The Quest for the PS3

I'm not much of a gamer. Somehow the gene that is found within 90% of the males from my generation that contains Video Game Ability was not handed out to me. We didn't have a Nintendo or other system growing up and I've still just never really embraced the Gamer mentality. My video game playing history is made of about 95% sports games, such as Madden and NBA Live. I pretty much suck at every other game and even the sports games I play almost always on the easiest level.

Over the course of the last few years I have owned 3 systems. When my used Play Station 2 crapped out I bought an Xbox. When I started grad school I decided I needed to be rid of all distractions and sold the Xbox. After my first semester of grad school was finished I bought an Xbox 360 as a reward. Recently I handed my 360 off to my brother because it had, in all honesty, become a very expensive DVD player. I just wasn't playing much. I thought my video game playing days were over.

And then the unexpected happened. I started missing the games. I'd come home early from time to time and want to do nothing more than load up NCAA Football and use Texas Tech to kick the crap out of Oklahoma (something that apparently can only happen in Video Game World). But there was no way I was going to spend the cash on a new system right after I got rid of mine.

Then over the Christmas break Lindsey and I went over to the McBrooms house (yes, the same people who run a Children's Gang) and I had my first extended contact with the PS3. We played a game called Buzz Quiz, which I've described as Trivial Pursuit for Dumb People. It is AWESOME! Everyone has a wireless buzzer and the questions lend themselves to useless sports, movie, and music knowledge, which I have an insane abundance of. I loved it. Lindsey loved it. And the door was open!

I came to the decision that I would wait on the PS3 until after the wedding. There were enough expenses to go around as it was. But upon entering a Soon To Be Closing Circuit City, I stumbled across a table displaying 2 PS3s at a ridiculously reduced price. My eyes widened, my jaw dropped, I drooled a little. I decided to hold off for the moment and think about this decision rather than making a spontaneous purchase (the bane of budgets everywhere).

I talked to Lindsey about this purchase. After all, any money spent here would be coming directly out of the Honeymoon Budget, if not the Life After Wedding Budget. In the end, I decided to buy the darned thing and for the first time ever, enjoy the very VERY small amount of money I now have. (Stress on the very.) We jumped in the car and headed to The Land of Circuits. Somewhere along the way Jason joined us and our quest began.

Upon pulling into the CC parking lot, it suddenly hit me that it was Friday evening and there would likely be a million people pouring into these stores looking for PS3s, greatest hits albums, and John Travolta movies. (Just kidding about that last one; nobody wants those.) Would the PS3 still be here? My concern was validated when we entered the store and found the table where the PS3s had been, empty. Blerg. I should have just bought the thing when I had the chance!

After numerous attempts to call other CC locations, my merry band of adventurers and I trekked on to the CC in Hulen. Now this CC was a completely different animal than the one in Hurst. The store had never been updated from the mid 90s and in general it had the feel of a New Orleans-like ransacked store being looted. Everyone here was very edgy, as if at any moment the entire crowd might grab whatever they could get their hands on and rush out in mass exodus. The seriously undermanned staff would be powerless to prevent this. We asked around and were told that the PS3 had sold out long ago. Blerg again.

After more calls to other CC locations, my ever increasingly agitated band of adventurers and I trekked to the CC in Lake Worth. Here it appeared that the looting that was about to take place at Hulen had already come to fruition. There was next to nothing of interest left. Defeated, we didn't even bother to ask any of the suspicious looking employees if they had any PS3s.

Defeated, we headed over the Matt and Angie's place. They informed us that they had been only minutes behind us at the CC in Lake Worth and had, in fact, seen numerous PS3s. Blerg! How could I have missed this? It was too late to make the trip back as the store was about to close. The next day I awoke with the dawn (that is a lie), brushed my teeth, threw a hat on and drove out to Lake Worth CC. I arrived 30 minutes before they opened and sat in the parking lot, along with another gentleman who apparently had the same idea. As the magical hour approached, more and more people started showing up. By the time the clock struck 10, two dozen cars full of people were waiting. I was the fourth person in the store and I made a bee line to the hidden spot Matt and Angie had spoken of. There, locked away in a vault even Wells Fargo would be proud of, was the fabled PS3.

After three Circuit Cities and five trips in total, my quest was ended. Many brave adventurers were lost along the way. But I got my PS3 in all its glory. And, true to form, the one game I bought was NCAA Football.