Like a Duck to Water

Z had never even touched a Gameboy before. My brother had tried earlier in the week to lead him in that direction -- "Look! There's a Gameboy display . . . let's go try it!" but Z had seemingly no interest. My brother's coy plan for Z picking out his own games fell flat.

We opened the Gameboy early. Norma had written on it "open first", meaning to that one should opening it as the first of the Auntie Emily presents . . . not necessarily as the first present.
Z, however, took the written message to heart.

As an aside, Norma is my wrapping elf, she being better at it AND obsessive complusive about clutter. If you just leave gifts at her house (where we open them anyhow) she will wrap them just to get them under the tree and out of her dining room. So free professional gift wrapping without all the hassle of even standing there watching.

The problem with getting a Gameboy from your Aunt (instead of from Santa or something) is that Gameboys don't come fully charged in the box. So we had to plug it in and wait. And wait. And wait even more. And then there were no more presents and the adults were borin'. So we started playing Gameboy before it was fully charged and just left it plugged into the wall.

It was an hour and a half later when he came up for air . . . and that was only because he had to go to the bathroom. He tried to get my brother D. to play the game while he was "away" but my brother wouldn't go for it. We had to pry his little hands off it at 1 a.m. so he would go to bed. If it had been fully charged, I'm sure he would have slept with it . . . lovingly cradled in his arms while it played that annoying music over and over.

In the morning, the adults discovered the "joy of headphones" and he was jacked in until he had to shower. Unfortunately, he smarted off to his mother about not doing karate moves in the shower so there is no Gameboy for a whole week. Of course, while he was back talking to his mother, my brother was playing Jedi Clone Wars downstairs. So my brother and his best friend (who bought one for himself for Xmas) now get to play Gameboy with each other for a whole week without an eight year old hissing "give it back! It's MINE!" while Z is off visiting relatives.

My mother has already started knitting with the sock yarn I got her and my father is unsure about the ipod . . . it's still in the box and will remain there until we go to the Apple store tomorrow and touch all the other kinds. My other brother, J, almost had him convinced to open the box but I still have to go early tomorrow and touch the ipods. This would be much more fun if I hadn't agonized over this purchase for two weeks. I've already been to the Apple store. I've been to more than one Apple store. I have touched all the ipods. Stroked them lovingly and decided on a black Nano in the last second . . . and bought the second to last one in the store. It's wafer thin . . . (should be said with a British accent, a la Monty Python)

My brother J was amazed that I found a Nano on the day before Xmas Eve and then was even more amazed that there are Apple stores that you can walk into and touch stuff. I then pointed out to my father that we could just go to the Apple store and exchange the Nano for something bigger, if that was what he wanted, and he too was amazed that there was an Apple store that you could walk into and touch stuff. I am amazed that the two most technologically advanced geeks in my life DON'T GET OUT MUCH . . . and don't know what stores are in the mall. My brother owns, like, four ipods and he didn't know there was a store. (we will not go into why my brother has four ipods or where the hell he gets them, it's too painful for my head)

So my holiday was absolutely lovely. Hope yours was too. Say a little non-denominational prayer for me . . . I'm going to the mall in 6 hours.