Wii crazy!

I recently purchased a Nintendo Wii for the family as a Christmas gift (and partly a birthday gift for my youngest brother, Miguel). I had a difficult time looking for it because my brothers decided to tell me that they wanted a Wii at the very last minute and all the stores I called were already sold out. On Monday, I phoned all Future Shop stores in Toronto and none of them had any left. Then I phoned the Best Buy store nearest work and miracle of miracles, they still had a few remaining. I asked them if they could hold one for me but they said it was being sold on a first come, first serve basis so I have no choice but to make my way to the store and get one.

So after work, Steve and I made our way to the Best Buy Store which was located 20 minutes away from the office… only that it took us an hour and forty minutes to get there! Apparently there was a car that caught fire on the highway and they had to close all lanes so all the cars heading east were going through the back roads hence, causing the huge traffic jam. I was already somewhat anxious because I was worried the store would run out of Wiis before I got there so being stuck in traffic for that long wasn’t helping me at all. Of course, you always get stuck behind some bad driver when you’re really rushing. I felt like getting out of the car, walking up the driver of the car in front of us and telling him/her off. But it was snowing like mad and everybody was pissed off as it is and getting off the car to tell someone off might not help the situation.

When we finally got to Best Buy, Steve and I made a bee line for the Gaming section. We frantically scanned the aisles trying to locate the Wii consoles. I was beginning to panic when we couldn’t find them. As it turns out, they had just been delivered earlier that day and they were still in big brown boxes in one corner instead of being on display. I stood in line to get one and I think it was obvious from the way I was fidgeting how anxious I was to get my hands on one of those. If someone had made the mistake of cutting me in line, I honestly think I would have jumped on them. Believe me, I was that crazy.

The sales clerk asked me if there was anything else I wanted to get. I told him I was also looking for Guitar Hero. He smiled at me and asked, "which one?". To which I replied with a confused, "The kind that works with the Wii??". He chuckled and said, "Yes, but there's more than one kind.."

To say that I was completely confused is an understatement. I told him to give me a minute while I phoned my brothers to ask which kind (he must think I'm one of those dumb girls that walk into electronic stores not knowing what to do in there). After speaking briefly to my brother, JR, I turned to him and said, "Apparently I'm supposed to get the Guitar Hero World Tour if there is such a thing.."

So he led us to another aisle, past frantic shoppers and finally to a big pile of boxes near the front of the store. Both Steve and I gawked at it. The boxes were a lot bigger than we expected. Immediately, my brain went into what I call "a shopper's instinct".. bigger boxes meant bigger price tags. So I just had to ask him, "Just out of curiousity, how much does it cost?" and he said, "$210.00"

Now I don't know about you, but that seemed awfully expensive for a video game! Normally, when I go shopping and see something that I think is waaayyy overpriced, I can still keep my cool and pretend that the prize doesn't faze me in the least bit. But this one caught me offguard and instead of just going "uh huh.. ok", I yelped with a loud, "This thing is TWO HUNDRED AND TEN FREAKIN' DOLLARS?!" It's as if I could hear every penny disappear from my wallet.

I did, however, end up getting both the Wii and the Guitar Hero World Tour. I think I would be staying away from shopping for awhile.. at least until I can recover from all the spending this month.

Did we atleast enjoy playing it? Absolutely!