Now pay attention, because this is a good story.
After filing our taxes this year, Christian has been planning on buying a new TV with money from our tax return. He's spent no short amount of time looking at prices and sizes and models and features online. For years he's been saying that if we got a new TV, it would have to be at least 50 inches. The ones he's looking at online are 55 inches. But on Saturday we get to talking about how large that would actually be in our living room. Christian takes out the measuring tape and shows me, and it looks just ridiculously huge. It looks like we would have a TV-wall like the one Barney has in
How I Met Your Mother. So we take a spontaneous trip to Best Buy to see how big a 55-inch TV actually is. We're parking the car and we're saying to each other, "We're just going to look. We're not buying anything today. Not like we would buy a TV from Best Buy, anyway. We're just going to look at sizes."
We go in and walk straight back to the Home Theater department. Christian finds his favorite almost instantly, a Samsung. We quickly decide that 55 inches is not too big, it's just right. Then we spend an hour marveling at the picture quality on all the HD TVs. {It really is amazing. I like to watch football in the snow, which I think is mind-blowing.} We're looking at an LG when Christian notices that it comes with a free Blu-Ray player. I impulsively say, "Okay, let's get it." He gets a very excited look on his face and says, "Are you serious?" and I say "no" before realizing that he would have done it, and how fun that would have been.
We continue to browse; Christian notices the advertised hertz levels and I examine entertainment stands. Christian wonders out loud about the differences between a couple of TVs; we look around for someone who might be able to answer our questions, but unlike most of our trips to Best Buy, no one in a blue shirt has been by to check on us for half an hour. We keep going back to look at Christian's Samsung, and then while we're standing in front of it for the sixth or eighth time, I say, "You like this one so much. We should just get it." And he says, "Are you serious?" and this time I say, "Yes. Definitely." And then he calls me crazy, and we start looking for a blue-shirted employee in earnest. No luck. We look at Blu-Ray players. I pick one up and carry it around with me, to show Christian that I'm serious. It's a Samsung, to match our TV.
I'm relishing my feeling of impulsiveness, and I'm not going to let Christian back down. Another family is looking closely at the TV we're almost definitely going to maybe buy and Christian jokes, "What if there's only one?" And I say, "We were here first." We finally flag down a Best Buy worker and ask about our chosen TV. He replies, "We have one in stock." Just one? Or at least one? "Just one." Our decision is made: "We'll take it." He walks us over to the register, where another employee starts typing our information into a computer. I can see that Christian's as excited as I am. This is happening. We have our hearts set on it now.
And then there's a problem. Our employee asks us to verify which TV we want. Christian tries to explain which one it is, and then goes over to point at it. "Someone just bought that TV five minutes ago," the employee says. It's the family we saw earlier. It seems that they snagged our TV, just like Christian joked. I'm disappointed, but Christian says, "How could that happen? We were told there was one in stock, and we came immediately to the register. Who's to say they bought it?
We bought it. We're here." I can see that he's right; the TV was promised to both of us, but we're here with half of our information in the computer, and they're still standing in front of the display. Our employee agrees with us. He's a nice guy. His name is Chad. He finds other Best Buys nearby that have the same TV; the family can go to another store. I swipe my credit card, and our TV is safe.
We're then asked, "How are you going to transport the TV to your home?" Um... in our car? "What kind of car do you have?" An Altima. "That's not going to be big enough. Do you have anything else?" A Camry. "You need an SUV." We don't have an SUV. What now? "We can deliver. Delivery is free. Does Monday work for you?" No, Monday does not work. We want our TV now. What's the point of being so impulsive if we still have to wait two whole days? I tell Christian to call Jeremy. Jeremy has an SUV, and we let him watch
LOST at our house, so he owes us a favor. Christian makes the call. Jeremy and Stephanie are eating dinner at Pei Wei. They're close, but they have Stephanie's car. They'll finish eating, go home, and then bring Jeremy's car to Best Buy. They'll call us when they're close. Perfect.
Christian and I promise Chad that we'll be back in an hour; we head home with only a Blu-Ray player and an HDMI cable in our hands. We make room for the new TV by taking everything off our old entertainment center. Christian plugs and unplugs wires. I dust the space where our old TV sat. Our living room goes from perfectly clean to a major mess in five minutes. We wait for Jeremy's call and contemplate how funny it will look to have our new TV sitting on the floor. The call comes; we get back in the car. En route, Christian blames me for egging him into buying a new TV. I accept; it's definitely all my fault, and I'm happy.
Christian goes inside Best Buy with our receipt and pick up form while I wait outside for Jeremy to arrive. Jeremy arrives; we talk about our TV and Wade's TV and good movies and how sometimes couples do a give-and-take so each of them can see the movies they want {which is how Jeremy saw
Dear John}. We briefly skim over politics, and I realize that Christian is taking too long. He calls and says that they're having problems with the system. Not that there's a problem with our order, but that Best Buy is having a computer problem. I can tell he's getting frustrated. He tells me later that the computer kept freezing while an employee at Customer Service was filling out an inventory form; Christian asked if he could just sign something and be on his way, but nothing doing. Eventually, all forms are filled out, the TV is in Jeremy's car, and then we're home.