* This post was started some time ago, and finally just got around to finishing it.

Several months ago, Phil called me up, and said, “You are going to kill me,  . . . . but I bought a Playstation 3.”

He was right.

“You did what?” I screamed back.

I am Phil’s financial angel of sorts.  I sit on his shoulder and tell him what I think would be a good or bad purchase. I had been sitting on his shoulder for well over a month telling him I didn’t think buying a PS3 for the purpose of getting a Blu-Ray player was worth it.  I told him just to wait, and maybe he would get one(a Blu-Ray) for Christmas or something.  This tactic worked for a while, but I could see the want factor starting to shine through. I guess I just didn’t realize how bright the want factor was because as soon as I left him alone for a weekend, he trotted off to the store and bought one.  Of course, he didn’t buy it without any outside influence.  With me gone, a little devil appeared on Phil’s other shoulder.  The little devil was Phil’s brother, Steve.

“Your brother played a part in this, didn’t he?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And he whispered, ‘Buy me, buy me’, in your ear, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, you should of heard him.”

“And what about me?  What did I have to say?”

“Well, I sorta stopped listening to you and flicked you off my shoulder.  Sorry, Gabe, but Steve the Devil won.”

That is when I told him that it was his money, and that he could do anything with it, but that I thought a Nintendo Wii would have been a much better investment.  This was of course the more evil side of Gabe trying to worm the idea of buying a Wii into Phil’s brain.  🙂

For the next couple of weeks, every time we would go to Best Buy or Game Stop to see the PS3 games available, I would make Phil look at the Wii games, too.  I wanted to point out all games we could have been playing had he bought a Wii instead.  He always laughed at me and then used the excuse that we would have to find a Wii first before we could buy it.  This is when Wii’s were next to impossible to find.  Well, somehow my insistent behavior started to wear Phil down because out of the blue one day, Phil suggested that we start looking for one.  He thought it would be an adventure.  Phil likes adventures.  That is the only reason I think he decided to join me in China. 🙂

The search began with us going to stores in our free time just to see if anyone had one in stock. The answer was always,  “No, and good luck.”  We found out from Wal-Mart that Wii’s were delivered by UPS Monday through Friday and usually at lunch time.  Wal-Mart said that they didn’t know when they were going to get them until they arrived, but that we could always call and ask if they had.  So, for the next several weeks, on the weekends or when we would be out running errands, we would run into stores that could possibly have them and ask.  The answer still hadn’t changed.

One Friday, Phil decided that he was sick of stores not having a Wii in stock and wanted to search until he found one.  He jokingly said that he didn’t care if he had to drive all the way to Georgia.  I told him that he just might have to do that considering every store in Columbia that we had checked was sold out.  I also told him that it would be wiser to wait until Saturday morning since most stores beside Wal-Mart were already closed.  It was after nine.

I doubted that we would get out of bed early enough the next day to actually search because Phil loves to sleep, but a little after nine in the morning, my friend Shaun decided to call and wake us the hell up.  He wanted to know if I was going to show up at DnD or not – at 9:15 in the freaking morning.  We don’t start playing til around 2!! The phone call was somehow enough to wake Phil up and get him out of bed, which is a miracle in and of itself at 9:15 a.m., especially on a Saturday.  He looked at me and said, “Lets go find a Wii.”

An hour or two later, yeah, we are slower than molasses, we headed out on our own Wii Venture!  We didn’t have any sort of plan.  We just drove.

We ended up first at a K-mart we hadn’t been to yet, but they said they didn’t have one.  We swung by a Wal-Mart that we don’t go to often, but they didn’t have any either.  Across the street was a GameStop and decided to check it out even though they never have them.  Surprisingly, they said they had one, but it was used – still in good condition, but used.  We were given the option to buy a waranty, but we decided to wait to and see if we could find a new one else where.  While we were there, though, we noticed they had a Wii Fit in stock, which was and still is sometimes hard to find. We made a mental note to come back for it if our adventure was sucessful.  We ran to a Best Buy and another Game Stop, but no dice.  Even though we had been to it a hundred times we decided to swing by the Wal-Mart near Phil’s apartment, but the shelves were empty there, too. We were starting to get depressed.  We had almost exhausted the stores in the near vicinity.  I didn’t want to drive all over South Carolina to just to find a Wii, but it was starting to look like that.  We were on a time schedule, too.  I had to be at DnD at 2:00.

Several miles up the road, a new Wal-Mart had been built, and since we never go there, we thought we should check it out.  As we walked into the store, I crossed all my finger and toes.  I walked up to the lady at the electronics counter and asked the same question I had been asking all morning.

“Do you have an Wii’s in stock?”

She shook her head and said, “No.”  My hope instantly deflated.  “But,” she continued, “The Winnsboro Wal-Mart has tons of them.  You should go there, but you are the third person we’ve told, so I would hurry.”

As soon as we figured out how to get to Winnsboro, we ran for the exit and quickly sped away in Phil’s Buick Skylark hoping for the best.  For those of you who don’t know, who I am assuming to be the majority, Winnsboro is a small city/town about 25 miles away.  Not too far I know, but far enough to try and find a Wii!  The whole way there, Phil and I tried to figure out the odds of actually finding one.  Winnsboro is pretty small, and I couldn’t imagine them having many in stock.  Plus,  there were the three other customers who had been told the same thing as us.  They could very well have gotten there and bought the last of them.  I again crossed my fingers.

I’m sure the people in the parking lot thought we were nuts.  As soon as the car was in a parking spot, Phil and I leaped out of the car and took of running for the front door. We were walking like our shoes were on fire.  The set up of the store was a little different than what we were used to, but we eventually found the seemingly floating electronic sign telling us where to go.

I got to the aisle first.  My eyes immediately began to scan the glass cases.  Xbox, PS3, PS2, NDS, and then finally, the Wii section.  And there she was – pretty as could be.  I couldn’t believe it.  I think I may have danced a little.  🙂

There were no Wal-Mart associates near by, so I made Phil stand watch while I went and found one.  Eventually, I found one hiding and demanded that she let my Wii free.  Minutes later we were the proud owners of a brand new Nintendo Wii.  I let Phil carry it out because I just knew I would stumble, fall, and kill it.  That sort of thing always happens to me.

On the way home, we remembered that one of the Game Stops had a Wii Fit.  I had wanted one for a long time – my jeans are too tight – so off we went to add it to our joyous day.  A smidge after two we arrived home.  Phil immediately began to set it up, but I had no time to stay and play. I had Orcs and demons to slay.  The waiting was torture!!

It’s been weeks now since we bought the Wii, and I can say that I am very happy.  I wish that I had more time to play because there are a lot of cute games out there.  Perhaps over the holidays I can finally enjoy it to its fullest.  I’ll be looking forward to it. I’ll surely need the Wii Fit after I eat a turkey and a couple of pumpkin pies.  🙂

And if for some reason you came upon this post because you can’t decide which system to blow your money on – I’ll leave with the four reasons why you should choose a Wii over a PS3 any day of the week.

1) It’s way cheaper. (Who cares if the graphics don’t make me feel like I’m standing in realistic world besides my own.)

2) It’s way cuter.  (I’m sorry, but Mario and all of his crazy-ass friends stole my heart at the age of – I don’t know – I was young.)

3) It’s way more interactive. (The PS3’s 6 axis controller can kiss my butt.)

4) And the games and add-ons are cheaper, too. (You’ll get many more games to play out of your dollar if you go the Wii way.)