December 19th, 2005MAF ISO NVS*
*Married Asian Female In Search Of New Video Store
A few weeks ago, before the new Harry Potter movie came out, I rented the three previous movies from our local Hollywood Video. I watched them (or at least tried to - every DVD was miserably scratched to bits), and - here is the kicker - I returned them on time! The heavens paused, birds stopped chirping, night became day, and hell truly froze over. I am the queen of late video rentals and currently am avoiding the Chicago Public Library because I owe them $10 in late fines (I swear, I will get there and pay them).
Imagine my surprise when we get a letter today from the “Hollywood Entertainment Corporation” saying that their previous communications with us were unsuccessful, and so now we are required to pay in full for the video. $72.50 (actually, the letter says $72.5).
I plan on calling them tomorrow (or Wednesday, or whenever I can and hopefully it will be soon, but with traveling on Wednesday - bah!) and telling them the follwing things:
1. “Our previous communications with you regarding outstanding rental(s), have not resulted in the return of the following item(s) to the store.” If by “previous communications” you mean your lackeys in the store have not attempted to call or write, then yes, yes we have not returned this video to the store.
1a. Also, Hollywood Video, your letterwriting program has atrocious grammar. For shame.
2. It is not my fault that video rental places get reamed by movie production places, but the scratched up, barely viewable DVD of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban is not worth seventy two fucking dollars.
Argh. Cranky making. At any rate, I ranted to Josh that we need to find a new video store. I don’t think there are any Blockbusters in our neighborhood, and even so, I don’t really like Blockbusters. The only other video stores in our neighborhood that I can recall off of the top of my head are Thai and/or Vietnamese places, which is great if you want to rent Thai or Vietnamese videos. Mmph.
***
In other news, to the surprise of no one, it’s ass cold outside. My nostril hairs freeze, my legs are cranky about being outside and man, right now, outside hurts. It’s 8ºF right now, with a wind chill making it -5ºF. All that’s keeping me sane in this world right now is the blessed knowledge that when we arrive, the Bay Area of California will have a high of 60ºF. I can’t even fathom how warm that is right now. It’ll feel like a fucking heat wave, I’m sure.
Cookies were a hit - T came into my office this morning with a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie mumbling his thanks. The only regret is that I didn’t try one of the nipple cookies (manatee, they’re actually called peanut blossoms, but come on. What do they look like to you?), which I made with the white chocolate striped kisses.
Last day of work tomorrow before the holidays. Hallelujah!
December 20th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
Join Netflix - it’s so, so, so much better than going to the stupid video store.
December 21st, 2005 at 6:21 am
Joanne, we already have a Netflix subscription, for which our queue is already over 250 DVDs long (we catch up on TV shows this way). I popped over there because I didn’t want to wait for the movies on Netflix.
December 21st, 2005 at 2:06 pm
WOW - I thought we were bad, that’s a hell of a queue! We have enjoyed a lot of shows via Netflix too - The Wire, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, early seasons of Alias. We have a six month old now, though, so we had three discs here for like four months. Thank God for no late fees!