I am probably at my worst social responsibility-wise on Black Friday. Growing up, my parents and I stayed in and decorated for Christmas on Black Friday, or what I used to call simply the Day after Thanksgiving. Then, I started dating Nate. In order to prove my mettle to his bargain hunting family, I had to get up at 3 am to line up at Best Buy 7 years ago. I held my own, holding the line to check out while the rest of the family scrounged up the best bargains. 7 years later, I find myself in the line at Shopko, taking the lead on pulling coveted items off the shelves and politely telling 13-year-old girls to go to the back of the line (and yes, I really was polite).
This Black Friday was a milestone for me because it's the first (of many, I'm sure) hunting for the best deals for my son's Christmas presents.
However, my shopping spree gives me nothing to blog about. In fact, I'm so consumerist that I'm ashamed to blog about the experience at all. I didn't even bother to bring our reusable bags!!
The dark side of my shopping hit me when I opened my new, much needed memory foam contour pillow to find a warning that I should air out the pillow for 48 hours because it's a petroleum-based product with natural chemical odors. What was I thinking? I can't sleep on this for the next 5 years! (Which is how long I've been sleeping on my old pillow, thus the permanent crick in my neck.) But oh, I laid my head on my new pillow and it is sooo comfortable!
I'll be doing some further research to decide if I need to give up my own bargain in lieu of something more eco friendly (and that I feel good about breathing in every night) or if I can keep it because it's not as bad as the warning suggests.
Between that and the pound of tissue paper and cardboard Nate pulled out of his 7 new work shirts, I'm feeling the post-Black Friday shame.
