First Mission of 2009: Accomplished
A few hours ago, I was on the phone with Arielle. She wanted to see a movie that I didn’t want to see. I named two movies that I really want to see, but she said she had no desire to sit through them. We were talking about nothing, really. I figured I should go back to work. I was about to tell her I had to go. Then she said, “Hey, it might be fun if we rented to first season of Damages.”
Now, last season, I was addicted to Damages - the show with Glenn Close that’s on FX. It’s smart and interesting. It’s about lawyers, and I’m a lawyer, so the legal jargon is kind of fun to hear. Season two starts next week, and since it’s such a complex show, it seemed like a really good idea to spend a few hours re-watching the first season; definitely more productive than actually writing anything myself. “Let’s do it,” I said.
“The problem is,” Arielle explained, “I just got home and I really don’t feel like leaving the house again.”
I don’t have a Blockbuster card, which Arielle knows. “If you give me your card, I’ll walk over there and get the DVD,” I offered.
Arielle thought that was an excellent idea. We hung up so she could call Blockbuster and put the DVD on hold. The phone rang a few minutes later. “They don’t have it,” she said miserably. “And now I REALLY want to watch it.”
I stared at my computer screen. If we weren’t going to watch Damages, then I didn’t have an excuse not to work. “I know,” I said. “Seriously. There’s nothing else that I’m in the mood to do.”
“Do you think they’re selling it at Barnes & Noble? I mean, I’d buy it.”
“I’d walk there and pick it up,” I said.
This time Arielle called the closest Barnes & Noble on three-way. It turned out that we were not all that unique - a lot of people in our neighborhood were apparently settling down to watch the first season of Damages. The guy on the phone said he had just sold the last copy a few minutes before - “I’ve sold, like, a dozen of those DVDs today,” he said. “We’re all out.” He hung up the phone.
“Okay,” I told Arielle. “Now it’s like a mission.”
I clicked onto the Internet, and Arielle dialed every place we could think of - Barnes & Noble locations throughout the city, Border’s, Best Buy, the random video place on First Avenue, the other random video place on First Avenue. Finally, finally, the Circuit City on 42nd Street said they had it. They wouldn’t put it on hold, or let Arielle purchase it over the phone, but the woman said there were three copies on the shelf and it shouldn’t be a problem.
“I’m leaving now,” I said.
Ordinarily, I would have walked. But that would have taken at least a half hour, and I already felt like we were living on borrowed time. I jumped into a cab. When I got to Circuit City, I raced back toward the DVD section. I’d never been to the store before, but somehow, instinctively, I knew exactly where to go. And there it was: Damages, season one, just one copy left. One copy! I snatched it up and got on line to pay. “It’s in my hands,” I text-messaged Arielle.
So now this is how we are spending our Saturday night - best friends in the city, sitting in the couch, in pajamas, watching back-to-back episodes. (I only took a break to write this because Arielle went to put her laundry in the dryer.) It’s a wonderful way to start the New Year.