Wii Camping Experience

This is my experience camping out for the Nintendo Wii.

The people at the head of the line were on top of things. They came up with a system where everyone in line got a number written on their hand in marker. Once you had a number, you could leave the line to go get stuff from your car or walk to a gas station to go to the bathroom (which I did). It made the whole thing stress free.

The same people brought a TV and were playing movies. It turns out that I have very little interest in the Chipmunks Christmas Special. But at about 1am someone brought a Wii he had gotten at Wal-Mart and hooked it up to the TV. It was interesting to watch them play Wii Sports but when they started playing Zelda I quit watching (I didn't want to ruin the game for me).

I soon found out that I am no longer in the hard-core Nintendo demographic. For one, I don't work at a game store. For two, I was the oldest person there. For three, one of the people waiting was a freshman in High School. That made me feel really old.

But everyone was really nice. Don't know what to say about that but it was pretty easy to talk to people. Although, no one discussed names. I only knew what number they were in line.

It was cold. Above freezing but just barely. I was really glad that Ariel convinced me to bring a sleeping bag. But even that wasn't really enough. I eventually realized that I could keep 95% of my body warm and some part of me was just going to have to be cold. When the cold part got too cold I would change my covering scheme. Sometimes my ankles slightly exposed (under my jeans of course) and sometimes my face would be slightly exposed. I discovered that I couldn't even read the book I brought because having my fingers out (even in gloves) was to cold.

Combine that with sitting in a chair all night and I didn't really get much sleep. I maybe slept 2 hours that night.

Then after a long and uncomfortable night, around 6am a manager came out and told us that they would be giving out tickets at 7 and we could get the systems at 8. That perked everyone up. She handed out cards explaining what they had for sale to get people thinking about what they were going to buy.

At seven, we all lined up at the door in order of our numbered hands and the manager gave out numbered tickets. Then we got to go home for a bit.

I grabbed some cereal and tried not to sit down for fear that I would fall asleep.

A little before 8, we went back and lined up again in numerical order. Then they started letting us in 2 by 2. The store hadn't opened yet so it kinda felt like they were opening it up just for us. Like a rich person going to Tiphany's to pick out jewelry, except we weren't rich and this was Target.

About 30 seconds after they let my pair in, they let the rest go in. And we all lined up again in the electronics section. One by one an employee asked us "what would you like", meaning games and accessories. It kinda felt like having a gaming butler.

I asked for Zelda, an extra remote and an extra nunchuck (it attaches to the remote) but they were already out of the nunchucks. So I stormed out of there in a huff.

Okay, I bought everything else on my list and when home to set up the system.

After a an hour or so of play, I crashed and slept for a couple hours. Later that afternoon, I took another 2 hour nap. Then I went to bed at 8pm and got up at 8am. It felt very much like being sick.

I'm still feeling shell shocked from the experience. I have become much less tolerant of the cold. My showers have become longer because I can't stand the idea of getting out of the warmth. I am much happier laying in a warm bed.

Okay, I can't come up with any more examples than that but it really has altered my perspective. It really makes me feel fortunate that I have shelter at night and feel really bad for homeless people. Because even the people who wear a bunch of layers can't be warm enough. I only suffered in the cold for one night but some people do it every night.

Ignoring that last depressing paragraph, I am glad I did it. It was interesting (if a bit miserable) and I have my Wii.

mwz