"What are you going to buy?" asked my dad, wide-eyed after I told him I was planning to wake up at 4 a.m. on Friday. This was a question I had heard several times, mostly because I couldn't really give an answer sufficient enough to make him stop asking - and it didn't seem to register in his brain that my pattern of not being able to answer was not going to change. So I mumbled again, "DVDs and stuff," held my breath and went to sleep. I'd have a long day ahead of me.
And indeed I did. More than seven hours were spent shopping, along with more than a $100 and nearly half a tank of gas.
So what did I have to show for my efforts? Did I grab a great bargain deal on a cashmere sweater or an HDTV or Guitar Hero III? Did I end up with a great story to go along with the huge gash in my arm from attacking the girl who was reaching for the same pair of leather gloves? In fact I didn't. I didn't end up buying a single thing that was on sale that day.
Instead, I blew it all on boots. Boots that weren't on sale. I don't know how it happened, it was all really just a blur. I vaguely remember walking into Nordstrom, seeing if they had any sale items (which they really didn't), being lured toward the huge display of Uggs with a voice in the back of my head whispering, "Do it! It's cold in Baltimore!" Never mind that I was in California at the time, but the comfort of sheepskin in any location was enough to prompt a salesman to ask me if I needed help. Apparently, I did.
Are these on sale?" I asked. "No," said the friendly salesman named Mike. "But we just got a shipment in today - and they're hot. They'll be gone by afternoon."
It was all I could do to resist. If you've never put on a pair of Uggs (genuine ones, by the way, not the knock-off Payless kind that replicates the mere style for who knows what reason), I know what you're thinking: they are the Ugg-liest (ha!) things on Earth. I know because I also thought that for a good long while. And while they just might be (after Crocs), they feel like heaven on your feet and you never want to take them off. So I caved.
"Do you have any in grey?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't regret the decision. "No, but we do have the crochet ones in grey," Mike said, hoping that I would pay now and regret later, after I'd already worn them.
Suddenly I remembered a pair I'd seen online when I was scouring the Internet for Black Friday deals: They were grey, crochet as he mentioned, but with wood buttons on the side and relatively cute (for Ugg Australia standards). I asked if he had them - I didn't see them out on the display. He smiled, asked my shoe size and sprinted away. Literally sprinted. I was impressed.
A moment later he returned with the boots, darting away to another customer before I could say "thank you." No matter - I was in love with them.
It was painful knowing that I would soon be the proud owner of something I'd stood against for so long, but I had an excuse - function over fashion, for once! Cold weather demands warm footwear. So if I was going to face finals in Baltimore, I would need to keep my toes warm, though it worries me quite a bit that my fellow California residents were scrambling to get their own pairs of Uggs too.
I reminded myself of this reassurance as I handed over the money and told my mom I'd bought something that wasn't on sale. But I would have bought them anyway, right? Like Mike the Sprinter (as I have so affectionately named him) said, they're hot. And Baltimore is oh-so-cold.
