After much scouring of Targets and other various stores around Christmas-time, I eventually scored a Nintendo Wii well after the New Year. It was a Christmas gift from my parents, but I had to expend the energy to find one. My mom said she would never go hunting for toys again after the Great Cabbage Patch Kid incident so many, many years ago. No one quite knows for sure exactly what went down the day she went to get my sister a cabbage patch kid, but we can only assume it was bad. I envision it being like Vietnam, only with suburban moms and plush dolls with plastic faces. I kid about that, but there might not be much of a difference between the Viet Cong and a mini-van mom on a mission. Both are ruthless. Both will cut you. I wouldn't mess with either.
I happened to be on my Christmas Break when all this Wii frenzy was going on. I thought this would be beneficial to me because while everyone else was working, I could be out and about looking for the Holy Grail of gaming systems. However, I forgot that no one seems to work at Christmas-time. Ever. And I also forgot about the above mentioned suburban moms. They proved to be a formidable opponent. Every morning I would wake up and start making the rounds on the phone. I would call store after store to find out if they received any Wii's the night before. No one ever knew anything. No one EVER knew if a shipment may or may not be on the doorstep in the morning, afternoon or night. As far as they were concerned, the Wii's just showed up in a poof of white smoke on the heels of a unicorn that was pulling a sleigh containing the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and leprechauns. Forget those old-school myths, the Wii was quickly taking their place.
I realized that I needed to dial it down a notch when I found myself screaming at a customer service person over the phone. I called the local Wal-Mart to ask my usual questions, and the ever so helpful salesperson told me she had 100 people in line and didn't have time to indulge me. "You don't have time to answer my questions?" I yelled. "That is great. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE YOU GOT THERE! I bet your manager will love to hear what kind of customer service I'm receiving!!" Then she hung up on me. Poor lady. I highly doubt she had 100 people waiting in line, and she was on the rude side, but like everyone else, she really had no idea when they were going to get the Wii's.
Now, remember how my parents said they wouldn't be a part of the Wii hunt? Yeah, they totally caved. They started looking when they were out and about. I even got both of them to go to different Targets early in the morning to see if any Wii's had arrived. Even Evil Sister and Brother-in-law [BIL from now on] were also in on the act. [They were still in Dallas from when they got married. IN SEPTEMBER. It's like they refused to leave. Or work. That is another story for another time though.] Much like me, they got more into the chase than anything. Like a junkie needs a fix, we needed a Wii.
Then one day, the clouds parted and the heavens shone down. Angels began to sing and a white dove flew down and landed on a single olive branch. Evil Sister went to visit our Nanny in Oklahoma and called from the Wal-Mart. The Wii had been found. She raced to the customer service desk to get someone to open the glass case, leaving a very confused Nanny standing guard in the electronic department, holding a can of biscuits. And then her and BIL had the Wii and it was soon on its way to Texas. The lone Wii in all the land and it would soon be mine. And then my dad called and said he was at Target and he was looking at 10 of them. So, a little bit anticlimactic there at the end.
I went over to my parent's house that night to get my prized possession. I had already been in constant communication with the house as soon as the Wii got there. Every time I called, everyone made a point to tell me how much fun it was and how my Dad and BIL had been playing for most of the day. I figured I could not just go out there and take the Wii and leave. That would just be mean. So I went out there and spent the night and watched as they all played with my Wii. It took everything in me to not grab it in my hands and make a run for it. But no. I had to be nice and patient. I had to be all of those good qualities that I abandoned long ago in the search for the Wii.
I think that is what bothered me most about the whole process. As Americans, I think we can get pretty caught up in wanting things right now. Right this instant. WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME WAIT WHEN I WANT SOMETHING! And this is exactly how I acted. I was incredulous that I was being forced to wait for a mere toy. That I couldn't just order one offline. That all these pesky teenagers had one and I did not. That my cousin's son, who is only 3 years old, he had one and I DID NOT. That is an ugly side of me and I don't want to see it for a long time.
But at the same time, it was pure adrenaline and a great fix. So, I wonder what the next hot toy might be? Because there are many Target employees that I haven't yelled at yet and they are probably feeling left out.
