Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!

On a glorious, hot day in June, Alex and I drove down to Atlantic City so he could pick up $500 in Best Buy gift cards at Harrah's. Casinos are constantly giving away shwag to their players, in an attempt to get players into the casino, where they will hopefully lose much more $$ than whatever the value of the shwag that got them into the casino in the first place. Alex has gotten plenty of casino shwag over the years: t-shirts galore; desk planners; Macy's gift cards; a mini car-fridge; a VUDU; a GPS for the car; concert tickets; massages; a summer trip to Tahoe; a New Year's cruise to the Caribbean (that's for this coming New Year--my first cruise, my first time to the Caribbean--I will be purchasing a "Best of Billy Ocean" album to set the proper tone). Shwag a-plenty has dotted our lives over the past few years, allowing us to live as if we have some money (seriously, when am I ever gonna have enough funds to justify taking a yacht cruise around Lake Tahoe for an afternoon?). The shwag takes the sting out of some losses (coming back to an all-expenses-paid luxury suite after a bad run at the blackjack table serves as a reminder of sorts as to how fickle fortune can be) and it allows us some little luxuries that we'd never otherwise know (as if I would EVER spend $90 on an entree if I was paying for it with real money). Because as much as Alex's job has all these little perks that allow us to live the high-life sometimes, the reality is that we're kind of broke. In fact, all I have is debt!
So when we got the $500 in Best Buy cards, we debated for a time as to how they should be spent. Should this be fun-money or wise-woney? We could use the gift cards to make sound purchases, replace our broken DVD player, for example. Or we could hold onto them and use them to buy holiday gifts for the friends and family on our list. That would be using the money wisely, right? But then, this is Best Buy we're talking about. No matter how "wisely" we might choose to spend our $500, it would still be $500 spent on electronics. There are no "necessities" to be purchased there, no groceries or medicine or winter coats. One day, we actually took a walk to Best Buy, just so we could window-shop and see if there were any items that could be construed as "necessities". Nothing. So the decision was made: We had $500 of fun-money to be spent at Best Buy, woo hoo!! But what to spend it on?
We began small. While still in New York, we purchased the first 3 seasons of "The Muppet Show". Brilliant!! I loved the Muppets when I was a kid, I have very clear memories of watching it in my Ohio home, and "The Muppet Movie" is one of my all-time favorites. Now, we've got the Muppets hanging out with Sly Stallone, Gilda Radner, Vincent Price. Brilliance galore!! My next purchase was an iPod adaptor for the car, so our cross-country drives will have less time spent scanning through Christian radio in search of decent tunage. Excellent investment! But these purchases still left us with $350 to be used however we saw fit. What to buy, what to buy...
When I was a kid, my parents bought an Atari for me and my brothers. Oh, how I loved playing video games! Donkey Kong, Qbert, Pitfall, I couldn't get enough. This was back in the day when video games were first becoming a part of our every day culture, when Pac-Man became a Saturday morning cartoon show AND a breakfast cereal with ghostie marshmallows. This was back in the day when video games were played with a "joystick", an actual stick-like device where one hand controlled the movement on screen and the other hand held the joystick and pressed the single red button to fire/jump/turn/whatever needed to take place. That was it: a stick and a button. My 10-year-old hands had no trouble operating a joystick, my 10-year-old brain had no trouble following the action on the screen. We never moved beyond Atari in the McLynn household, but the world moved far, FAR beyond. Fast-forward to the modern age of Nintendo. There are no more joysticks; there are now controllers with numerous buttons and wands and wheels. My hands feel big and clumsy on them. Alex has kept somewhat up-to-date with gaming systems. Well, not at all "up-to-date", as he's still playing Madden '05 on his Game Cube. But he LOVES playing video games, video games have been a big part of his Vegas experience. In his pre-Meg Vegas life, back when he was living with 5 guys in a 2-bedroom apartment, he and his roommates would have nightly "Mario Kart" races, which Alex generally won. Alex finds video games to be an excellent reliever of stress and anxiety: they allow his mind to focus on anything BUT numbers, allow his brain to slow down for a bit and focus on the immediate problem of beating his record-high racing time. It's actually therapeutic for him, and trust me, with the sky-high stress levels that come with his profession, I fully support him playing video games to unwind at night. Me, well, I find video games to CAUSE stress: I can't steer, keep driving off the road, come in last place every time, there's too many frickin' buttons, ARGH. I've been trying to play with Alex, but it's more a matter of him WAITING for me to catch up to wherever he's at. Not much fun for anyone. If only I knew how to use the controllers! But I'm decades behind on the technology, I don't know if those brain-to-finger synapses are still firing, and without proper command of the controllers, I am shit-out-of-luck in the gaming world. If only there were controllers that I could figure out, controllers that would even the playing field in the McLynn-Fayer household. If only...

For those of you who are familiar with today's gaming systems, you probably see where I'm headed here. The other day, Alex and I went to Best Buy and spent the rest of our shwag money on a new gaming system, the Nintendo Wii. The Wii has a controller with multiple buttons and looks just as daunting as most other modern-day controllers. Except it works in an entirely different fashion. Instead of me controlling all the action onscreen by pressing buttons and scrolling around, I am controlling the action by moving my body. Like, playing baseball, when I'm at bat and I want to swing at a pitch, I swing my arm as if I were holding a bat. If I'm throwing a pitch, I raise my arm above my head and let 'er rip! In tennis, I can swing front- or back-hand. Bowling? Just take aim and throw the ball. Brilliant! Suddenly, Alex and I are on even footing, I am just as likely to win a game as he is, which allows my uber-competitive side (the side that really HATES looking studip) to relax, even when I'm losing. We haven't bought many games yet, just the ones that come with it and some other basic games (like laser hockey, and this game where we race cows while hitting scarecrows, my favorite). We will definitely be buying Mario Kart, as I've watched Alex break his own records for years and I am looking forward to giving him a run for his money. I am LOVING the Wii! It's silly, it's kind of mindless, and I am already developing what I will refer to as my "Wii Muscles" in my right arm. Seriously, my arm has been sore for days, I'm afraid I'm gonna go all Popeye on my right side. But it's worth it. I feel like I've been initiated into some boys club here, and I've always liked hangin' with the boys, especially when I get to beat them up!! Thank you, Harrah's, for giving us the opportunity to spend money foolishly. Here's hoping there's lots more foolishness to come!