a blind moose

well, yesterday was the grand opening of a new ikea store in west chester, which is about 40 minutes from where we live. a friend of mine asked if i wanted to go with her, as she is a hardcore ikea fan and has always dreamed of going to an ikea grand opening. i didn't really know what this process entails....we left her place at 4 am. the "festivities started at 6 am. we had to get there early, apparently, so that we were one of the first 2500 people there so we can get a free gift. according to friend, we needed to get there, put out chairs and wrap up in blankets until the store opens at 9 am so that we can get the free prize. well, we got there, and we were approximately number 150 in line. we could have gotten there at 8:50 (slept in and avoided the cold, blankets, etc.) and still received a gift. oh well.

the festivities included seeing "who dey" (the bengals mascot), mr. redlegs and gapper (the reds' mascots), the blue blob (no idea who he is) and marty the moose (the ikea mascot). the most entertaining part of the "festivities" was seeing marty not being able to see. the moose was blind. someone hadn't put the costume together right or something, i'm not sure. but the moose had to have an ikea worker walk around with him and say to him things like, "the crowd is to your left, wave" or someone wants to take a picture with you....on your right." it was really funny. and for some reason the moose's head was always pointed down so it always looked like he was ashamed of himself. it was hysterical and i'm not doing it justice.

with that said, i ate swedish meatballs, bought a few things and tasted free samples. ikea was fun.