Well, perhaps 4 1/2 hours doesn’t qualify as ‘an entire day’, but it was pretty darn great. Originally I had toyed around with the idea of leaving on Wednesday afternoon, but then I remembered that IKEA isn’t open on Thanksgiving. I was going to scrap the idea altogether, but then Lloyd said that he needed to work on his school’s website, so I thought “What the heck?”
The only regret I have is waking up at 3:30 a.m. and being so excited that I couldn’t go back to sleep. I made myself stay in bed until 5, but I should have just gone earlier. I was REALLY tired when I got there. It was all Black Friday mayhem – with cops directing traffic and all. IKEA is right across the street from the Mall of America. (I didn’t go there. I’ve been a couple of times, and I’m sure it would have been madness.)
Anyway, I did the first walk-through with no bag or cart – just looking. I was pretty sleepy by the end, though, and worried that I might be dreaming the whole thing. So I sacked out in the car for half an hour, then drank two cups of coffee in the cafeteria – then on to shopping!!
One of the sorrows of growing older is that I don’t need anything. Plus, my new-found ecological awareness kept whispering “Most of this is crap that will wind up in the ocean” in my ear. Stupid voice. I did want need stuff for school, though, so that was fun to shop for. That was a solid hour and a half of comparison shopping.
I checked out with a very friendly checker who chatted about all the people she had talked to from Canada today. (Canada, for cryin’ out loud!) They weren’t crazy-busy when I was there, since it was later in the the afternoon. I think all the crazed bargain hunters were across the street by then. After taking my things out to the car, I went back for one more leisurely walk-through. *sigh* Better than Christmas.