Tonight, my wife and I went over the Apple Store in SoHo to pick up Leopard. It was a dark and rainy night, but the line still extended around the block. The store had crowd control (they looked like bouncers to me) so everyone would line up orderly and around the block. You could only get in one way through the store’s double doors.
Someone asked me, “Who is in there?” I explained to him that no one was in there and that these people were standing in the rain for an operating system. He scoffed and went on his way. As my wife and I were standing in line, a car pulled up and a woman yelled, “What’s the line for?” Someone from the line politely explained the line is for the Apple Store and we were waiting for the operating system. The woman in car seemed shocked and moved along. Several others asked the same questions, but responded with an knowing “Oh, yeah!” There was a rather communal feel on the line as someone suggested we just tell everyone that John Mayer is in there. It was a very friendly bunch. Additionally, some people from Parallels were handing out mints (or it could have been some nut handing out who-knows-what — this is New York, after all).
We stood in the rain for a couple of minutes and eventually were let in by security. Several Apple Store employees were lined up handing out Leopard t-shirts. We were then sent upstairs to pick up Leopard. I also wanted a copy of iWork and an Apple Store employee told us to wait in line while he fetched it. The line moved so quickly, that we were next in line before the employee got back with our copy of iWork. We went over the Genius Bar which was a makeshift cashier counter where Apple Geniuses were acting as cashiers. There was a slight hitch in getting my education discount, but everything worked out. Plus, any time out of the rain was rather nice. It took us about 40 minutes to get through the whole excursion; now, I’ll be installing Leopard on my machines at home.
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