It's Good to be Wanted

It's good to be wanted. This morning, the phone rang and my mom answered it. She handed it to me after a few seconds. It was my cousin. My cousin? But he never calls me!

"Hey, dude," he enthused over the phone.

"Hey, man. How's it going?" I answered back.

"So are you getting any deals on Madden?" he asked with the subtlety of a San Francisco drag queen.

So, hold on. Let me tell you what I do: I work for Electronic Arts. Madden is one of the biggest video games they develop every year; it is as much a part of the cultural lexicon as any game out there. Because I work for EA, I get discounts on their video games. So-are-you-getting-any-deals-on-Madden? is a frequent occurrance at this time of the year for me. It's good to be wanted.

My cousin never talks to me... except when Madden is involved, of course. Then I'm worth talking to. I get exactly one sentence of small talk (does "Hey, dude" count as small talk?). In a way I'm glad he doesn't pretend the call is for anything other than getting a few cheap copies of the video game. People who do that are even more annoying. I can see their intentions from a mile away but they dance around the point until 15 minutes in, or until I get tired of answering the how-long-does-it-take-you-to-get-to-work questions and ask them, marginally tactfully, to get to the point.

I asked my cousin which version of Madden he wanted. There were a few seconds of whispered conversation as he and his friend decided to take one for the Xbox 360 and one for the PlayStation 3. We made the appropriate pleasantries ("Okay, I'll give you a call when I have them. See ya.") and I hung up and sighed in annoyance.

"But, hey at least he talks to you nicely," my mom commiserated.

"I talk to the plumber nicely when I need him to fix a clog, but that doesn't mean I like him or care what's going on with his life." I replied.

"Well... at least you're wanted," she stammered, looking for the bright side in the black hole of my cynicism.

"Yeah," I replied. "It's good to be wanted."