A tiny moment of clarity and a little self control

So, I went down to the Annapolis mall late this afternoon and was psyched! Ready to buy an Iphone 3gs. I had heard enough about it, and was ready to upgrade my 1st gen. I was stoked. In 2007, when the 1st gen went on sale, I refrained from day 1, and the long lines in hopes that things would be smoother on day 2. Well they were. in fact they were much smoother. About 11:30 am on a Saturday I believe it was,, I strolled in and out with my new Iphone in less than 15 minutes! Set up of the phone was the simplest i can ever remember with any such device. It was to say the least, very satisfying considering I'd just laid down $599.00 I think? Or 499, i am unsure. Anyhow, it was alot of money, but the experience was painless and overall a total WOW.

Fast forward to 2009, almost 2 full years later. I chose to skip the 2nd gen upgrade to 3g because after the nightmare that was the first week or so of that 2.0 software upgrade process and the mobile me debacle, I felt my 1st gen was as good as ever, and I may as well honor the last year of my contract with At&T. This years 3gs however looks to have it all, and from what i'd heard the lines were not bad, so day 2 should be fine right?? GUESS AGAIN!

As I walked up to the Apple store in the packed Annapolis mall, the line for the Iphone out the door was roughly 40 people deep at 5:30 pm. I had mixed feelings, but apprehensively stepped in line thinking, well how long could it take right? i mean they have had 2 years to get this process quick and speedy when busy, and surely this could not take longer than an hour right? GUESS AGAIN! By 7:15 pm, the line had moved about 2 person lengths from the time of my arrival and they were setting up cut off gates for the last person that could buy one tonight. The store was to close in an hour and a half, and the poor communication was, that they would try to get to all of us before 9;30, 10pm? Really?? I stood there for another 15 minutes thinking, I'd already invested this much time, what's another 2 hours?

That's when I looked around at all of the people in somewhat of a hallucinogenic haze like they had Iphone fever, eyeballs, transfixed on the Apple logo doors, waiting with anticipation, even though the line was not even moving at all!! This was the part that puzzled me. day 2 and it was like the system was just BROKE!
I thought, yeah another 2 hours.. I have plenty more I could do rather than stand here as passers by look at us like we are prisoners seriously looking like a fool standing up against this Apple logoed wall GOING NOwhere at all for possibly another hour or so, and did something I likely would not have done before.

I BROKE RANKS AND LEFT THE LINE!! There were actually a couple of gasps! As people behind me could not believe I was leaving!! They quickly jumped into my little spot smiling, like they just got a winning lotto ticket! How crazy was this guy, to give up his coveted space in line for the Iphone!!
I get it alright! I'm a GOOBER for this stuff! It is an awesome phone, I want it, but I need to get it on my own time, when I don't have to give up a big fraction of my day (or more than 15 minutes for that matter, I think I'll just order it online and it will get to my home on my own time) just to pay the exorbitant fee and another 2 years of guaranteed overpriced poor to average at best AT&T service for the privilege of owning a newer model. Oh yeah, and at minimum I have another $20 upgrade fee and whatever the new media plan will cost to pay At&t for the thank you (may I please have another!!!) privilege too. What am I saying?? I finally had a moment of self control and a little bit of common sense crept in, and I took control and walked away. Yeah, I lost an hour and a half or so, but not 4+ hours.
It will definitely be there next week and the week thereafter. Never again will I do such a silly thing for any product. The Apple online store works just fine.