Black Friday and the New (and improved) Lappy

...Aaaaannnnnddddd.... I'm back!! To the blogging, Facebooking, emailing, cyberworld!! My trusty HP that I had throughout college died about 2 months ago, and I have been doing some price-checking and lots of looking around ever since. It has been challenging to be without a computer so many times since Ol' Lappy died. But yesterday was Black Friday, and I was determined to find a great deal on a new laptop. Thanksgiving day, I swiped the newspaper full of ads off of the front lawn before heading to Amanda and Brian's place for dinner, and while waiting for the turkey to finish cooking, I went through any and every ad that could have an excellent price on a laptop. After over an hour of searching before dinner and some final price and product comparisons after dinner, I decided that Office Depot was the winner. They offered a HP with 320GB of memory, a 17.3" screen, and a bunch of other bells and whistles, all for the amazing price of $449... (After a $50 manufacturer mail-in rebate... so really it was $500 in-store). The final price probably would've been about $570 after taxes. So I decided that I would join the masses on this Black Friday and attempt to score the deal on the HP. Office Depot's doors were opening at 6am, but they were starting to hand out the tickets for the sale-priced ticket items at 5am. I set my alarm for 4:15am, with the goal of leaving home by 4:30am, to get to the store at about4:45am. I painfully woke up yesterday morning. Made some coffee, got all bundled up with my peacoat and scarf on, and made it out of the house by about 4:35am. In hindsight, I probably should've gotten to the store at about 4:30am... but I'll get to that... I had to stop for gas, and as I was doing such at approximately 4:40am, I realized that I didn't have my phone. After pumping the gas I drove the 4 blocks back to the house and grabbed my phone. So I was on my way to the store at 4:50am. Now one of the great things about driving at that ungodly hour is that there were only a handful of cars on the roads. I got to Office Depot at 4:58am...and to my dismay there were probably about 50 people in line already. I jumped out of my car and jumped in the Queque. Stood there in the coldest weather I've experienced since last winter, I could see my breath. Many things crossed my mind at this point in the endeavor. I wrote them down so as to blog about them once I got home with my new laptop. Here they are: That this many people wake up at this hour voluntarily is asanine. There are a lot more crazy people in this city than I realized! Feeling hopeless, like there's no way it'll work out and this psycho endeavor will be a waste. But we cling to the hope of saving $250. There's a huge difference between paying $450 and $700. With no one to text...I write a bunch of notes to myself to look busy and log away my dreary sleep deprived thoughts. At least there are people behind me. I am toasty warm, caffinated and surprisingly awake. Just bored. And nervous. Should be called "blackest friday", for it is a glimpse at the materialistic, selfish state that this country's society is in. It's this black still only [an] hour b4 the sun comes out? The last laptop was sold to the person two people in front of me. Standing out here freezing my ass off, was in fact, a waste. 8am...Out of body experience at this point. Takes a lot of steam to continue mustering up the energy just to walk around.

And that was the experience in a nutshell. They ran out of the amazing sale-priced items two people in front of me. I was discouraged and pissed, but decided to go in anyway, since I'd waited an hour in the freezing cold. I spent about an hour comparing the laptops that were on display. This is when I first met what would be my lappy the 2nd. I had never heard of MSI before, so I was hesitant in buying it... but it was originally a $600 laptop on sale for $480, and it had all of the same bells and whistles as the HP, so I decided to get it. So far, I really like it. It has a 16" screen, which is bigger than my last lappy's screen, and it came with Windows7 pre-loaded. The grand total wound up being less than what the HP's would've been, and I was happy about that. This lappy also has a 3 year warranty, which is from what I've investigated, one of the best warranties for a laptop out there.

I came home from my adventure that was, after all, a success, and spent several hours charging, loading and customizing my new lappy. I'm still working on loading my stuff onto it, including pictures and music. I am seeing New Moon at 1pm with my friend, and then I will no doubt be taking on that task after I get home from it.

I'm so glad I'm back in the cyberworld. Being an alien has felt a bit isolating. I also have a webcam with microphone built-in to lappy the 2nd, and I'm excited to try out video chatting!!

Yay for patience and for Black Friday!