Black, Black Friday

I was reminded today of the best Black Friday we ever had, and by best, I mean worst.  Our oldest Steven was as few months old, and we were staying at my parent’s house.  We’d had a good, not sick, Thanksgiving and had gone to bed with the intention of getting up about 4:30 to go Black Friday shopping at Target.  Side note, I think this is the first and last time I ever went Black Friday shopping early in the morning.

At about 2:00 in the morning I woke to throw up and then at 3:00 and then at 4:00.  All logic would dictate that I would not leave at 4:30 in the morning to go shopping, but we went anyway.  The crowds were not great, but the worst part was feeling that at any moment I was going to throw up into a crowd of a zillion people.  Fortunately I didn’t. 

We went back to my parent’s house and decided that the best place to be sick was at our own home.  By this time, Cassanda was starting to feel unwell also.  We started to drive home, which turned out to be the longest, most uncomfortable hour long drive we had ever taken.  I remember “running” into the grocery store, really shuffling, to grab some things to help us feel better, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to survive it.

After we got home we immediately slept for several hours, Steven kindly didn’t fuss at all.  We had some friends come over and offer to take Steven for the night, and we were so sick we didn’t even care, keep in mind that we had never had our child away from us over night before this.  I guess that when you are so sick and feel like you’re going to die, things just don’t seem to matter so much.

Needless to say we survived, but I can tell you that every Black Friday we have had since this one 10 years ago has been far and away better.  Sometimes we need to experience bad times to really appreciate just how great the good or even the mundane times can be.