Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!
It is true, that for as much as I tried to downplay my not being one of those unkempt, crazy-ass geekers who have been standing in line for four days to get one of these, I did have a looped dialogue running in the back of my head constructing elaborate plans for getting my hands on one. It was important to me that those around me were clear that I wasn't going to have any kind of psychotic break over it. I did have to casually mention to Jeff that I would be staying up until 3am this morning to be one of the first on the Amazon site when the product launched at 12am PST 11/19, and he thought that was just about as crazy as one could get. He hasn't been watching the news about the boys in that four day line or the muggings of ripe teen geeks to pluck fresh PS3's from their hot, hairy palms as they walk out of Target so I'm not convinced he has a good grasp on how crazy crazy can be.
I thought the staying up until 3am was a viable, reasonable compromise on my part. It wouldn't inconvenience Jeff like making him stand in line with me at some God-forsaken Wal-Mart for hours with other undesirables or worse yet, flummoxed parents of psychotic children who simply MUST have the console for their holiday this year. Scary. So yes, I did stay up and by 3:30am when Amazon still had not released their stock, I said "fuck it" and went to bed because I'm just not that crazy.
This morning after I woke up, Amazon still hadn't released their stock and the internet was having a meltdown over it. For some reason, someone has posted a comment on the Amazon blog that Toys-R-Us actually had bundles of consoles and games available. I calmly found the product bundle, ordered it, waited for the "out of stock" message which never came and by the end of it, I had a confirmation of the order for next day shipping. Of course, the Amazon commenter line about Toys-R-Us then posted about the fine print regarding their absolution from unavailable stock, blah, blah, blah and as a life-long believer in "Oh sure, it would have to happen to me", I figured I'd been dupped into ordering the really expensive bundle that I still wouldn't get even though everything I'd received from the company told me it was in stock. Still, there was no blood coming out of my ears from a melting brain. I'd hit that Zen ambivalence about it and already had moved on.
And yet, I checked my order again this afternoon and it had moved from "processing" to "order located and shipping in process". So waddayaknow? I'm totally getting a Wii, possibly before Thanksgiving. Woot to the geek boy not so deep inside.
UPDATE: OMG...TRU canceled my order. WTF? Now I'm going to be that crazy person I was trying to suppress.
I know you're happily coupled and all, but I gotta say this post makes me wanna hold you close. And I don't even play the video games.
You're 12. Saying that, so am I.
Ok, so that being said I don't feel nearly as anal about my four stop, four shop shopping trip looking for one last 9" garland of autumn leaves to even out my Thanksgiving decorations. (Apparently I'm suffering from a decorator's ailment called "Linear addiction" )
And I would have waited in line to get one.
Seriously.
As the person who's been spending far too much time buying old Star Trek toys on eBay, I have no criticism to offer whatsoever.
I just bought another $50 worth of vintage bells from the 1950s to round out my holiday decor, so I can't say a word. If it's old and Christmasy, I need it more than oxygen. Please tell me you'll be camping out somewhere Thursday night for a sale.
Beau, we are kindred spirits. I casually mentioned to Tim that I might need to make a Target run...at about 8 a.m. this past Sunday morning. Nothing unusual there! I was thinking that I live in a relatively kid-free area and the Target is good but nothing fancy and surely all of the geeks from nearby Emory have already gotten PS3s and are hunkered down in their dorm rooms.
So I get there at 8:19 (yes, I checked), and the last Wii had vanished from the shelves about 10 minutes earlier. For about a second, my whole "If I don't get one, no big deal" outlook vanished and I was pissed/depressed, but I know I'll get one soon...soon.
(I have an aunt who works at Wal-Mart--tomorrow over T'giving dinner I may ask her to grab one from the next shipment they get in before they even hit the shelves, much like she nabbed one of those new Tickle Me Elmos for another family member. Is that wrong?)