Pre-Black Friday CyberMonday and an elevator preparedness checklist

Before you go and start panicking that you set your alarm too late, don’t worry yet, because it’s still not Thanksgiving.  I keep getting all these pre-Black Friday sales in my inbox and I have to constantly check today’s actual date to make sure we haven’t missed Thanksgiving this year by accident because of all the sales.  I miss the good old fashioned Black Friday morning shopping race and I like keeping Thanksgiving untouchable. (thank you Nordstroms-I love that you don’t even decorate your windows until AFTER the big day!)
This year I’m already almost done my list *sigh* so the only thing I think I need to buy is an elevator survival pack.  I read about someone getting trapped in an  elevator recently and it’s been terrifying me. (I tried to search it to share but found WAY more awful elevator posts that I couldn’t help reading.  Definitely not the kind of rabbit hole I wanted to get lost in today.)

And to fuel the fear, we had a little pre-scare this weekend when we did the Center for Wooden boats free sail.  It was gorgeous weather and we were with good friends.

But we didn’t have any wind to help our sails out and I thought we were going to be stuck in a small boat FOREVER with two antsy children.

I broke out into a cold sweat when I realized I brought the wrong purse and I had packed no snacks in this one. No water. Nothing to do. (of course, no one else was terrified.)

Thank God in boats you can still shop online.  In elevators there’s no contact to the outside world and with my luck, it will be a full car.  (FYI the captain had a back-up plan to call for a tow if we did get stuck.  And after we survived, I realized how fun it was and I’d love to do the sail again.)

I’ve decided that this week on Black Friday, I’m not just shopping, I’m preparing for an elevator emergency:

I want caramel balls from the Confectionary because that would definitely be something tasty in my purse and caramels take longer to eat than mere chocolates. You can even buy them on Amazon Fresh, but I’m probably going to have to go get them at Uvillage, so I can check out the rest of the sales and see if I need anything else for my emergency kit.

I also want to keep us entertained so a scribbler from Uncommon Goods would be awesome.The packaging looks like it could fit in my purse and it comes with pens so if we majorly screw up, at least we have writing materials.  I’m hoping that by the time we assemble it and try it out, we should be out of the elevator trap.

If the kids could play with the Scribbler by themselves I could work on my Calligraphy.  I randomly stopped in PaperHammer and found out they have Calligraphy workshops.  I just need to figure out my style and print out some guide-sheets and I could practice FOREVER.  Anabella, our teacher helped me pick out a pen, so I just need to go and get it before I get stuck.  The store is near Pacific Place, so I’ll probably check there too.

And just in case we do get WIFI in an elevator emergency, I love this WAKAWAKA light/solar-power phone charger and I really should just carry it on me at all times.  I have one and I’ve brought it camping and it’s pretty awesome at recharging my phone. This company has a buy one/give one to help people who need it campaign and I’m a sucker for companies that do nice things.

To carry everything in, I totally need a new bag.  A big stylish one.  I have my eye on the Sybil from Linea Pelle.  I just don’t know whether to go red or classic black.  I buy their stuff online, and I’ve noticed they have a “Black Friday shop” this week too!

So wish me luck on avoiding my elevator fears and I hope you have a lovely fake Cyber Monday.  And please let me know if you’re catching any fabulous deals- I probably won’t be able to resist.

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)