It's official!

Effective at 7:20am today, I became an official "Wii Waiter"!!! We knew that the Super Target in Spring Hill would have a shipment of Wiis this morning, but we didn't know how many.

When I asked the guys in Target what time they opened, they said 8am, followed by "good luck". Uh. OK. Steve set the alarm at 7am and promptly rolled back over when it went off. I laid there a few minutes wondering how I would explain to Jenna that we were too lazy to get out of bed and even try to get one. So, I went ahead, got dressed and headed to Target.

I had already decided if there was a line around the building that I would NOT be waiting. I got there and there were at least 50 cars in the parking lot. However, when I got closer, I figured out, it must be cars of all the workers because there were just a few people standing in line at the door. It was about 7:20 and 37 degrees out according to the truck's thermometer. I went up right behind an older man and his young teen son. There were three guys already there sitting on the Target bench, another man sitting on the ground, the father and son in front of me and me. I was the only woman in line, thank you very much.

I'm not sure who I expected to be in line with, but I was pleasantly surprised. I imagined there would be young men scalpers waiting to snatch the last Wii right before I could get one. But these guys, while young, were married and EXTREMELY funny, which made waiting all the more easy. If I had thought, I would have gotten out my camera and taken a picture of my fellow Wii Waiters. I have no idea what their names were or anything about them. All I know is that they wanted a Wii bad enough to come out at 7am (some earlier) on a Sunday morning to get one.

Anyway, as we were waiting, a Target worker came and as she was waiting on the manager to open the door for her, she asked if we were all waiting for a Wii. She said at Christmas, she did the same thing for her son and would be like number 4 in line and they'd only have 3...that's when I started to panic. I was number 6 in line and had no idea how many they would get in. I had heard the stories of "shipments" coming in just to find there are only 3 or 4 in the shipment.

About 15 till 8am, the manager came to the door, made sure we were truly Wii Waiters and started to hand out the golden tickets! OK, they weren't really golden, they were on red Target paper, but to those of us in line, they were GOLDEN! As the manager said, once you had a ticket, you were guaranteed a Wii, so there was no use in running or being crazy once they let us in. Now, mind you, I had been waiting in the cold since 7:20am and was number 6. It wasn't until about the time they started handing out the number that anyone else got in line behind me. So, I could have waited until 7:45 and still been good. At the point that I got into the store and was waiting on my Wii, they'd only handed out 10 tickets and they had 25 Wiis (I was told, I never actually saw all the Wiis...guess they have them under lock and key!)

They took two at a time, checked them out and then that was it. I was around the corner checking out other Wii accessories when I heard the "WOOOOOOHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" from #1 Wii Waiter who was the funny guy in line. The rest of us Wii Waiters laughed and cheered as he left Target with his Wii. Before I knew it, they called number 6 and I went forward to claim my prize. It took all of 30 seconds to check out (using my $5 off Target card) and that was it.

I walked out of Super Target in Spring Hill at 8:14am a proud Wii Owner, graduating from my short stay as a Wii Waiter.

I know probably nobody else really cares about this type thing, but for someone who minored in Sociology, this whole Wii experience was right up my alley. Looking at these other Waiters and wondering about them, their lives and how different we all were, yet life had brought us together for the same reason. It was truly a Breakfast Club moment. The #1 Waiter was somewhat of a Harley guy...Harley boots, chain, long hair in a pony tail, but otherwise clean cut. Then #3 Waiter was young, but already married, no kids. #5 was the man and his son. Behind me was an older lady (than me), and then behind her was a lady in her mid 60s I would guess getting a Wii for the senior center. How different we were...but all laughing and talking as if we were friends.

I walked out with the father and son who wished me a good day with my Wii. I'll probably never seen any of these folks again, although even if I did, I probably wouldn't recognize them or realize where I knew them from...

It was an interesting experience to say the least. And I'd sit and tell you more about it but Steve just finished hooked up the Wii, and so, well....you know...I gotta go. :)