There must be something missing in my life right now, because for the first time ever I have been heard the siren song of Black Friday.  I’m not going to answer it, of course.  My wise mother taught me: “Never buy anything on sale if you wouldn’t buy it if it WEREN’T on sale.”  Of course sometimes there are exceptions – something that you would have bought had it not been so expensive in general.  Those exceptions are quite rare however.

Al walked in this morning with what appeared to be a Sunday newspaper – on Thursday – and it was simply a pile of ads all tied together.  I sat down and started thumbing through them and I can understand how the seed of greed can be watered by these ads.  Suddenly you think maybe your grown men sons would like to take a trip down memory lane and get a remote control car for Christmas.   Well, of course they would, if I gave it to them, but they certainly don’t have it on their Christmas list to Santa.    Suddenly I think I really should go stock up on t-shirts at Old Navy – they are $4 – c’mon!  Never mind that they would probably disintegrate during the first agitation of the washing machine.   Won’t I need throw pillows for the new house?  5 for $20!  Designer colors!  Don’t delay!  Bust that door down, girl, or you’ll be left behind!

There was one that really sent me over the edge, that had me envisioning sneaking over with my sleeping bag to be  in the front of the line.  It was an ad for an $89.99 Ott Lite with Magnifier for $19.99.  For those of you who are uninitiated, an Ott Lite is a natural light bulb that doesn’t make your pink quilt fabric look green. It brightly shows you where the tiny stitching is that you need to rip out because you accidentally got the batting involved in the seam where it should not have been.  A magnifying glass?  Are you kidding me?  An aging woman’s best friend forever.

So there I was, thinking about how I only live a mile from Joann’s.  How it’s a lousy branch of the store so everyone would probably head over to the superstore 20 minutes away.  How certainly no one would be crazy enough to be there at 6 a.m.  Which right there shows you how very crazy I am.  I thought maybe Al could drive me over, wait for me, and we could scoot home without me having to park.  I am working tomorrow morning, this has to be a coordinated attack.  $19.99!!!!

Fortunately, I came to my senses.  Ott Lites are nice, no question.  However, until I saw that ad I have been surviving quite nicely without one.  So if one should not buy something on sale that one would not buy if it weren’t on sale…it’s a close one, right on the line between usefulness and insanity, a tough call…but the final decision is I’ll be getting up just in time for work tomorrow.