Stranger than stranger than fiction

Most things about this Thanksgiving day were typical. The food, the family (except I didn't have the girls :( who were with their mom), the football. All good, but quite normal, and as such would probably go without mention. Except that everything changed once I left.

Moments after I drove away, I got a text message. "We're here". Friends from out of town. Things were suddenly looking... different.

(paraphrasing for effect) "Let's do something" "OK"

We went to see Stranger Than Fiction. Not something I would have gone out of my way to see, though not something I objected to. But after having seen it, I must say that I was a fool to have held doubt. It is a GREAT movie. Different. A movie for which I will own the DVD. If you're anything like me at all, you should go see it immediately. Seriously. Step away from the keyboard, this blog will be here when you get back.

(welcome back, we missed you)

We liked the movie so much (and hopefully you did, too) that immediately upon departing from the theater, we went on a soundtrack hunt. Typically not such a difficult thing. But it was Thanksgiving, and many stores were closed.

First we tried Best Buy. Closed. But not uninteresting. There were Black Friday Campers (BFCs), and the parking lot was rather full with their cars (which led us to believe it was open).

Next we tried CompUSA (yes, they have movies and music these days). It was worse. If you can believe that. CompUSA was engaged in a Pre-emptive Black (Friday) Op. But we didn't know that until we were in the middle of it. When we arrived, the parking lot was completely full, so much so that we had to park across the street. There were news crews, news vans, and cameras even. We got inside, shortly after nine, to find a mob scene. There were people everywhere. Every. Where. In fact, we thought we might buy something, until we learned what seemed to be an amorphous blob of people was actually a line. That wrapped around the entire store. It was then that we discovered ComUSA's special Black Friday prices were running from 9-midnight, instead of in the morning. Our timing was terrible. So we left.

It seemed only Walmart was left to satiate our music impulses. Not my first choice for music acquisition (because they censor), but it would have to do. We weren't sure what to expect, given the scene at Best Buy and CompUSA. But we were pleasantly surprised by a contrasting calmness. Actually, calm isn't the word for it. It was dead. Eerie even. Not what you might expect for someplace that would probably be mobbed with people in not so many hours.

Undeterred by the strange lack of people, we proceeded to the music department, and as though drawn by fate, we found it. In the wrong place. We didn't realize it was in the wrong place until we tried to look for another. But even once we found the right place, there were no more. We looked quite thoroughly, but there were no additional soundtrack CDs. We got the last one.

In not so much time, we were in the car, found the catchy tune featured in the movie, and put it on repeat. Being a three minute song, I'm pretty sure we listened to it a few dozen times before the night was out.

Walmart was followed by Denny's. Not by choice as much as necessity. We were hungry and nothing else was open. Nothing. Even IHOP. Closed. Can you believe that? IHOP is not supposed to close ever! We were very disappointed.

After more than an hour at Denny's we had to leave to pickup my friend's daughter, as it was midnight at that point. Upon picking her up we learned that she was... HUNGRY. Ugh.

So back to Denny's we went. Though not without detour. We passed another Walmart, so of course we HAD to stop to pickup another copy of the soundtrack. Many of the same people that were at Denny's when we left were still there. But humorously none of the employees gave an indication they recognized us. Or maybe they just REALLY wanted to forget us. That's okay. I forget them by now, too.

By the time we finished at Denny's, got my friends dropped-off, and got to my dad's (more on that later), it was like two-thirty. What a long day. But worth living. Thank you, friends, for enhancing the memorability of the day. Even if it was a little strange.