On your mark, get set . . .shop

To say that Jessica Blanco and Jessica Rios had a busy Black Friday is an understatement.

The Woodbridge residents were some of the first in line Thursday to get into Potomac Mills mall at mid-night, and then they were headed to jobs at other retailers.

An estimated 25,000 people flooded the shopping center when the doors were opened, said Potomac Mills spokeswoman Caroline Barry Green.

The 22-year-old Blanco had to be at Victoria's Secret at Manassas Mall before 7 a.m. Friday, and the 19-year-old Rios had to greet shoppers at Kohl's in Woodbridge at 4 a.m.

"It's gonna be OK, though," Rios said as she waited outside the main entrance to Poto-mac Mills.

Blanco was similarly upbeat. She was the second person in line, four people ahead of her fellow Jessica. She said she had loaded up on Red Bull from Wawa.

"I got the biggest one," she said.

The duo and their shopping companions had queued up with two sisters who were out to buy gifts for their children.

They all got in line in the 9 o'clock hour Thursday night, and strangers became friends as they waited and surfed the Internet on Amelia Garcia's cell phone.

Garcia, who lives in Montclair, and her 27-year-old sister, Jaime Bonner, were bound for the Disney Store when mall officials opened the doors.

They were joined in the halls of the mall by lots of other people.

About 90 percent of Potomac Mills' 8,000 parking spaces were full by 1:30 a.m., Green said, and some customers were seen walking from spaces off the property.

They were among the up to 134 million Americans the National Retail Federation expects to shop this weekend.

That meant good news for Potomac Mills, which was opening at midnight for the second straight Black Friday.

"Absolutely," Green said. "Absolutely."

All manner of folk were seeking bargains. Some wore pajama pants, and others seemed still dressed for a fancy Thanksgiving meal.

One woman came in on crutches, and others scrambled through the food court to get to their shopping destinations.

Some parents strolled sleeping babies, and other children seemed up way past bedtime.

"I can't believe people brought their kids out," Garcia said as she and her sister waited outside the still-gated Disney Store.

Their trip to one of Walt Disney's retail legacies was all about princesses.

Garcia was eyeing a set of the nine Disney princesses for her 5-year-old daughter, Isabella.

"Her big gift this year is a karaoke machine," she said.

The first things Bonner picked up were an Ariel doll of "Little Mermaid" fame and a tea set. She was buying Christmas presents for daughters Gena, 4, and Hannah, 3, and birthday gifts for Gena, who will turn 5 on Monday.

She figured on having to go somewhere else to shop for her 6-year-old son, William, who's more into Transformers than into Mickey and Co.

But her immediate order of business was to decide which princess items to buy: big dolls or small ones?

And, for that matter, which princesses: Snow White? Belle from "Beauty and the Beast"? Maybe Jasmine from "Aladdin."

"I don't know," said Bonner, a nursing student who lives in Bumpass in Louisa County. "So many choices."

But if she was anxious about her pending purchases, she apparently wasn't the only one feeling stress.

Only a half-hour after stores opened, one man was already getting a seated massage not far from the Disney Store.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.