Drop the Fendi and back away slowly

Austin and Brooke came into town for New Year's and we had a great time eating good food, barhopping, and seeing the sights. We took the subway down to Chinatown and then walked to the World Trade Center site. Everyone had told us that we had to see the WTC. I don't see what the fuss is all about. When it comes down to it, you're standing there looking at a hole in the ground. There's really nothing to see. The real excitement came when we went across the street to the Century 21 Department Store.

Century 21 is a department store that sells designer items at discount prices. Brooke was busy looking at purses, so Austin and I tried to look around. There were so many women packed into that store that we could barely move. These women were so intent on buying purses that if we stopped, even for a second, some woman would shove us out of the way so that she could get her hands on a Prada bag. People were grabbing items from each other and throwing things on the ground as they clawed through the fray. At one point, a woman tried to take the purse from Brooke's shoulder as she wore it. Austin and I fought to keep from getting trampled and tried desperately to find a place to stand in peace, but we couldn't locate a single spot in the store where we could get away from the mob. At one point, Austin stepped on a purse that someone had thrown on the floor and said, "We're stepping on Gucci's here." Unbeknownst to us, they keep the Gucci's behind the counter. As soon as the wild pack of women heard him say this, they whipped around and stormed toward us. It was the exact opposite of yelling fire. Now, if this weren't bad enough as it was, someone came over the PA system and announced, "We have a code 99. All managers to the sales floor." Lucky for us, code 99 meant that the cash registers had stopped working. We now had thousands of angry women who had just killed each other to get their hands on a Coach bag, but couldn't pay for it. Things were getting pretty ugly. It was utter chaos to the point that it was downright absurd. We fought our way into the cosmetics department, found a working register for Brooke to buy her purses, and got out of there. We survived...but just barely.