Hey, look what I found

I’m sure you’re aware of the one thing that every woman (and quite a few men) are desperately searching for.  That mythical gem that promises to keep us looking toned and young, the key to a long and healthy life.  The magical prize that always seems to lay just beyond our reach.

No, I’m not talking about the Fountain of Youth.

I’m talking about the Wii Fit.

In case you didn’t know, the Wii Fit is very hard to find.  I had no idea  – I honestly thought I could waltz right into Target and pick one up right after I’d finished shopping for my detergent and cat food. I’d simply ask the nice man to open up the locked display case, plunk down my $90, put that puppy right on top of my frozen pizzas and I’d be on my way to a pair of toned thighs and some killer abs.

But it didn’t turn out that way.  I spent countless hours combing online sites looking for the elusive Wii Fit and it’s shadowy companion, the Balance Board, and even more time calling every retailer within a 100-mile radius.  I found them online through some third-party sellers for almost twice the price, but there was no way I'd pay $160 dollars for a video game, even if I had to spend $300 to fuel-up my car and drag my two kids along in my gas-guzzling van to another city to pick one up in person.  Hey – when there’s a mad, compulsive urge to get a flat stomach there doesn’t have to be logic involved.

I became maniacal in my search. All of my normal chores and routines fell by the wayside.  Things like cooking, and interacting with my children and bathing seemed so unimportant in light of the fact that I didn’t have a Wii Fit gracing my living room. I have to admit that I knew I was in trouble when my 87-year-old mother called and asked me to take her to the optometrist and I said, “Well now, that depends. CAN THIS DOCTOR GET ME A WII FIT?”  I felt so guilty I took her anyways but then I spent the entire car ride reminding her of how much time I had just wasted, good valuable time that I could have been searching for a Wii Fit. 

Then I found something online called WiiAlerts.  It’s a crazy, amazing thing that tells you when a Wii Fit is in stock.  I’m not sure how it works – magic fairy dust, voodoo, Scientology – but enter your email and cell phone info in and you get a little message as soon as those babies hit the shelves.  It’s as exciting as getting a call that you’ve gotten that job you always wanted, only this is better because you don’t have to do any work or change out of your pajamas.

On the first night I tried it, I got an email at around 11pm, and immediately followed their link to the BestBuy website. There I saw the words I’d been waiting to see for so long: IN STOCK.  With a trembling hand I entered my credit card number, my address and my bra size (this was suspicious, but hey – I just got a freakin' Wii Fit people!) and almost fainted with euphoria when I got my confirmation email telling me my Holy Grail would be delivered in six days.  Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure this is exactly how Michael Phelps felt when he won that eighth gold medal. 

(It got me thinking about other Alerts I could use. How about a HotBirdAlert that tells me when the roasted chickens are coming out of the oven at Costco?  Or even more useful, maybe someone could invent a CrapAlert that tells me when the cat’s about to drop a load in the litter box so we could open all the windows and leave the house for a few hours.)

Well, my Wii Fit came a couple of weeks ago and I wish I could tell you I’d been using it everyday, that I’d gone down two pant sizes and that my abs were so tight you’d have to touch them just to make sure they were real.  I wish I was getting ready to post a picture of my lean, toned arms, my teeny-tiny waist and my buns of steel that could deflect a speeding bullet. 

But unfortunately what I’d have to tell you is that as great as it is, I’ve barely used the thing.  Sure it’s got a great yoga program, and a ski slalom that makes you really feel like you’re flying down a mountain and a hula-hoop game that made me work up a real sweat.  But I’ve actually spent more time sitting with the girls seeing who could make the freakiest looking Mii (the character that represents you) and helping my youngest daughter make hers look like John Lennon.  I spent five minutes the other day ‘taking a run’ with my older daughter but then we decided to take an hour break and go get some frozen yogurt.  I’ve got a long way to go – so far I figure I’ve spent 2 hours actually working out with the Wii Fit as opposed to the sixty-five hours I spent trying to buy it.

But, I’ve got to go now.  There’s an espresso machine I’ve been trying to get my hands on and I need to do some looking around...

This is an original post to Los Angeles Moms Blog.

When she's not looking for things Marsha Takeda-Morrison also blogs over on Sweatpantsmom.