Today was a long day. I woke up at a quarter after three this morning and quickly left to to the Apple Store in Legacy Village. I lines up with all the other folks at a quarter to four — up until we were told to disperse until 5.
We ignored the security guard mostly — we just shifted.
Around 4:30 the police showed up. The atitude of the crowd changed until the cops decided to just have us line up. The line was rearranged. Not for the first time either.
Yesterday there were people lined up at the store until security told them to leave at 10. Again at 3 the word went out to disperse. That was the last time the command was listened to.
This rearrangement I lost out a lot. The start of the line moved twenty feet to my right and it got nothing but a clump of people at the start. <sigh/>
Finally, around 6:30 the line as split in two: reservations and walk-ins. A lot of people cheated. Oh well.
Then the rains came. The good thing is that Apple was nice enough to distribute some umbrellas! 
At 7 the lines started to move. Slowly. The reservation line at this point moved roughly 8:1 compared to the walk-in line. Another nice touch is that they started to serve up a simple breakfast of fruit (apples include of course), granola, water and coffee as we waited. Fewer people were complaining at that point/
Then I had a thought at around 7:30 — what about my reservation that never got acknowledged?
I walked up to the manager, Tim, and asked. He understood and wrote out a business card to that affect: he overrode the system. Yaay. But I would have to move to the end of the reserve line.
Back in my place.
We all stood watching as the reserve line moved past us at a comparatively blistering pace. By 10:30 I had enough. I watched the reservation line move 20 feet while we moved one person. I finally jumped ship. (Legit, remember?)
So at 10:30 I got back in line.
Shortly afterward lunch was served: various chips and candy and more water.
Wasn’t a good move though. I lost an hour or so with that move since the ratio shifted. Oh well… I’m not complaining.
As we neared the terminus of the line Claddagh came around with some wraps for free — cheap advertising! Not 10 minutes after that the crew from Apple came around with some McDonald’s cheeseburgers as well. It’s good to know that everyone did pull together.
At a quarter to four I finally reached the front of the line. Free at last!
The transaction itself went smoothly and I was in my car by four.
Last I checked everyone that was there by around 10 would wind up getting a phone. Not too bad.
On the way home I picked up some screen protectors and a case (more later). Installed things and moved En over to the newer phone.
All is well. The phone is defiantly zippier than the old one. The screen really is to die for too.