Black Friday

Reader, do you love this Black Friday stuff or do you wish it would all just go away?

This year, I am ducking it almost completely, because I'll be in a city that doesn't have too much interest in Black Friday shenanigans.  I have experienced it once in my life, though.  One year in college as part of a job duty - long story short - I appeared on local morning television dressed up as a fairy tale character.  (I guess I was too tired at the time to remember which one.)  My family got quite a kick out of this, but the early bird gets the worm, and when I was done working at, like, 7:15 a.m., I hit the mall and cleaned up.  I did get a red down comforter for something like $30 that I still use all the time.

Anyway, although I love a good sale just as much as the next person, the whole idea just kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies.  In the interest of full disclosure, though, I admit that I am scoping out a few deals:

1) My mom alerted me to a really good deal on a sewing machine.  Because I'll be away from my computer, she's prowling the sales on my behalf - probably/hopefully on Cyber Monday instead of Black Friday.  I am very excited to get started on this sewing machine adventure and am grateful for her for helping a daughter out.

2) If you live in Minnesota or want to run a race in Minnesota in 2012, there are some curious deals I've been noticing in the running community.

Team Ortho is running (ha, ha) a special on all four of the half-marathons they host each year. Even without this special, I probably would've ended up doing one or two of the races - but they are all fun events, spread out through the year evenly enough so I'm usually looking for a longer race around that time anyway, so it's a pretty good deal for me. 

Front Runner is having a 50 percent off sale all of their races (running, duathlons and triathlons) in 2012.  That is a killer deal because while a half-marathon on sale is still a chunk of change, a 5K on sale adds up to a mere $12.50 if you register between today and Monday.  They have a lot to choose from all through the year, and I plan on signing up for at least two or three.  They are low-key races and always fun.

That's the scoop.  Are you already home with bags of deeply discounted goodies, or did you stay in bed this morning?