Archive for the year 2010
Are you ready for Christmas?
Posted on December 4, 2010 by Ching under Life.
We are! (P.S. Jay and Becca were pretty impressed with my gift wrapping skills. Or so they said, anyway.)
Here are some before and after photos.
BEFORE
AFTER
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Three Malls and a Day
Posted on November 28, 2010 by Ching under Shopping.
Midnight Magic at Legends (Village West) is probably the craziest idea I’ve ever had. Brian was reluctant at first, but he came around. He even made this map thing for us.
Brian took a nap after Thanksgiving at the Brubakers because he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to stay awake. I didn’t end up napping. Brian was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it the entire morning. I proved him wrong, though. =P
After hitting my favorite outlet stores (I picked up some new work clothes from Ann Taylor LOFT; Brian got several new outfits and a pair of fingerless gloves at Banana Republic; he also got a new reversible belt from Wilsons Leather and some new games from GameStop; some stuff from Levis, etc. etc.), we decided to re-group at IHOP rather than wait in the massive line that had formed outside Target. See, several stores opened at 10 PM on Thursday night. Other stores opened at midnight. However, Target didn’t open until 4 AM. I think everyone else had the same idea because IHOP was pretty busy that morning.
It was almost 5 AM by the time we got around to Target. No more line outside the building at this point. The only evidence of the mob previously there was the enormous amount of trash (empty coffee cups and such) that they left behind. Why can’t people pick up after themselves? Ugh. I would hate to be on clean up duty on Friday morning. Although, I think Target might have alleviated the situation by planning ahead and strategically placing some trash bins where the Black Friday shopping mob would gather. Brian said that it wouldn’t have made a difference. He is of the belief that people are slobs and inherently bad. He thinks that the shopping mob would have left their trash all over the place anyway, whether or not trash bins had been provided for them. Maybe Brian is right and people will litter anyway, but I thought my idea was a good one and worth looking into. (Are you reading this, Target?) I think even if it only cut the trash left along the curb/path in half, it would have been worthwhile.
People were already leaving with their loot as we were entering Target. I think we arrived too late because many of the “door busters” were already gone or almost gone. We picked up a few items and stood in this unbelievably long line that went all around the perimeter of the store. We stood in line for almost an hour amidst the sea of chaos. Even with all of the cash registers open, they could not keep up with the mob of shoppers. In the midst of the confusion, there somehow ended up being two checkout lines even though there was only supposed to be one very, very long one. It was complete and utter mayhem. (The almost 30 minutes that we stood in line at GameStop and the scary-looking line at Forever 21 that we ended up giving up on was nothing compared to seemingly infinite line at Target.)
Brian was totally disappointed that he didn’t get to witness any fist fights. He felt sure that he would witness a couple of people fighting over the last of something that both absolutely have to have. Despite all the craziness, our time in the line that circled the entire store (and then some) was pretty boring and uneventful. After finally reaching the end of the line and checking out, Brian actually verbalized his disappointment as we were walking to our car. No idea why anyone would want to see Black Friday fight break out, but Brian is twisted that way.
The parking lot was still pretty packed when we got outside. There was actually a car with their turn signal on that was patiently waiting for our spot. They’d been waiting at the end of the aisle even before we got in our car. As we pulled out of the parking stall, another car that had just turned into the aisle swooped in and stole the parking spot from the car that had already been waiting. We heard a couple of loud honks behind us as we drove off. “There you go,” I told Brian. “That’s the fight that you’d been waiting for all morning.” LOL.
We didn’t stay to witness the aftermath. Though, I think that might have been quite a sight. It was past 6 AM at this point and we needed to be at Country Club Plaza by 7 AM for Victoria’s Secret and Express. We didn’t stay very long at either place. For one, we were already quite broke at this point. I mostly just wanted to get that tote bag full of goodies at Victoria’s Secret, but ended up spending $100. Usually that’s only a couple of bras, but they were doing the “buy one bra and get another for 50% off” that day. So I got a couple of bras and some matching undies. (Thank you, baby.)
By 8 AM we were pretty pooped. That was almost 10 hours of nonstop shopping, which is probably a record for Brian. LOL. We decided to drive to our hotel and take a chance that they will let us check in early, even though check in technically isn’t until 3 PM. As luck would have it, they let us check in. (Thank you, Marriott. Your beds may not be “heavenly” but your customer service is A++!)
We were very relieved because we really needed to crash. Brian and I got in our room, dropped our overnight bag on the couch, closed the balcony curtains, and by 9 AM were both conked out. We didn’t wake up until 2 PM. Even then, I don’t think we were completely recovered. =P
We had a late lunch at Chick-Fil-A. (We don’t have one in Wichita — well, there’s one at WSU but it doesn’t count because it’s not a REAL one.) Actually, one of the reasons that we chose this particular hotel is its proximity to the fast food joint. LOL. Don’t know what it is about Chick-Fil-A, but Brian and I both like it a lot. We walked off our lunch at Oak Park Mall. Neither of us had ever been there before, so it was a nice adventure for us. I’ll write about Oak Park Mall next time. I’m afraid this blog post is long enough already.
So anyway, there you have it. This is the story of how Brian and I shopped three malls in less than 24 hours. And now we are completely broke. Blech. Remind me not to do that ever again. LOL.
Until next time,
Ching
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Thanksgiving 2010
Posted on November 26, 2010 by Ching under Family.
We had a great Thanksgiving this year at the Brubakers, as always. I’m so looking forward to coming home and eating some leftover banana-chocolate-vanilla pudding!
Here are pictures from Thanksgiving 2009 and also Thanksgiving 2008 if you are in a reminiscing kind of mood. Enjoy!
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Giving RedBox a Shot
Posted on November 26, 2010 by Ching under Games, Movies, Sex.
Though we’d been loyal Netflix customers for over six years now, Brian finally broke down and decided to give RedBox a try. I’d been wanting to try RedBox for a while now, but Brian was completely against the idea. He’s very guarded when it comes to giving companies his credit card information.
Anyway, he wanted to set up a “play date” with Jay the other day and figured he couple pick up Eat Pray Love
After Jay left, Brian continued to play some more. After another couple of hours of it, I got pretty bored so I ended surfing to Brian’s favorite web site. That pretty much put a stop to video-game-playing for the evening. LOL.
All I can say is, this has been a pretty amazing week! 😉
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We Have the Most Awesome Friends
Posted on November 26, 2010 by Ching under Life.
Cory and April gave Brian this journal a couple of weeks ago, just ’cause. That was super nice of them. Brian and I have the most awesome friends in the whole, wide world! Thanks, guys!
P.S. Our families are pretty darn fantastic also. We feel totally blessed and privileged to be surrounded by such wonderful people. We have so much to be thankful for…
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