When Halo 3 launched, I took the day off, and my out of office message in Outlook read: "I'm finishing the fight." I got several responses to the effect that people were rooting for me; turns out they thought I'd been quietly battling cancer and they thought that day was my last chemo treatment. Felt like a complete ass when I had to clarify that no, I was NOT battling disease, but playing a video game. They were good sports, though; thought it was funny.
Also, when the Xbox One launched, I took TWO days off for the midnight release (the day of and the following day.) Unfortunately, I'd pre-ordered at a store in North Richland Hills, TX that I'd subsequently moved 40 miles away from to Plano, TX, so had to commute across the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex for it. I left early because traffic fucking SUCKS here, and stopped off at the local bar I'd frequented the years before. My friends whom I'd not seen in the time since I'd moved were very happy to see me; several shots were taken and inebriation achieved. I left the bar around 10pm and parked outside of the GameStop to try and sleep off the booze while I waited. I was awoken by the sound of the gates of the store being closed at 12:15am. I frantically jumped out of my car and begged the guy to let me get my Xbox, and he was gracious enough to do so. Drove the 40 miles back to Plano with one hand over my eye and a banger of a headache. Then I couldn't even play it that night because of install times; I passed out on my bed ignoring the half-dozen phone calls from my buddies on the East Coast (one hour ahead of me) who'd waited to play with me. I'm a massive piece of drunkard shit.
