Who you calling Black?

Today is not for half-steppers.

I had my first Black Friday experience today. Unfortunately, I was a miserable failure at it.

My sister, Kinra, planned to head to the Birch Run Outlet mall at midnight to catch all of the savings. I told her I'd head with her, and then travel to Detroit to stop by Target and Kohl's as well.

I was not at all prepared for the mayhem that would ensue over the next few hours though. The day started off fine. I came to Flint to have Thanksgiving dinner, visited some friends, saw my granny, played with the kids. By the time I started getting sleepy, around 10 p.m., I knew I was in trouble: my sis wanted to leave in like 30 minutes for the outlet. I made some calls and watched some TV until we were ready to go.

Then my phone died. And my charger was in Detroit. Not a good look.

We pick up my sis' friend and head to the outlets. Thankfully, there was a line on the expressway exit that took us 30 minutes to get through. So I took a nap. We pulled up to the stores and jumped out running. First stop, Banana Republic. I skimmed the racks like a pro, trying on skirts and dresses in the middle of the showroom. The entire store was 40% off. So the $160 I spent could have been a lot more. Score one for Talia.

Meanwhile, my sis headed to Nike and some other stores to get stuff for my nieces. I looked around a few stores and met back up with them. We headed to Polo, Columbia, Carters and a bunch of other spots. At Columbia, I waited in line in 20 degree cold to get into the store, only to find that the one thing I wanted to get - they were out of.

We finally leave the outlets and drop my sis' friend off around 3 a.m. Kinra and I hit the road and head to Kohl's near Detroit, which was opening at 4 a.m.

We roll into the parking lot at 4 on the dot and there's a horde of people pulsing at the door. The doors swing open and the stampede begins. We see people running from their cars. By the time we park and head to the store at 4:10 a.m., people are already leaving the store with coffee makers, cool touch griddle pans and portable

We were sorely unprepared. We wander around the store for a moment while the line to the registers continues to grow. I get lost. and since I have no phone, I wander trying to find my sister. We finally connect and get in line. We stayed there for about 40 minutes as the registers inched people out of the store. By this time, I'm slowly withering.

We buy our things and my sister heads to Meijers. I ask what the purpose is.
"Just to look."
Cool. I'll stay in the car. BAD MISTAKE. If you're doing Black Friday, suck it up and do it. Because once you start sleeping, you won't wake up. My sister ended up going to Meijers, Toys R Us, K-Mart and Target. I ended up reclining the passenger seat and catching some serious Z's with the car engine running. IT kinda made me mad because I wanted to go to Target, but it was our last stop. So by then, I'd been asleep for at least an hour. And there was no way I was getting out of the warm car to walk in the cold air and stand in an aggrevating line for hours.

My sister did though. Se ended up in Target for 2 hours trying to get a Wii. She waited and when she was almost to the counter, found out they'd sold out. One person was at the counter, another (who wasn't getting a system) was in front of her, and then it was her. So she was pissed.

She came to the car at 8:20 a.m. She drove straight to work. I dropped her off and headed home. I plugged my phone up and fell in the bed.

In retrospect, I think it was worth it. We got some fantastic deals and as I sit here at 6:48 p.m. on Black Friday, I have nothing else to buy for my nieces and got some great clothes for myself. I also got gifts for my friend's kids out of the way. So now, it's just immediate family I have to worry about. I probably would have not run to as many stores (maybe just the outlets and Target), but I think that I will definitely do it again.

And here are a few tips I'll likely employ in the future:
1. Wear comfortable shoes that are easy to slip on and off (especially if you're trying on footwear. I wore kneehigh flat boots. Comfy, but hard to get on and off in a pinch).
2. Wear thin, tight clothing. This comes in handy when you need to try clothes on but the line to the dressing room is parallelled only by the line to check out. Thankfully, I had on skinny jeans and a white longsleeve tee (I shed my big sweater in the first store) so I slipped in and out of skirts and dresses and never saw the inside of a dressing room.
3. Take a nap. Seriously. You'll need it. I didn't nap, but I also figured we'd turn in way before we did. By our second destination, I was a wreck: irritable and not alert to all of the deals I could have gotten. Not productive at all.
4. Eat well. Shopping is a high fuel activitiy. Make sure you leave time inbetween destinations to grab some food. And keep drinks and coffee/tea on hand. It's cold outside and walking makes you thirsty.
5. Have a partner. At the bigger stores - or the ones with better deals - have one team member stand in line while the other shops (quickly). Exchange places. Continue the tag team until you make it to the front of the line. It'll make things go by quicker and you'll get so much more accomplished.
6. Have a gameplan. BUY THE PAPER ON THANKSGIVING. And actually look at the sales papers. Know what you want to get from what store. If possible, go to the store the day before Thanksgiving to familiarize yourself with the layout if necessary. This is not the time for leisurly shopping. Try it and you'll end up standing in line for hours.
7. Charge your cell phone. My phone died and it made it horrible to try to shop. I had to stay with my sister or wherever I was instead of being free to roam and look. Black Friday is not the day you want to loose your party, or find out a friend was already in line while you were looking for them and now you have to get in line all over again. It's just not cute.
8. Be in it to win it. There's to be no half-stepping on Black Friday. Once you start, suck it up and finish it. You'll be happy you did when you make it home and realize you have nothing else to do for Christmas but wrap your bounty and sip eggnog.

Talk about thankful

I got to come home for the first time in almost a year this week as I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family.

I got into Detroit on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Flint the next morning with my sister and her kids. We filled up on my mom's cooking (ham, yams, greens, stuffing, fried turkey and black eyed peas) and promised we'd have dessert (peach cobbler, pinapple upside down cake, cream cheese pound cake) later.

Afterward, I went to go visit my grandmother and took some peach cobbler to her. We talked for a while - during which time i realized she is getting old. She's refusing to go to the cardiologist they referred her to (it's too far, she says), and her hearing is beginning to go. She's in her early 90s, I believe, so she's still super functioning to be so old. But it was kind of hard to see her starting to wither a bit. I made a mental note to call her more and visit her whenever I can. In fact, I'm coming back to Flint on Saturday, so I'll visit her then as well.

I came home and called my boy Karrington, from high school and he dropped by for a cool minute. We chatted for a bit and then he said he'd be back before I headed out to brave the Black Friday sales in a few hours. In the meantime, I played with the kids, took pics and watched the American Music Awards on my mom's DVR.

As I watched Rihanna and Neo perform, I glanced at the end table and saw the picture I'd taken with my high school senior prom date. (My senior prom photo, right, sans my date.)

"That was a cute dress," I thought to myself. "It's still in there. I wonder if I can fit it?"

It was sort of a challenge to myself. I'd tried the dress on at least 2 other times: freshman year of college and senior year of college. Each time, I could barely get it on my body, let alone closed. Still, I hadn't been able to bring myself to give it away. And everyone had been saying lately that I'd lost a lot of weight (yesterday, my sister saw me in my underwear and said my stomach looked "crackish" because I'm thin. I sighed.), which I can't see, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I had nothing to lose after all.

I went into my room, which my mom has now converted into an office (there isn't even a bed in there anymore!) and pulled the dress down from its hanger. My sister was on the computer and called me crazy for trying to put the dress on. I just laughed and slid the beaded number over my head.

I stopped laughing when it went on without struggling. I looked at her and smiled. "Can you try to zip it?"

"You out your damn mind," she said, fumbling with the zipper. Then, it happened. I looked up and this dress - the one I'd bought a size too small (a 4) in 2001 because it was the only one of the dress left - was on my body. The straps dug into my back a little. And the chest could be adjusted. But, overall, it it didn't look bad. My face lit up and I screamed "I CAN FIT MY PROM DRESS!"

My sister looked at me, shook her head and turned back to the computer. I ran into the dining room to show my mom. She laughed. I grabbed my phone and called Julian. He laughed. I sent out a mass text to at least 5 different people. A few laughed. Nothing was funny. This was a milestone.

I put the dress - along with my dress from senior ball at Hampton - into a garment bag and put them on top of the rest of my stuff to take back with me.