Covert ops

  When I say 'covert ops' I mean like a plan that's secret.  You know - like a covert operation?!   I LOVE covert ops!!!!  I hate surprises for myself, but I really enjoy surprising people that don't hate them!  (I'm WAY too much of a control freak to enjoy surprises.)   It happened the morning of the Keith Urban concert, but I couldn't tell you about it then because it was a Christmas surprise for a blog stalker... (HI, BRIAN!!!!) 

Shauna's hubby, Brian, is a gamer like B-rad & the new Play Station (PS4) came out maybe a month or two ago?  Neither one of them pre-ordered it but luckily for B-rad, Butterfly did the pre-order & HATED the new system.  He immediately sold it to B-rad.  The PS4's are a 'hot' item right now & of course you can't find them anywhere before Christmas.  

Shauna & I went to Best Buy one night to get Brian a PS4... but they were sold out.  (We did not know then they were so popular...)  The salesman that helped us was super friendly & told us they 'just so happen' to be doing a special event the next day where they had gotten in a 'certain number of consoles'  & they would be giving away tickets.  He couldn't tell us how many or what time we needed to get in line (you know, important stuff like THAT) so we had a big decision to make....

They would give out tickets at 9:00am & then the store opened at 10:30am to be able to purchase them with a ticket.   Our thought process was to be in line by 7am.   That meant I would have to be up at 5:30am, get to their house around 6:30am & on to Best Buy by 7:00am.  But that was also the weekend we got 6" of snow over 1/2" of ice.  It was COLD, people.  

Did we want to get up that early?  Did we want to stand out in the cold?  Did we?  Did we??   

I was allllll about it.  I thought it would be a cool surprise for Christmas because as far as he knew, they were all sold out.   Plus I knew Brian would love it.  

But really, the deciding factor to get me outta bed in single digit temps at 530AM was I knew this would be something that he could never EVER live down.  

"Remember that time we stood out in the SNOW for 3 1/2 hours to get you a PS4?  Do ya?!  HHMMMMM???"

  

(DISCLAIMER - they did this part of their Christmas Sunday so I'm not ruining the surprise now....)

We had to come up with a story to tell Brian why I would be dragging his wife out of the house at 6:30am on a Sunday morning.  Butterfly plays more computer games than 'online' games so we said that mom needed me to get a game for him for Christmas.  I didn't think Brian would know (or care) about the computer gaming world nor would he say anything to Butterfly since it was a gift (he knows him too - motorcycle gang, remember?!) so it seemed like a decent good story to me.  

B-rad let me wear his Under Armour stuff & schooled me on the ABC's of dressing to be out in the elements.   We got to Best Buy around 6:45 & we were the 5th people in line.  We felt pretty certain Shauna would be taking home a PS4!   That made standing in the frigid temperatures a little more bearable knowing it would not be in vain.  (I love the look on the guys face behind us!) 

After an hour or so, we took turns & walked to Dairy Queen to potty & warm up a bit.  The only thing that really got cold on us was our toes.  I had thick, long socks on but my toes were still hurting.  When I went into Dairy Queen, I took my shoes off, pulled the socks down so I could double them over my toes & that did helped a lot.  

We're friendly kinda gals, so we made conversations with people in line.  Most were parents waiting to get their kids Christmas gifts.  Man - those are good parents.  I can't imagine liking anyone enough to wait out in the cold... oh - wait...nevermind... (Don't tell Brian, mmmm kay?!)

 THEN it started to snow.  I mean - you can't make this stuff up, people.

Every so often we'd knock snow of each other.

Around 9 the store manager came out & passed out the tickets.  Someone in front of us left so we were number four!!!

We waited another hour & a half for the store to open & they let us in 5 at a time.  We were in the first group to go in & we were out of there by 10:45am.  (See all the people still standing in the line?!)  Shauna & I always have fun & this was no exception!   
Fun + something to hold over Brian's head forEVER = success!!!