MW 3 Midnight Release Party 11/7/11

I finished my shift which usually signals the start of the end of my day, however on this night, I had a promise to keep. He had worked so hard, and saved his money. He waited for this night to come, counting down the days for weeks now.

I stopped in at Game Stop before my shift and paid off his game. I asked the clerk honestly, what time should we show up for this midnight release shin dig.

"We are expecting over 300. You can start lining up at 6:00pm to get your wristband."

Seriously?

We left the Sleepyhouse around 11:30pm, driving through the dark, hoping to avoid the jumpy deer. Arriving back in the city we saw the line at Toys R Us and the line at Best Buy, and I was a little surprised to see a few dozen lined up. When we pulled past the parking lot of Game Stop, my jaw dropped. Yes, 300 is about the correct number. I'm such a mom.

We had to park at Target and walk over through the dropped evidence of a serious tailgate party, Mountain Dew cans, bags of Chilpolte. The ratio of male to female, 297 to 3. The 3 included myself and two other moms.

We took our place at the back of the line just about at midnight, but were told we first needed to go inside and pick up our wrist bands. This turned out to be a lucky break because we were actually inside the store at the stroke of midnight to catch sight of the few lucky gamers who had indeed been waiting since 6:00pm.

DS16 brought the video camera. I'm hoping soon, when they decide to stop playing, he will upload the video and I can share it here. There were people dressed up in costume. The crew from Raven, a local video game design company, were there too. I don't know why. This wasn't a game they had designed.

Wristband in hand, we went back outside to wait our turn back in. The line did move quickly and we had our game in hand around 12:30am.

Walking back to the car, we had to avoid a few crazy ones, peeling out to race home and play, but several groups remained to party on. My favorite group were the air horns. They kept blasting their air horn to show their excitement. I couldn't resist. I shouted out, "We need more air horn!" Of course they obliged.

Driving back home to our sleepy bedroom community, we came across a pair of moronic raccoons. (Maybe all raccoons are morons?) I slowed down and one ran off, but the other turned and tried to scamper off directly in front of us for several yards. We also witnessed several deer backsides, but thankfully, their timing was much better than the raccoons and we didn't hit any.

DS16 made it to 2:00am, DS12 made it to 3:00am. They were both awake again by 8:30am, plugged back in. They are taking breaks to eat. That is good.