Feb 20, 8:15 am
I’ve done a terrible thing. Well, actually it’s not terrible. Had it gone according to plan, I would be a very happy girl right now. But it didn’t go to plan, and now I’m a sad panda until it’s all set right again. Let me tell you a story.
n the Before Time, the Long Long Ago, there was a girl. She was a happy thing, and loved to play games… on the train, in the car, at work, at home. It didn’t realy matter where. And she could do it because she had the help of her friends: the DS and the GBA SP. She had a PSP as a minor acquaintance, and had tried to be friends once, but it was one of those situations where you stand around awkwardly and then leave at the first opportunity, then avoid its phone calls.
The girl loved making her friends beautiful. Hadn’t she traded away her black GBA SP to replace it with a rare white one, braving the after-Thanksgiving sales to do so? She had! But she had stuck with her original silver DS. Neither blue or red were sleek enough to sway her, and the pink didn’t match her personality (and everyone knows how important that is). Perhaps if there was an orange… but there wasn’t. It was not beautiful, but it had a big heart, and she loved that.
Then, one day, she heard of the unicorn: a white DS, import only. “No,” she said, “I’ll keep this silver one.” But even as she said it, she knew it was only a matter of time before she cracked. Like a good girl, she had an eye for the things that boys just couldn’t understand… like the appeal of matching her GBA SP and her DS. How adorable would that be?
Yes, it was just a matter of time.
One crisp morning in January, she did it. She ordered an import white DS (pure white, it was called, like a poem) from the trusty dealer, Lik-sang. A confirmation email appeared in her inbox. She read it over and smiled. 7-10 days, and she would hold the unicorn in her hands. Another email came. She glanced at the subject. Your Order for NDS Pure White 110v, it said. “It’s shipped!” she thought. And with that, she emailed her friend, a canadian who had been exiled from his homeland to the jungles of Los Angeles for crimes no one knew (and he wasn’t saying), and she agreed to sell her original DS to him. Well loved, a few scratches on the outside, guarded by a ferocious screen protector, and for a great deal. She agreed to send it off as soon as her new best friend arrived via the post.
A few days went by, then a few more. And still no package greeted her when she got home. “Perhaps I’ll track it,” she thought, and checked that old email.
Please kindly note that our initial stock of “Nintendo DS (Pure White) 110V” has been sold out, product has been changed to “back order” as shown in our website. Original shipment was anticipated to be back in about a week only, but it is unfortunately delayed. We will keep checking with the supplier, your order will be sent as soon as new stock arrives.
After all that, it was back ordered. She had a good cry, then dried her eyes and drank a bit of tea to calm down. A sense of resignation set in. Well, it could only be a few days, right? Of course more will be coming soon. So she set in to wait, grateful that she still had her silver DS, though her canadian friend might not be so content.
Days slipped by. She checked her email every day, hoping for word that her new friend would be winging its way to her. Nothing came.
Then, one day, she read the news. The DS now had a baby brother: the DS Lite. And worse? It already came in white. It was smaller, sleeker, brighter, and even the mic had been moved. And it wouldn’t be coming out until March, and then only in Japan. The canadian wouldn’t wait that long.
But she knew she wanted it. She was already waiting. How much worse could a few more days be? Days stretching out into bleak weeks of anticipation… it could be bad. But she would do it.
With a heavy heart, she fulfilled her obligations. She sent her DS away, and she settled in. Her white DS had not come, and now it never would. But she had high hopes for the Lite. She still had her white GBA SP, and it did its best to comfort her. She played Final Fantasy and smiled, but it wasn’t the same. She had grown so accustomed to carrying that hulk in her purse, and touching the screen, and speaking into it, and racing with her friends. Would her new friend, the DS Lite, have the same comforting appeal? She hoped so.
March 2 couldn’t come fast enough.
- jinx
the same routine flicking through the tv
