Friday, November 28, 2008

The Hunt Takes a Twist

Thanksgiving came and went. I went to bed around 10:30pm so I could grab 6 hours of sleep before beginning my yearly quest. To my surprise, Sharkey was not in bed when my eyes opened at 4:30am. She came walking into the bedroom and asked me when I was leaving. This is monumental as I have always gone on the hunt on my own. Sharkey usually stays behind in our warm bed. We went to Target around 4:45am to stand in line for the 6am store opening. After combing through the ads, the only thing I really wanted to score was Guitar Hero World Tour for the Nintendo Wii. Sharkey and I play Guitar Hero III quite often and we were looking forward to getting a new set of songs to rock out. So there we were in line. It was about 37 degrees and there was a slight breeze. The first 30 min were OK, but the last 30 minutes were a bit uncomfortable. And mind you we had our parkas on w/ gloves and ear muffs.

JP SHARKEY 5AM

The doors opened at 6:00am and we went fast walking in with the masses. By the time the doors opened, there were about 600 people in line. We shop at Target quite often for the essentials so we know the layout of the store. We went back to the video games to find an empty shelf of Guitar Hero games. They had plenty of XBox 360, but none for Wii. I pulled a red shirt guy aside and asked him if he had anymore, because Sharkey and I were like 50th in line and lots of the people in front of us were there for the cheap LCD TV, so I thought maybe they didn't put the games in the right place. The red shirt scanned the barcode and said he had more in the back and he'd come back to the aisle with them. GREAT, way to stock door busting items Target!!! By this time, Target had about 4 people per square foot in the store. I waited by the aisle as told and answered other people's questions about the Wii game and that the red shirt was bringing more out. The red shirt came back and got within 5 feet of where I was and he was mobbed. People were rushing up to him, taking the games right out of the trolley cart he had. He was yelling at people to stop, but the mob ruled. One of the guys who I answered a question for earlier saw I did not get one and he did, so he gave me his to be fair, which was totally cool of him. The hunt was complete! A lady next to me then said she had wanted one for a child and that's when Sharkey came walking up. Sharkey asked her if it was a gift for her child and she said yes. So Sharkey looked at me, and I looked at her and nodded. I gave the woman the Guitar Hero game. The season after all is about God's love, redemption, and reconciliation, so if we could show just a bit of that love to someone else it was worth it. So we left empty handed, but we felt we did the right thing. Besides, like I said before, the thrill of the hunt is always better than the end. JP out...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just to clarify . . . I was not wearing a skirt. Also, JP WAS wearing pants.

Character Builder said...

I didn't think Sharkey was wearing a skirt--I assumed it was just a long coat. Didn't even notice you weren't wearing any pants!

That was very good of you guys to do that, and nice of the other guy to give it to you guys in the first place. Hopefully, she appreciated you doing that.

Anonymous said...

I just hope that guy that gave you the game was not around when you passed it on to the lady. After seeing the crazy shopping deaths in the headlines... I just picture the guy roughing her up (taking the game) when you guys turned your back.

Bogart said...

Two quick things...

1. Clearly, you went to art school
2. You officially have wipped of anything you might have done this year to get coal in your stocking...

Kranki said...

Ok, seriously! Your drawings re just getting better and better.

Anonymous said...

I'd be more upset about your hair Sharkey than I would about the skirt.

Your drawerings (ala Mike Meyers in his Simon skits from SNL) always crack me up. I especially like the sliding glass door ones ;-)

JP said...

sharkey truth be told, she was wearing a dress and I was not wearing pants!!!

cb in hindsight we should've asked the woman how old her child was. I mean her child could be a 27 year old living in the basement...

judepa I wouldn't doubt it. It was crazy that day, but at least we left unscathed.

bogart I went to that mail order art school where you draw the pirate and send it in to enroll...

kranki Thanks! I try to mix things up w/ the "drawrings"

Q yes I know. My bodily harm gives you the giggles. You and I are cut from the same twisted cloth!