke in the same spiritually arid place we’d found ourselves in.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luke steeple his fingers and bow his head for a split second. Surprised, I said, ”Sweetheart, what are you doing?” He wouldn’t tell me, but a few minutes later, he did it again. I said, ”You don’t have to tell me, but if you want to, I’m listening.” Finally he confessed, ”I was saying a little prayer for Daddy.”

”That’s wonderful, Luke,” I murmured, abashed that we, or our modern world, somehow made him embarrassed to pray for his father in his own home.

It was as if that mustard seed of faith had found its way into our son and now he was revealing that he could move mountains. Not in a church or as we gazed at the stars, but while we channel-surfed. I was envious of him. Luke wasn’t rattled, because he believed that God would bring his father home safely. I was the only one stranded.

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