Monday, February 18, 2008

LUMPIA!


LUMPIA!
Originally uploaded by odelapaz.
Lots of things to celebrate this past week:

1. Valentine's Day.
2. Our first baby shower.
3. My upcoming birthday.

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We had a low-key Valentine's Day. While I don't feel I need a designated day to tell Meredith how fabulous she is, it's pretty fun giving each other presents which usually happens on birthdays and on Christmas. I got Meredith two plum trees and some heather to landscape the yard. The plum trees are planted and should bear fruit come summer. Meredith got me the gizmo with which I'm taking these pictures. (Mere, I'm totally happy with this camera. I'm going to take pictures of everything now. You're in trouble!).

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We had the first of two baby showers. This past one was for our neighbors and our relatives. My mother flew over from Oregon (OR-uh-gun) and made the fabulous and perfect eggrolls you see in the picture. Growing up, they were my favorite thing to eat. Nothing's changed.

Anyway, we got a lot of cute baby outfits. One of our neighbors knitted some hats and gloves. Another got us a fabulous mobile. Babies are expensive, man.

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My birthday'll be here next week, so I decided to treat myself to a gizmo. I got myself a new iPod. I already filled my 60GB iPod and I'm not even through my entire CD collection yet. I can't bear to get rid of music.

So anyway, I decide to go to Best Buy to purchase a new iPod. I'm looking at the 160GB iPod which, I know is huge, but I know I won't have the problem of over-filling it, plus I'll be able to store photos and my manuscripts.

Out comes rude-know-it-all-Best-Buy-teenager-guy. He sizes me up and asks, "Can I help you?"

I say, "Yeah, I'm looking at the 160GB iPods."

He says, "Are you looking or looking to buy?" in a sneering manner.

I'm stunned, of course. So I tell him to get me one and I'll buy it. He goes away for a couple of minutes and comes back with the merchandise. I'm not done shopping at this point, though, because I still need a case. Rude-know-it-all-Best-Buy-teenager-guy is looking impatient and is hurriedly fingering all the cases on display. "Here's one and here's one." "Here's another one." At this point I'm pretty annoyed and I want to get out of the store. After I select my case, he walks me over to a cash-register, but he can't see me off without making a comment.

"You know, 160GB is big. You won't be able to fill it." And I'm thinking to myself, duh, genius. I didn't really reply to him. I just wanted to pay for my stuff and go. What I should've said to rude-know-it-all-Best-Buy-teenager-guy was that he's a little punk who doesn't know jack about what a customer wants, and that he should go home to his momma's house after I kick his skinny little ass, and that rude-know-it-all-Best-Buy-teenager-guys like him are going to stay rude-know-it-all-Best-Buy-teenager-guys because they don't know jack about how the world works and that I feel sorry for rude-know-it-all-Best-Buy-teenager-guys like him because what they THINK they know ain't gonna cut it.

Really, though, I'm too nice and I "walk off" the bad experience.

So to you, rude-know-it-all-Best-Buy-teenager-guy, I hope your day goes better and that you can pay for a college education with partial funding from the commission I got you. Keep your nose clean and learn some manners.

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Of course, the iPod and the camera are great gizmos and I'm having loads of fun with 'em. As I'm blogging, I'm importing a bunch of my CD's to iTunes.

2 comments:

Lee Herrick said...

I love the Best Buy story---their nightmare "customer service" is on par with Home Depot, in my opinion. I'm convinced Best Buy is evil. But congrats on the new iPod! And since we have so many common music tastes, I have two new (to me, they're new) groups to recommend, if you're in need: Thao (also goes by Thao with the Get Down Stay Down) and The Samauel Jackson Five.

Happy early birthday.

Oliver de la Paz said...

Thanks, Lee. Yeah . . . I lose a part of my soul every time I walk into Best Buy. The iPod, however, is heavenly. I've been grabbing poetry and short story podcasts.

Also, I'll look, into the groups you recommended. Very cool!