A not-so-Black Friday

I’m not gonna lie. The day after Thanksgiving is probably my least favorite day of the year to be a reporter. Getting up at 4 a.m. to go look for doorbuster sales is not my idea of fun. I don’t much like using the term “Black Friday” either, because it sounds so foreboding. Thinking about it too much makes my brain retreat into a happy place.

And yet, once you get out there and start talking to people, it’s hard not to get swept up in their mood. Perhaps I’ve been lucky, but I have yet to meet the kind of rabid shoppers you read about trampling people for the latest hot Christmas doodad. Most people seem to have a sense of humor about standing in a checkout line before dawn, and quite a few told me they had just decided to try out the “Black Friday experience” one time, just for fun. The thrill of the hunt, they said.

More power to ‘em, I suppose. Me, I’m more of a gatherer than a hunter. I’ll wait until Saturday and catch up on my sleep.