Twilight at Blockbuster

Earlier this year, I’d gotten a payment for a job, and I thought I’d buy myself some DVDs I’d wanted for a long time. This wouldn’t be a wholly frivolous purchase because almost all of them were titles I have on crappy VHS tapes and use at regular intervals for cycling/workout videos. I made a list and starting filling up a “shopping carts” on Columbia House and Amazon…

…and at the very last minute, my Saturnian conscience kicked in and whispered, “No. You should use this money to buy the projector for your presentations, because that’s a professional need.” So I cancelled the DVD orders and bought the projector. I’m sure Columbia House and Amazon were very disappointed, and I brooded over the woes of a tight budget and obsessive-compulsive frugality.

But I have a hard time passing up a bargain. I made out like a bandit when the video store down the street closed and sold all its stock, as sorry as I was to see that store go out of business. So, when I went up to Nashua on Friday and saw signs that the Blockbuster by Royal Ridge shopping center was closing, and everything was on sale at huge discounts–even the shelves, furniture and equipment–I had to check it out.

The shelves were still almost full, I think the sale had just started. I went around looking for vampire films for my collection, mostly, as well as the very few other movies I wanted on DVD (I have two main criteria for owning films: I can work out to them, or they go into one of my collections, vampire or Johnny Depp. There are exceptions to this but they’re rare). They didn’t have Sweeney Todd, which I hated but need for the JD collection (I just hate to have to pay for it, *grump*). I was surprised, however, to spot one copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and nabbed that. I picked up a bunch of vampire films (cleaned them right out of bloodsucking movies, actually! 🙂 ) Some crappy ones I bought “for reference,” but also Shadow of the Vampire (I only have it on VHS), Let the Right One In, Perfect Creature and Day Watch.

But of course, the one vampire movie I was really looking for was Twilight, and I didn’t expect to find it. I figured that the second the word went out about the big fire sale, there was a stampede to snatch up all the copies of Twilight. I looked, very carefully, on every shelf in every section, but no Twilight, not even among the “new” (as opposed to “pre-viewed”) DVDs. I did find the first Underworld movie “new,” which has proven tricky to get, and I was pleased to get that–also discounted.

Then, I went up to the cashier to check out, and…sitting in a single-title display box on the counter, in front of the cash register, all by itself, was…one copy of Twilight.

I think there was a sonic boom, I moved that fast. Edward couldn’t have gotten it first. *g*

So I dropped some money I shouldn’t have, but I got great deals, and hey–I did my workout last night to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. New movies always give me a boost. It’s…a health maintenance investment! That’s right, yeah–preventive health care or business reference expense. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 🙂