Sunday, November 19, 2006

Urban Camping

It rained. It snowed. After eight hours, the moisture had soaked through the weather-proofing on the sleeping bag and my toes were ice cubes. But at around 10 this morning, I came home with a Wii.

I wasn't going to camp out--I had a plan so that I'd be able to get at least some sleep before getting up early to wait in line. Yet by last night, when the neighbors decided to have a roaring party and I was anxiously pacing the apartment because I was unable to sleep, Shions_glasses and I decided to go check things out. I made a thermos of hot cocoa and packed some provisions: apple cinnamon rice cakes, cheese poofs, dried apple slices and dark chocolate M&Ms.

We arrived at Best Buy around midnight and the place had already drawn a crowd. We were outside for a good hour when it started to drizzle. It was my turn first to huddle beneath a quilt in the car while Shion_glasses braved the beginning of the precipitation in order to hold our place in line. When it was my turn to go out it started to rain and snow.

The night went by: instead of busying myself with my DS or reading any of the books I brought along, I listened to small talk and watched the snowflakes fall, illuminated by the parking lot lights.

The whole night went pretty smoothly. Everyone was kind to one another: one guy shared his extra large cheese pizza, another handed out some blankets, a woman passed out candy canes. The guy who was first in line made an unofficial list in which everyone signed up in order--and when it came to 8 am when employees started handing out tickets, there weren't any issues.

Getting inside felt amazing: my feet started to thaw. And though by then I was feeling pretty ridiculous that I had just spent most of my night awake and cold in a parking lot, I was pretty proud of myself when I was handed the white Wii box.

Gamers put themselves through some crazy crap, no?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're a trooper, OHLD! And it's nice to know that the night was incident free (not that I expected people to go mad).

My friend stood in line outside a Best Buy for a Wii at midnight. He said there were only 10 people waiting. By the time he got up to the front, the customer service rep told him sorry, he had just give away the last one to the person who just ahead of him.

I can't wait to check it out and whoop you and Shions in some Wii Sports! ;)

Amy Reads said...

Congrats, Friend! We are on the lookout for the Wii (and how I Adore shouting "Wiiiiii!!!" in the stores), as Mr. Reads' Mother has promised it to him for Christmas. We're in two different states, so we're all on the lookout.
Do let us know how it holds up. Are you a GameCuber, or PS2? We're moving up from GameCube.
Ciao,
Amy

Marionette said...

And I bet you went Wii wii wii all the way home.

100LittleDolls said...

Jacob-Well, the other night my mom schooled me, so I'm afraid I won't be much of a challenge!

Amy-I went it with my partner for a PS2 and we were lucky enough to inherit a GameCube. Have you played Baten Kaitos? I love it because it's so quirky.

Good luck with finding your Wii!

marionette--Yes, yes I did. :)

Amy Reads said...

Hi One,
Amy-I went it with my partner for a PS2 and we were lucky enough to inherit a GameCube. Have you played Baten Kaitos? I love it because it's so quirky.

I haven't played it, no. It's on the list now! Mr. Reads is ever on the lookout for Amy-Friendly Games (I have truly awful hand-eye coordination, and just end up mashing the controller--but that's more than great fun, so I'm okay *grin*).

Good luck with finding your Wii!

Thanks! We're probably going to wait until after the holidays, since the hype will have died down a little. And honestly, I'm depressed over retail workers laughing at me when I ask if they have any in stock...

Did you get the JLA game? Ultimate Alliance?
Ciao,
Amy

100LittleDolls said...

I love button mashing myself--Tales of Symphonia's a great one for that, too. :)

I plan on trying to rent Marval Alliance and JLA, but the Blockbuster by my apartment is horrible. I plan on looking into Gamefly though, so maybe I'll be able to try out the new games with that. Otherwise, I really enjoyed playing the first X-Men Legends on the GameCube (though I found the second one boring.)