Every Thanksgiving, I look forward to going out on the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday. Of course it’s always crazy crowded and more of a hassle than anything, but it’s tradition. This year, with the looming economical depression, I was expecting retailers to kick it into HIGH GEAR to intrigue, entice, and envelop consumers into spending money at their stores. What I found, however, was severely underwhelming. I expect great deals on this day, and since I’m a sucker for a deal anyway, it’s not too hard to win me over. I bought almost nothing, and that’s saying a lot considering I had set aside a significant amount of money for shopping. The deals just weren’t there–or they didn’t seem to be.
One thing about shopping on Black Friday is I want to be smacked over the head with deals and incredible savings…if I’m not saving like 800000%, I’m uninterested. I also want to be alerted of these deals with signs of every store window, table, sign, and individual item if necessary. I don’t want to have to hunt and peck for deals–that’s uncalled for. I am a cranky person in a hot, crowded mall, and I will kill for a bargain, but I will not search for one.
A few stores did have the traditional lure you in with one or two incredible giveaway prices, but then it seemed like everything else was the regular price…I don’t support that at all. The department stores I’ve gone to this year–usually my favorite–were terrible this year. I don’t know if that’s California or their strategy, but I hated it. Apple, however, had an impressive sale, and they never have sales.
I am going to get some more items tomorrow. Hopefully they won’t be just for me, although I do want another pair of these slippers and a blanket for the couch. My other Christmas present to myself will likely be the Jawbone bluetooth device if I decide I can afford it.
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I’m always one to be festive for the holidays. In fact, when I was a wee child, I used to decorate the house with the Christmas lights on those frigid, windy nights. Then I got lazy, but I’d still decorate the house. And you can’t stop me from buying little holiday nick-nacks for every corner of the homestead. In this respect I admit I am, again, like a senior citizen. I love a lot of the gaudy gramma crap…CAN’T GET ENOUGH!
Posted by davidryancarr 
I am so excited about the holidays, and I’m excited that I’m excited. It’s nice to see that regardless of my location, I am ridiculously festive. I though perhaps this year I wouldn’t be as much in the Christmas spirit because of the lack of snow. Well, I must say my heart does wrench when the news plays images of lake-effect snow and also when I look at the forecast for Ohio on my iPhone, but I think I’ll be OK. If you read my last post, you know that this season is currently beautiful and being able to ride around town on a bike and grab fruit from trees everywhere you look is pretty freaking cool. I mean, it’s fucking awesome, and I love it. It’s not snow, but it’s enough to keep me distracted for now. And, I guess it’s cool that I can go ride a bike in November in a T-shirt and sandals.
For Thanksgiving, I will be going up to the mountains to Vance’s parents’ house. This is cool for a variety of reasons: 1) something to do 2) four-day weekend (read with Oprah’s style) 3) Christmas tree cut fresh from the forest for $10, and for those of you who don’t know (because I didn’t), it doesn’t kill the tree. They just cut it high enough so it keeps growing. You can do that with pine trees. How sustainable! 4) MOST importantly–the potential for snow. I haven’t looked into the possibility of it actually being there, but I do know that it’s getting a lot cooler this next week. And, although Southern California is on fire, NorCal could get some snow in the mountains. That would be lovely. I am vury hopeful of that.
Finally, I can’t wait to go home for Christmas! I am so excited to see everyone. I need to schedule final times into my phone, although I think I have general ideas. Even though my family isn’t buying me presents–which I hate by the way (Hint Hint)–it will be so fun to play for a whole week. I even have some play money budgeted to see all my friends for dinners and drinks, etc. A good time to be had by all.
Posted by davidryancarr 
Actually, I didn’t much this weekend at all. On Saturday I slept it until it was time to go to my 90-minute massage. Then I went to look at puppies and kittens at the pet store while purchasing some kitty yum yums. Of course I needed some groceries since I have been hella poor, so that was next. Then we all stayed in and watched a movie whilest dining on some delicious steaks. Oh Sheridan is always making steaks…the finest steaks you’ve had no doubt. (I’ve been watching the BBC’s Keeping Up Appearances, and I love it. Check it out because it’s like British Mama’s Family with snob appeal. Fantastic!)
On Sunday, I went for a bike ride around the neighbor hood–the commune area more specifically–looking for viable pomegranate trees. You see, there is a high density of publicly available trees (meaning you don’t have to climb into someone’s yard to grab fruit and run), and I think I’ve gone over this before. These public-domain trees provided no more viable poms because they’ve all split open. Pom season is officially over. That is, unless I want to pay $3 at the store. HA! I scouted out other trees, and I got some persimmons while they are still around. I saw lemons, oranges, and HUGE grapefruits that will be ready over the coming months. Nothing is quite ready yet, but I have my eye on this lemon tree. Oh I’m so excited about it. It almost makes up for the fact that there is no snow here. Although the constant beautiful weather helps make up for that, too. I did some Christmas decorations and SLIPPERS!!! YEY! You must always wear slippers here because there is no carpet and the dogs make the floor wet so socks aren’t optimal. These slippers were from Target and they are sooo comfy but half open so you don’t get too hot. I enjoy them thoroughly Finally, I went to the Olive Garden on Sunday by myself because I wanted salad and bread sticks. haha it was yummy.
I am trying to split up my blogging pages, but I can’t seem to create a new post on the page I set up for personal entries. Stay tuned for this, but you should expect more marketing/branding posts in the future.
You may have noticed that a majority of my posts are branding-related these days. Not all of them, of course, but I was thinking about developing a new section for this blog. The branding, marketing, and public relations entries would remain on this page while the personal entries would go on a separate page. I would not be getting a new blog because I don’t want to manage two, but I think it’s a better way to categorize personal and professional entries.