Bonjour! Out of quarantine boredom, I’ve been brushing up on my French today. I took French in high school and college, but rarely have a chance to use it. So while I can pick out a few words here and there, I don’t remember as much as I should.
A few years ago, we traveled to Brussels where my sister-in-law lives with her family. There are three official languages spoken in Belgium; French, Dutch, and a tiny bit of German, so that was the first time I got the chance to practice my skills.
Many Belgians speak English as well, which was fortunate for me because the French I was able to recall was met with confused looks. We also had the benefit of our young niece who speaks fluent French and English (and even German!) She was quite the adorable translator.
Speaking of that trip, we are itching to travel abroad soon. Since we don’t have an essential need to travel, we wouldn’t be able to go to most countries even if wanted to. And until we’re all Covid-immunized, we don’t really want to. But that doesn’t stop us from dreaming and planning future trips.
In fact, I made Scotch eggs again the other day, and Ben’s response was, “It’s good, but would taste better if we were eating it in Belgian pub.” First of all, he’s not wrong. But secondly, what kind of bougie kids are we raising?
Our PS5 Mission
Like millions of others, we’ve been trying to get our hands on a new Sony PlayStation (PS5) before Christmas. Normally, we don’t celebrate extravagant Christmases where we go overboard with expensive gifts. The boys rarely ask for much, so we usually end up getting them a video game or two and whatever useful essentials they need. Dennis and I exchange one tor two practical gifts, and stockings are stuffed with yummy treats.
However, we’ve been waiting for a PS5 for over a year. We currently have both the PS3 and PS4. Not only are they used to play video games, but also as the primary streaming device for our TVs since we don’t have cable. Our current PlayStations are getting old, and no matter how many times we clean them with compressed air, they sound like a commercial jet at takeoff when they’re on. They are so loud! Plus, the controllers won’t hold a charge and we refuse to buy new ones because we want the PS5!
The boys knew that we planned to upgrade one of our PlayStations as soon as possible, and have long since made peace with the realization that it wouldn’t be before Christmas. But that hasn’t stopped Dennis and me from trying our darnedest to get our hands on one. We can probably chalk up this mission to quarantine boredom as well.
Mission Impossible: MI-PS5
If you’ve been following the PS5 saga at all, you may know that these consoles are being trickled out very slowly. They debuted on November 12 and immediately sold out. If there was some sort of pre-order before the launch, even as loyal Game Stop patrons for years, we weren’t privy to it.
After the launch, there have been a few occasions where either Walmart or Best Buy has announced a very limited number for sale either online or in stores. Dennis began to bird-dog these sites daily for announcements. As staunch labor union supporters, we rarely shop at Walmart. When we do, it’s because we’re out of town and it’s the only option. In fact, we’ve lived in our current town for five years and drive twice the distance to spend our money at other places.
However, the minute he learned that our local Walmart was due to get 4 consoles (that’s right, a total of FOUR), I was there as soon as they opened. Even though there wasn’t one customer in sight, all four were already gone.
Another Walmart further away announced they’d have 12 in stock, so I drove there. But there was a line of about 20 people ahead of me, so I confirmed with the employee that they’d received no more than 12, and left.
Dennis continued to closely monitor the internet for updates. Then we heard that Best Buy was going to have some for sale online this week! The announcements said “after 8 a.m. Central Time” so at 7 a.m. (since we’re on Mountain Time), Dennis and I each chose a local Best Buy, closely monitored the site and hit refresh. Due to the various error messages we were seeing, I also watched Twitter and Facebook to see what others were experiencing.
After two hours of refreshing, we revisited one word: “after.” The announcement stated the sale would begin after 8 a.m. So we settled into being held hostage by Best Buy for the day. I grabbed the laptop and got so comfy on the couch that I even dozed off between hitting refresh but woke up a half hour later and hadn’t missed anything.
Then, around 11 a.m., we started to see some action! The Coming Soon buttons changed to Click for Details. It wasn’t quite the Add to Cart we expected to see, but we soon found out that an extra step was added to limit bots and scalpers.
We each clicked Click for Details and sat watching an hourglass. For hours. Okay, probably just minutes, but a LOT of minutes. Then, Dennis finally got the Add to Cart button! Hooray! He added the PS5 to cart, entered payment info, but when he clicked Buy Now, he should have received confirmation about where to pick up the console. Instead, he was met with an error that said they were sold out at that location.
I continued to watch the other location, while Dennis shopped around in other cities. We covered all of Colorado (where we live), Missouri (where his parents and my sister lives) and Tennessee (where my parents live). He got close to buying one again, this time in Tennessee, when the same thing happened; despite the message that said it’s reserved once you’re in checkout. Lies!
We never got that close again. But then! We read that Walmart would have some online in an hour! We each set up accounts for Walmart, and started the process over. Within a few minutes, I had managed to put a PS5 in my cart. I even entered payment info, held my breath and hit “Buy Now” only to say my card was declined? A few seconds later, I received a text from my bank. Transaction declined due to suspicious activity. Maybe the universe (or our bank’s algorithm) was trying to tell us that we were doing the right thing by avoiding Walmart for all these years. Either that or having principles is overrated.
For the next hour, Walmart trickled out a few more PS5s at a time, but we didn’t have any luck. The kids weren’t concerned, they kept asking why we don’t just wait until next month or so. But we got swept up in consumerism and, to be honest, the challenge.
Stu
I’m going to leave you with the funniest, most relatable Saturday Night Live skit in recent years. But it makes me wonder: Whatever happened to Dido? Oh well, à bientôt!
Sometimes it is fun to join the other crazy people of the world and spend hours trying to get one item. It does say a lot about how your have raised your two sons. They could be in the back ground saying nasty things or acting liking a total jacka$$ because they are not getting what they want now.
Have a great holiday season and keep us updated on PS5 adventure