Nobody Loves Me Like DDR

DDR, or Dance Dance Revolution (Hottest Dance Party), is my home exercise of choice. I have an eliptical machine. HATE IT. The weather is too gross for outdoor exercise. And so I usually do DDR when I don't feel like dragging my kids to the gym to get yet another disease from the germ-fest daycare. And can I just say, my DDR is SO NICE TO ME!

Whenever I choose a new song, even if it's one that I got an E on last time (E, as in, Embarrassingly bad), it says, "Nice Choice!!!". Why, thank you, DDR.

While I'm dancing, the screen sends out encouraging messages like "Perfect!" "Marvelous!" "Great!" and "Good." The constant positive feedback is so uplifting.

And occasionally it shouts things like, "I'm loving it!" no matter how good or bad my dancing actually is.

When I finish a song, it says, "Nobody can move like you do!" And that's true. My moves are quite unique.

Even when I do badly, it doesn't berate me. It only says, "Aw, you can do better than that" or "That's OK. Try again!" If only I had such quiet encouragement in all aspects of my life. My life would be more like this:

"You didn't pay the gas bill this month? That's OK. Try again."
"This cheese stick has been sitting here under the table for three days. Aw, you can do better than that."
" Wow, my shirt is ironed to perfection! Nobody moves like you do."
" Nap time, Mommy? Nice choice!"
" Another time out? I'm loving it!"
and
" Grilled Cheese for dinner again. Marvelous!"

Sounds good, right? I think I'll write to Nintendo and ask them to start doing training classes for spouses and kids of Wii owners. Maybe a petition. Whose with me?


Here. It's your own personal copy, in case you aren't lucky enough to have the positive life coach I now have:

Wii Would Like to Play

We finally got a Wii! After we got back our sweet tax return, Big Daddy and I decided to spend it wisely towards paying off bills and such. But we wanted to do one splurge. So we voted to get a Wii (having had such fun playing it at Tib’s that one time). Easier said than done! Who knew they were still in such high demand that it would become a huge ordeal trying to get one? I didn’t. But as it turns out, even though Christmas is months gone, there are still not enough Wii’s to go around. Getting one is kind of like getting a Cabbage Patch Doll was in 1985. But I was determined, so I got a plan of action. First, I found 13 stores within a 10 mile radius of my house that carry or have recently carried Wii’s, all of whom were currently out of stock, of course. None of them have a set schedule for getting Wiis. The Nintendo company has a mystical, top secret method to deciding who gets Wii’s and when. No one knows ahead of time—the Wii's just show up. So I got the same advice at every place I called: “Your best bet is just to camp out every day from 9-11am, just in case we get Wii's on the morning truck.” Yeah right. I’m going to get up, get showered and dressed, eat breakfast, get my kids showered, dressed and breakfasted, all by 8:45am, and then proceed to hang out with them at 13 different stores simultaneously while I wait to see IF Wii’s show up. So I decided my time would be better served spending ½ hour every morning calling all the stores and hoping I could get to one in time if Wii’s showed up there. I made a list: GameStop in American Fork, Wal-mart in American Fork, Wal-mart in Pleasant Grove, Wal-mart in Orem, Target in American Fork, Target in Orem,GameStop in Orem, GameStop in Springville, Best Buy in A.F., Best Buy in Orem, Circuit City in Orem, Costco in Lehi,…you get the picture. But after several days, no luck. No one had any Wii’s and no one had any clue when, or if, they would get any. Big Daddy proclaimed pessimistically that we would never ever get a Wii…it was impossible. But I didn’t give up. I knew that GameStop got regular shipments, more so than any of the other stores. So I kept up calling them. I even showed up on Valentine’s Day just as the UPS truck was arriving to see if any would be in it. No luck. Then today, just as I was about to join Big Daddy in throwing in the towel, I made my way down the list to the GameStop in Springville. When the tech-nerd answered the phone, I asked if his shipment had arrived. He said in the now familiar monotone voice that one acquires when they spend 600x more time with machines than humans , “Um…ya.” I then inquired, “Are there any Wii’s?” “There WERE Wii’s.” “Were?” “Yes, they’re all sold out.” “But it’s only 10:15!” “Um, ya. There was a line of people here to get them at 10am.” Shoot! (That’s me talking). I thought I had missed out again. But then the thought occurred to me that if the GameStop in Springville had gotten Wii’s today, maybe the one in A.F. had too. I had called them 15 minutes earlier, but the shipment had not arrived yet. So I called them again and, low and behold, they actually had received Wii’s and they actually still had some! I offered the tech-nerd $10 to hold one for me. He declined. I offered him $20, but he still declined. I was about to offer him sexual favors, but--working at GameStop like he did--I figured that wouldn't mean much to him either. So I threw the kids in the car, Daphne still in her Pajamas, Beck with no coat, me with no make-up, and drove like a bat out of hell to the GameStop. The parking lot looked pretty busy for 10:30am. I started to panic. When I walked in, there were 3 other people already in line ahead of me. But to my surprise, all three of them paid and left without a Wii. Was I already too late? I approached the clerk with apprehension, almost afraid to ask…”Do you still have Wii’s?” He looked at me with the superior snootiness that all tech-savvy geeks use when speaking to average lay people and informed me in a purposely bored voice that he hadn’t even cut open the crate yet. ARGH!!! I mean, Woohoo! So what if he was making light of my anxiety. I had a Wii!

$400 later, I walked proudly out of the store with my Wii, an extra nun-chuck, Wii Play with the extra controller, and Raging Rabbids 2. Victory! And the kids were still alive in the car when I got back. Bonus! Now to figure out how to hook this dang thing up.

WHO WANTS TO PLAY Wii??!!

Ode to Wii

I have my friend Tiburon to thank for my new obsession: the Wii game station. We (Kelly and I) played it at her house the other day with her and her husband. It was SO fun! We did bowling, golf, and this insane game called Raging Rabbids (pictured above). I can't remember the last time I liked video gaming so much. Not only is it semi-active (you actually have to get up and move to play it), but at least from the games we played I am super pleased with the fact that the games are FUN games (remember that? When video games were fun?) and not just murder-fantasy games or sports games. We have an xbox and I never play it. With the exception of Dance Dance revolution, I don't like any of the games for it. We own many and have rented more, but there's just nothing I dig. I like the old-school games like Super Mario Brothers and Klax. So these Wii games seem right up my ally. Now the problem: We don't own a Wii! Kelly wants to wait until they "crack" it before he buys one, but I'm ready to start saving up now. I'm jonesing! Tib, you might be seeing a lot more of me soon. If I start dropping by unannounced, don't be surprised. Hey, I'll bring treats! (Well, if you consider caramel rice cakes treats).