I was out and about today doing a little Christmas shopping. My retail excursions as of late go something like this:
- enter store
- scrounge around for list in jeans pockets (front and back), shirt pockets (both breasts) and jacket pockets until I find my tattered gift buying agenda
- start decisively by locating a list item
- spot an unlisted item of interest on a nearby shelf
- try to recognize recording artist setting the mood over the PA
- eyes glaze over
- aimless wandering ensues for 1.5-2 hours... give or take a few hours depending on the other stores within walking or short driving distance
- decisions are eventually made, currency is handed over for goods (not necessarily list items mind you), and I somehow find my way back home.
That's how my shopping trips play out. I think I might have a mild form of seasonally induced dementia that surfaces when I go into a place of commerce and try to accomplish a goal or two. I wander, I mull, I think, I get distracted, I wander some more, I find something for myself and justify buying it, I find something for Nell, I crave soda, the TVs are bright and pretty, I find a CD to add to my ever growing list, I realize this is not the time to buy something for myself and put the previously picked item back on a shelf justifiably close to its product category according to my special linking criteria that may or may not be appreciated by the store associates, and I see what all the fuss us about regarding this season's must have items that I've heard about via the news (mainly NPR).
Which brings me to the title of this post and why the image of the lovely Nintendo Wii gaming system is adorning this post.
This afternoon, while on walkabout in the Port Richmond Target, I found myself transfixed by a video display running an infomercial about all the things you can do with a Wii. (Background - I haven't owned a video game system since the original Nintendo console and I never got into PC gaming. Bottom line - I'm just not a gamer and don't have the time to waste.)
So, as I am watching the video, becoming more and more impressed by the minute -- practically tearing up and getting hopeful and reveling in the redemptive possibilities that the Wii holds for saving the youth of America from the pudgy grip of epidemic obesity -- another young man joins me, basking in the LCD's glow. A dialog ensued...
- young man: Damn yo, Wii is tiny. Look at how small it is, that's cool.
- me: Yo... (ellipses indicates dramatic pause) Wii is Phat!
- young man: I know right. Now I just gotta figure out how to take this (said as he shakes the display model encased in acrylic).
- me: Yo, I don't know about that dawg, but I do know that somebody already grabbed the controller, it ain't there.
- young man: Aw man yo, now I gotta find another one...
Could it be that I received an early Christmas present -- the gift of glossolalia? How else could this linguistic connection be explained?
