How Do You Say

So Blockbusters is right next door to my favorite pizza place and I only get a cheese pizza which is either too popular or too unpopular, because they never have one already made and I am told there will be a wait. Luckily, I love shopping at blockbusters which always has a sale of three to five dvds for $20. I go through the tapes on the table, like I am looking for the bargains in a basement sale. When I was a teenager, one of my first jobs (for like a day and a half) was at a shoe store. They had large tables of shoes just thrown up there by size (a table for each size), so if people looked at one shoe and then it got tossed back on the pile, it got separated from the other shoe. I spent my time working on the floor, by helping people painstakenly go through the table shoe by shoe looking for the mate in the correct size (sometimes shoes got tossed on the wrong size table). Looking through all the tapes on the tables at blockbusters reminds me of that feeling of looking for gold in garbage.

So pizza is pretty cheap and my diet is pretty much in the crapper, so I'm eating a lot more pizza and I've already purchased all the movies that I want (and then a bunch--I have so many movies that I cannot work up the enthusiasm to even watch now that I own them). So I saw a movie I really like, but that I probably won't watch again. But I really like that movie and I know just the person, who will love it. So I bought it. Now I know what you are thinking--danger, danger, danger Will Robinson. Giving someone a movie or a book and telling them they will like it is the kiss of death, the black mark, the guarantee that they will never read or watch it. Well not other people of course--they respect and admire my opinion, but ME. It doesn't matter how much I like or respect the person who makes such a recomendation to me--kiss of death. So how can I expect anyone else to take a recomendation from me? I shouldn't. It should be against my own personal law or code of conduct. But... it is such a good movie. They will really, really like it.

Anyway, the movie sat on my shelf for months and then over a year. I never would do that to the person I was thinking of--I would never ruin such a perfectly wonderful movie for them. I suggested that they would like the movie and then concienciously shut up about it. About six months later, in a germane conversation, I let the recomendation come up once again in inoculous conversation and then dropped it, secretly sending out mental messages "see it--you will love it soooo much."

And then I was talking to someone who loves movies just as much as me. She's much younger and there are so many many movies that she hasn't seen. My all time favorite movie that she will absolutely adore was on sale at blockbuster and as I bought it KNOWING that I was violating my core personal law and code of conduct and KNOWING that I was going to leave this perfectly wonderful movie on my shelf for months and years just like the other one, I handed over my credit card.

So it is secret santa time of year. I'm broke and need to look around and come up with a gift for a party. There they are: two perfectly wonderful movies--unopened, new even (it was a really good sale at blockbuster--these were not even previously viewed). I found a Christmas gift bag (brand new) in my office drawer (I have no idea why it was there) and I have tissue paper in my craft drawer (probably enough to last one or two more Christmases). So I put together the gift. The time for the party arrived. My gift bag represented well. It was picked early and picked by someone I knew would love these movies. I felt like Rudolph taking Santa to the Island of Misfit Toys--putting the perfect gift with the perfect person. The joy, the satisfaction....was short lived. She touted these movies to every stealing santa and I stole them to make her happy.

I forced myself to give the first movie to the person I had originally purchased it for and tried to be offhand and casual about it. I don't think he was fooled, but I may be reading much more understanding into his lukewarm reception of the gift than was there. I gave myself a pep talk--hadn't I watched Shawshank Redemption even though I was sure I would never like a prison movie--wasn't it the most wonderful movie of all times. Didn't I overcome my prejudice and watch American Project X (not sure I got that title right) even though that actor is scary as hell (of course I didn't watch it until after I watched Fight Club--another OMG I never thought I would watch that movie) and liked it and was a better person for having seen it? This hard and fast personal law and code of conduct should be a suggestion--a policy--a rule that can be broken rather than letting perfectly wonderful movies go to waste up on my shelf.

The other movie is going to be a Christmas present and I really hope she likes it. I will probably have to live with the fact that I may never know. It is a far far greater thing...yeah, well, anyway.

P.S. Heard two good jokes and I don't want to forget them: Lines heard in a Book Store "My daugher really likes that writer Ann Frank--does she have any other books out?" and "Where is that 'A Christmas Carol?' That was one of Shakespear's best."