Black Friday

Hallway, originally uploaded by Markus Moning

The day after Thanksgiving is either Buy Nothing Day or buy everything day, depending on your point of view. Traditionally we have a split perspective on Black Friday in our household. Which is how I came to be sitting at home with Ashley, reading a monk's autobiography, while my wife snuck out at 3:30 AM to go shopping with her sisters.

But I don't want to sound self-righteous or give you the wrong idea about my wife. She would rather not battle the crowds of bloodthirsty consumers before sunrise, but she endures it to spend time with her family. And in the middle of writing this post, I popped over to Amazon.com to check the deals on HDTVs.

Do I really need a new TV? Nah, of course not. The old one works just fine and I don't watch it that much anyway. Isn't it funny how there's a day set aside to be grateful for what we've got, and one day later we're supposed to rush out and buy more stuff because we don't have enough? Sorry, I'm not finished being thankful yet.