The wait is over

I have successfully procured my very own Nintendo Wii and I am ecstatic. Well, technically the wait isn't over because I have sworn my better half that I will not dive into The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess until we are together. So, I'm actually less ecstatic because of that. Plus, I've been on the most frustrating wild goose chase today looking for a component video cable (only composite cables are included with the Wii) and it turns out that brick and mortar stores didn't even have the fuckers in stock. I've been to Best Buy, Circuit City, Toys R Us, several GameStops and EB Games, and I even went to a CompUSA. (Who knew they carried games?) Ugh, what a lovely waste of my time today. Clearly, I would've rather been at my computer sooner so I could bitch about the whole experience to you all.

Plus, there was a huge line at Toys R Us to get in the R-Zone and buy a Wii. Mind you, I was one of the proud few who waited 18 hours outside of my local Toys R Us three weeks ago, in damn cold windy weather, and pre-ordered the Wii. You'd think that I'd be treated like friggin' Nintendo Royalty when I walked into Toys R Us with my very rare presale ticket. But no, they told me to get in the back of the line and wait with everyone else.

God bless my mom for complaining to the employees running the shots in the line and asked why I should wait since I preordered my Wii. An hour and a half into my wait, it turns out that I was "misinformed" by an employee and that I could bypass the line. It saved me an extra hour of waiting, but I was already planning to swiftly dispatch that damn Toys R Us Red Shirt for tossing me to the back of the line with the rabble.

Let me tell you, much like when you've got an oil and water solution, after a while the liquids settle into their proper place. My proper place was in the front of line with the hard cores, not in the back of the line with the painfully sweet Jewish mothers who said things like "PSP3" and "Super Nintendo." I couldn't have a conversation without looking desperately ahead to the front of the line, at the loners in Kevin Smith sweatshirts and wool coats and Shiggy t-shirts. The people who were buying the Wii selfishly for themselves and not for their 13-year olds who had to wait for Hanumas or Chrismakah. I wanted to talk to them and be able to connect with someone who would giggle and cry with me when I said words like "triforce" and "master sword."

Really though, I was just bitter that I was doing yet another console release without my better half. It's like going to a New Year's party and not having someone to kiss at midnight. It's like winning without the celebration. I'm sick of being apart and days like this serve as a painful reminder that 200 miles and change is enough to make you lonely. Very lonely.

18 hours feels like cake in hindsight. I could've steeled myself to wait in the cold for days because it wasn't just a selfish endeavor: it was for "us." I like being an "us" and I don't really care about delayed releases of component cables, as long as wii [sic] can be an "us" over the holidays. That's what counts.