Blackcat Friday

Well, I just made it through my eighth Black Friday without incident. No one was seriously hurt or killed (as far as I know anyway) as opposed to last year’s infamous tragedy at that Long Island Wal-Mart where an employee who was built like a pro wrestler was trampled to death by rabid customers who cared about nothing except where to get the best deals. This year, things were much more organized this year than the previous Black Fridays that I’ve worked.

But before we get to that, I just want to catch up on some things. To start off, remember when I said that I was working six days this week? Well when I came back to work this past week, I found out that the six days I had to work turned out to be 12 days straight. So that means I don’t have a day off until next Friday. A lot of that might have to do with the fact that the holiday shopping season has officially started.

And of course, Thanksgiving was yesterday. My folks came up and we had dinner at my house as opposed to the last two years where we had to go to their house. It was pretty good, despite the fact that I only got a few hours sleep yesterday. In a way, Thanksgiving here is actually easier for me because I can just leave for work at the usual time. On a normal night I usually leave for work around 9:30 pm unless I have the money to stop off at McDonald’s.

Well, as soon as I went through the hole in the fence between Wal-Mart and the high school football field, I noticed the yellow barriers in front of the store entrance. It was part of their precautions to avoid another Long Island tragedy. However, I couldn’t resist a photo op so I managed to take a picture of the barrier as you can see on the blog. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any video footage to put on YouTube, but I should be lucky that I at least got that pic out in front of the store. And so I have to make a mental note: Next year (providing I am still there), I got to figure out a way to get video footage. 

Despite the organization, Black Friday was still Black Friday, meaning loads and loads of chaos. And as usual, I planned to go home for lunch to do my Internet thing, but even if I could get out, it would have taken more time for me to get back in with the growing crowds. So I ended up eating my second Thanksgiving dinner of the night. Pizza came a little later. Pizza had always been a Black Friday tradition for as long as I can remember. Even though I haven’t worked the Friday night after Black Friday in four years, it is nice to know that some things never change.

Now that I got Thanksgiving and Black Friday out of the way, now all I need to do is get through the next seven days being that I am scheduled to work all weekend. However, by next Friday, my schedule will be back to normal. Hopefully this will be all be worth it in the end. After all, ’tis the season.

Getting a Clue or The Butler Did It

I know that I have been posting more than usual lately. Maybe it’s a sign of guilt over how I’ve been neglecting this blog in favor of my other online activities, including YouTube and Twitter. Those apps on Facebook and Myspace didn’t really help too much either, or maybe it is because I’ve overcome my very long case of blogger’s block and decided to take up the blog again. It is like what I said before, it’s time to get back to my roots.

Anyway, last night I went out to the latest play by the Ilion Little Theater Club, which is a musical based on one of the most popular board games of all time: “Clue.” In this case, the play was a musical and it has been very popular with Mohawk Valley residents. In fact the first three shows last week were sold out and they had added an extra show because of the enormous popularity. It was also an interactive game in which the audience could take part, as though they were actually playing the board game. And I actually do have a confession to make: I have never played Clue the board game before, even though I have seen the movie they did back in the 80’s. The only time I play board games is Monopoly and that’s only when it is at McDonald’s.

Anyway, back to Clue. The theater also distributed sheets in which the audience could guess who the murderer is, where the murder took place,and what weapon was used based on a series of clues provided by Mr. Boddy, the victim. The night I went, it was revealed that it was Colonel Mustard who killed Mr. Boddy in the lounge with the lead pipe. However, that is not the actual ending of the play. Remember it is an interactive stage production so the suspects could change with each performance. I played along and I ended up getting the room where the murder was committed. 

Okay, so I’m no Sherlock Holmes, but at least one out of three ain’t bad. 

So anyway, like the week before, it was a packed house so I was lucky to get in when I did. The show was a lot of fun and I recommend to anyone in the Mohawk Valley area to go see this play. It is running again tonight and the extra show is Sunday afternoon in which two bucks will be taken off your admission if you bring a non-perishable food item which will go to a local food pantry. Just in time for Thanksgiving because after all, charity’s always nice.

And so I end this latest installment. So now I got some more things to worry about this week, like Thanksgiving and of course Black Friday (as in how I am going to get footage of Black Friday at work out and then put it on YouTube). Plus I got an extra day of work too.

Food For Thought

It’s been a relatively slow month from this end, not counting when moving this blog over from Blogger. It’s still amazing that 2010 is inching even closer. It’s almost like where did the year go? Now the weather is getting colder out and we’re getting closer to Christmas as recent events at work have demonstrated. Next week is of course the time of year known as Black Friday, every retailer’s nightmare. At work, they have a different plan in place partly due to the incident in Long Island last year in which that big Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by all the rabid customers who converge on the stores to get the best deals.

This year’s Black Friday is different for me because I work an extra day this year. This is going to be the first Friday after Black Friday in which I do have to work since my friend got fired from there four years ago. Usually the day after Black Friday, they have pizza for us. I’m not sure if they still do that. After all, it’s been four years since I worked the day after Black Friday.

Now I have also been thinking about possibly going to college. Upon graduating from high school, I never expected to take this route, but maybe I should consider it, primarily because I need to get a better career. I am thinking about taking courses on broadcasting and maybe pick up some tips on how to improve the quality of my YouTube videos, especially if I want to make that a career like many of the big names that I am well acquainted with.

Anyway, just figured I’d try to work through my blogger’s block and get this post out and let everyone know what’s up so that way I am not letting this site go to waste.