Wii Will Rock You

If I ever again hear the words Nintendo Wii after this holiday season, it won’t be too soon!  I went with the J-Man yesterday to trade in the Gamecube because they were offering a $20 bonus for such things at E-B Games.  He seems quite confident the Santa Mom is bringing him his dream come true.  I guess it could be worse; he could want a subscription to porn.  The “bad” is they can’t be found anywhere.  There’s a website that tracks the expected delivery locations, which J-Man is continually glued, but so far, no luck.  

When we walked into E-B Games, I was met by a smiling, ever-so-polite young man, “How is your day going today, ma’am?”  He was fresh, tidy, and his pants did not sag bizarrely down to his knees—he would make any mom proud.  But, simultaneously, I flashed back to my military days when young Privates used that type of politeness as a ploy to suck up and get out of doing something, so I immediately became wary.  I responded appropriately and he continued to smile at me, and then kept on smiling at me.  Hmm, I thought, as my attitude warmed, perhaps he lost his mother in a tragic gaming accident and has decided I shall be his surrogate. 

After evaluating the equipment and fixing a price, he gave J-Man his credit.  J-Man, satisfied, began looking at the inventory of Wii-associated equipment.  The young man continued to try to chat with me—so, finally I said, “So, if you were a desperate mom, what strategy would you use to get one of these Wii things?

“Well, I’d call the store at 10 minutes before opening.  Sometimes the manager doesn’t answer the phone, so plan on being here the minute the door opens.  Do that everyday, we expect several this week,” smiling again.  “I hope you get one.” 

Then, the phone rang, and some other hapless, desperate parent obviously asked the same question, to which he replied indifferently, “I don’t know when they’ll be coming in, sorry.”  Then he smiled at me again. 

I looked at the kids and decided then and there I was bringing that young man home to become part of our family—at least until I get my hands on that Wii.

 Published on: Dec 12, 2006