Black Friday: Shopping, True Blood, No Sleep

It has been an insane past three days. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Thursday:
Slept at 6am the night before, trying to convert True Blood to PSP format as I almost forgot to do it. Woke up at 10am that morning to have some decent breakfast at Angel before arriving at the pick-up site at 11:15am. When we arrived, we can already tell this tour was going to be full of the usual prissy old women, just like it is every year. Our bus arrives 15mins late and to our surprise, our tour guide and driver are the same two guys from LAST YEAR.

We got on, then went off to other locations to pick up more people, crossed the border at 12ish. People already started crazy shopping at the duty free. Made some stops on the way and arrived in practically dead downtown Portland at around 6pm. We once again had Todai, the expensive but insanely good all you can eat everything restaurant. The crepes were so disgustingly good that I had frickin' two! After feeling full, satisfied and gross, we headed back to our hotel where we rested until 11pm.

Friday:
12AM We were then sent off to Woodburn where the midnight madness was supposed to begin, however at Woodburn, the midnight madness was actually named the MOONLIGHT madness when they actually start an hour earlier -- 11PM! We were all handed a eco-friendly bag filled with some stuffers (a bottled water, a chocolate candy, a granola bar, coupon book) and then we were on our merry way.

Our first stop was Ecko as it was right in front of us from where we were dropped off. I picked up some shirts and was about to get a hoodie as well but the last one of my size had a giant hole in it so I didn't. On the other hand, my brother went insane in this store... a bit too insane perhaps. After leaving the store with two giant, heavy bags, we went off to find the parents which were joining the crazy crowd in Fossil. My mom got some rather expensive jewelry in there (hm, not watches this year it seems) and I ended up getting some expensive earrings myself. We went through a bunch of other places but the only other store I went crazy in was Aeropostale... Tommy Hilfiger apparel has disappointed me this year. The designs this season felt boring, and extremely reused. I was looking forward to perhaps renew my love for it but it was a total disappointment. By around 4:30am, we finished walking the whole mall and decided to rest at a hot dog selling restaurant owned by Koreans? by supporting them by buying a hot dog from them, then chilling until 5:30am which was the pickup time. The driver guy ends up arriving at 6. I prompted to ask the tour guide lady "So you guys are rather late." and she just answers with "yeah" well that was actually a cue for you to redeem yourself woman! But whatever, I was mainly furious because our next stop was Fry's and the place actually opened at 5am.

Fry's Fry's Fry's... When we arrived at 6 and got inside, we saw the massively frightening snake line that formed right to the entrance area (we didn't even have to go in much deeper to see it). Our time limit there was only 1 hour, so there was no bloody way we could've gotten out within that time, even if people were to start lining up right then. We were already digging up goodies but had to drop them because we knew it was impossible. So we left and headed back to our hotels. We almost had no plan on returning to Fry's because apparently 95% of the people on the bus did not want to go. The 5% was just our family of four (sadly) plus this one older geezer too but he ended up chickening out so he doesn't count anymore.

It was 7am and we made it back to eat the complementary breakfast. Then people went to rest/sleep/etc. I showered and then decided to kept myself awake instead. I hung outside in the lobby the whole time, surfing the free internet and then watching True Blood on my PSP. At some point there were a pack of boys who were on the computers playing Runescape for the longest time. That game seems to be thriving quite well still it seems. 10:30 rolls around, woke up the family, and then headed out at 11 to Portland downtown's Pioneer Place aka. Saks aka. Fifth Ave. For some reason the actual Forever 21 store did not glamour me as much as the online store itself. We also stopped by Ross where we loaded up on even more clothing. We dinnered in the food court, sat around aimlessly for about 1 1/2 hours before the pickup time.

We headed to Washington Square after picking us up at 5:30 where the 95% of the people were dropped off. The four of us were VIP driven to Fry's were we wanted to load up on electric material but unforunately for me, I ended up leaving with only an awesomely wireless cheap mouse and keyboard. On the other hand, my brother found a number of price dropped games, in which he snatched up immediately. My dad also refrained from buying a pack of 100 AA-batteries for 20$. He regretted it the next day.

We were done well before 8, so we gave the driver and tour leader a call (they went off to eat dinner) and they came and drove us back to Washington Square. We headed inside and went straight to the stores we had our eye on. I went to MetroPark to find out that they no longer sold Toki Doki apparel, and that was extremely upsetting. I did a bit of shopping at Victoria's Secret and also passed by an EBX and grabbed Left 4 Dead PC. We grabbed ourselves an orange julius, did some more last minute shopping at Macy's and hopped on back into the bus for our ride home (hotel).

It was nearly 9:30 at the time when we arrived and Best Buy closed at 10. We knew there was one right next door so me and my brother dropped all our stuff at the hotel room and ran our way there. We ended up making it 10 or less minutes before closing. The crazy blu-ray disc sale was swept clean, but my brother managed to find something else instead. The place stayed open well after closing as there were still plenty of other last minute shoppers.

Saturday:
The morning was brutal for me, having to wake up at 7 and out by 8. We had our complementary breakfasts and then loaded up the bus with our stuff. We began heading back north and took at stop at Westlake Center. We were only allowed to stay there for a bit over an hour so it was a bit of a shame. There was an Olive Garden across the parking lot, but eating there would take up the whole time, so we decided on food court food plus some mall wandering.

After the short break, we were on our way again... our last stop being Seattle Premium Outlet. We got there around 1, and we had until 3:30 to do our thing. Me and my bro split off from our parents to get to the places we wanted to faster). Our first stop was Lucky Jeans to get some mmm comfy pants. Unfortunately for me, the wash I wanted was not available in my size (both waist and length) so I didn't get anything. However, once again, my brother got what he wanted. We forgot to bring our passports when we paid by card, but luckily they accepted my Canadian drivers license :b... The only other store we needed to visit was Ecko. I was determined to find that hoodie that I wanted at Woodburn but the only one in my size there had a giant hole in it :(. Luckily, with a bit of digging, my hoodie was found! After that, we were done! The next challenge was to find our parents. It didn't help that my mom doesn't pick up her phone when you need her most.

We wandered the whole mall until we caught her lining up for the Coach store. I joined in on the line up to ensure that she comes out alive in that chaos. After that store, I think it was safe to say that we were officially done. We got back on the bus soon after for our ride back to Vancouver. As expected, the lineup was already horrible, even on the Saturday. We took a quick stop at the duty free, picked up some stuff up to our limit (liquor cough) and then went through. Only one person had to get off to pay customs fee at the border cuz she wrote quite a bit on there.

Throughout the whole trip, I read through a volume of Shugo Chara, and watched all of True Blood. I got a bit paranoid watching that on the trip, especially during the sex scenes.. which happened rather frequently lol.

Overall, the trip was satisfying. It was a break from reality, but it wasn't exactly stress free either. The staying up overnight with no sleep was a bit tiring but worth it, and I don't mind doing it again actually. Though the parents feel otherwise.