I've offically crossed the line.

This past weekend I did something I never thought I'd be crazy/stupid enough to do--I got up at 5:30 a.m. to go to a sale that started at 7:00 a.m. What about this sale was inticing enough to get me up at the butt-crack of dawn on a Saturday? Well, the flyer said they would be selling the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze for $150, plus with the 15% coupon that was in the flyer, it would be even cheaper. I've wanted a Sharper Image Ionic Breeze for about as long as there has been a Sharper Image Ionic Breeze. These things cost about $350. That's a little steep for my blood, but I've never let go of the dream that one day the Ionic Breeze would be mine. Anyway, I get up, get showered, drink my coffe when I realize that the sale is probably for the small Sharper Image Ionic Breeze because that is just too good a deal. I looked at the flyer and there's no mention of size, of course, because they probably know most people want the big size and aren't going to schlep to the store at 7:00 a.m. if they know it's just the small one. So I say to my husband, "I bet you that's going to be the small Ionic Breeze." He says, "You're probably right." So there I am thinking, damn, I got up and that's probably not what I want, but I'm up, I can't take the chance of it being the full-sized one and letting this opportunity pass, so I finish my coffee and walk out the door.

I pulled into the store parking lot and there's a line outside the door. I'm thinking, "Holy crap! Why are all these people here so early?" One of the reasons I got up so early was because I didn't want to deal with a lot of people. As I've gotten older, I really hate shopping when there are too many people around because this sort of Lord of the Flies thing starts to happen when there are too many people crammed into a finite space looking for deals. People lose their freaking minds. They dive for stuff like they're diabetics grabbing for the last vial of insulin on the planet. So anyway, I get out of the car and stand in line and ask the lady in front of me if the store is opened yet and she says, "No." I didn't have to wait long, though, because I pulled in at about five after 7:00. They open the doors and as we're all shuffling in, we're handed a little scratch card that apparently will reveal an additional savings amount of either $10, $15 or $25. I hear a girl on a cellphone telling someone, "We're one of the first 500, so I got a card." I didn't know anything about this first 500 business and I can't believe that all these people came so early just to get the scratch card because you know everyone's going to get a card for $10 because there's only one card for $15 and one card for $25. The store is not trying to give away money. So I go and find the Ionic Breeze and surprise, surpise, it's the small one. They've got couple of the large ones and I drag it over to a cashier and ask if the large one is on sale, too, because it's got a price tag of $350 on it. She scans it and my 15% coupon and my $10 scratch card and says that neither one took, so it's not on sale. I really expected it, but I'm crushed nonetheless. The cashier asks if I want to buy it and I say, "No. It's not on sale. Why would I buy it?" So I went and bought a couple of Christmas gifts and a pair of boots and gauchos for myself to wear to a benefit dinner I have to go to with my husband in a couple of weeks. I also got my husband a few shirts and ties for work and some some shirts and a pair of jeans for my daughter. In the end I spent something like $300, which would have pretty much been the Ionic Breeze anyway, but it was about the principle, man.

Oh, we also went to watch Goblet of Fire Friday night and left in about the last half hour because our daughter got freaked out. She's very familiar with the book because she's listened to it about 50 times, but I also knew that it might be too intense for her because of the PG-13 rating. We told her that this movie was probably going to be scarier than the other movies and even though she knew the story, she should let us know if she was getting too scared and we'd leave. So right as all the champions enter the maze she turns to us and says, "I want to leave." So we did. Kind of a bummer, but we know what happens and the DVD will be out soon enough. My daughter said in the car that she thinks she won't be so scared when she watches the DVD because the picture is smaller and the sound isn't so loud. However, up until the point we left, I thought they did a pretty good job with this one. I was really disappointed with Prisoner of Azkaban because I felt it was really choppy and that they left some really important information out. I was skeptical about the success they'd have with Goblet of Fire because it's an even longer book and they were still going to try and fit it all into two and a half hours. I really thought they should do a Matrix sort of thing and make it a long movie released in two parts. But, considering the limitations, I thought they did a good job. I wish they would have shown at least a little of the quidditch world cup game. Maybe they'll have some of that on the DVD.