Well tomorrow is my birthday.
Which reminds me of my birthday just before MGS2 was set to launch in the EU.
I remember it well. I had my copy pre-ordered months in advance from Blockbuster. I would ring them up regularly, just to check the release date hadn't moved (I didn't have the Internet back then) and sigh a sigh of release when they said "It's still down for Feb 22". Until... One day I rang... and was told it was now March 8. My heart sunk, I had to go from waiting 16 days for my birthday present to a whole 30 days. It sucked. I made a little calendar so I could cross out the days.
Before long, March 8 rolled around. It was a school day (A Friday if I remember rightly) and I had to get through that whole day in school before my mum would take me to Blockbuster to pick up my present. I remember going to Blockbuster and picking it up, I remember how weighty the case felt thanks to the incredible user manual and the two DVD's. I remember flicking through the manual on the short drive home, reading the little comic book style instructions which taught you Snake's new abilities.
I got home and slid that baby into the PS2 disk tray. And the rest was history.