Wii-pocalypse

The Wii-pocalypse occurred on Sunday, and I was thankfully able to secure my ticket to the rapture.

We camped out at Target on Saturday night, and were 56th in line for 81 Wiis. We got there around 2:30AM and Tricia slept comfortably in my 20-degree rated sleeping bag with a pad, while I suffered some minor CBD (Cold-Butt Disorder) from sitting in my folding chair.

They handed out tickets for the people in line around 7AM and started letting people in to buy them in groups of 10 at 8AM. Finally we made our purchases and got home by 9:30AM. So, it was 7-hours wait in the cold, but so far from the scant hours I've played Zelda and Wii Sports, it was well worth it.

Oh, did I mention that my girlfriend is frickin' awesome to camp out with me?!

The coolest thing to happen during the whole ordeal was right at the end:

They passed out tickets at about 7AM, and then most people woke themselves up and de-camped, moving their gear back to their cars and taking breaks to get food and stuff. A few latecomers arrived occasionally, but at the news that there were no tickets, they all headed back home.

At around 7:45, this SUV speeds up, and a bright eyed kid jumps out and runs up to the line.

"Is this the line for the Wii?!" he says, breathless, stuttering in excitement. "Is this... are you waiting for the Nintendo Wii?"

"Yeah," someone tells him, "But they already passed out the tickets."

"Oh." You can see he doesn't really know what this means. "But, is that the end of the line?"

"Yes, but do you have a ticket?"

"No..." You can see in his eyes that his worst fear has come true: he didn't get there in time. "But, maybe I'll just wait... because... I don't know."

"Well, they already passed all the tickets out."

"Oh." Finally it sinks in and he realizes it's all for naught.

"You could try going and asking if there are any extra, but there were 81 tickets and they passed them all out."

"Ok." He turns, face drooping, and begins to run towards the front, still hoping that if he hurries, maybe, just maybe he can still get it.

Suddenly, a woman says, "Hey Kid."

"Hey Kid."

He turns and she holds out a ticket.

"Here's a ticket."

"Really?" He says, and it's like Charlie found the Golden Ticket. "You don't need it?"

"No," the woman says, "I already have one. I'm just waiting to buy some games."

The kid grabs the ticket and runs full tilt to the end of the line.

A while later he comes back with his Mom, who thanks the woman and makes sure she really doesn't need the ticket.