Dear Diary,
I just had to put it as that, because I came across such a strange phenomenon today that I had to share:
With the recent acquisition of a sound machine (you know, the one that makes wave sounds and meadow sounds etc – supposed to help you relax), Chris and I have been lulled to sleep by our artificial ocean waves. It was so soothing that I decided that I should get one for my office – I’ve been working late nights lately and when your collection of CDs and radio just don’t cut it, you need some other sound other than hearing the cleaning lady running the vacuum cleaner.
So of course… the moment I thought of it I had to go get it. About 2 weeks ago, when Chris and I went to Sharper Image, there was about 4 – 5 boxes of this thing sitting on the shelf, collecting dust (I didn’t see the dust but you get the point). So today I figured they’d still be there. As I walked up to the store on Rockefeller Center, I noticed there was a “SALE” sign in the window. “Oh goody!” I thought and happily stepped inside. Mind you – this was lunch time and running between two meetings. I figured 30 minutes was enough for me to run and get lunch and buy this thing and get back in time. I had about 40 minutes all together.
It would have been fine… had it not been for some unforseen force of nature (or something)
I went over to the shelf and… the shelf was *empty*. “WTF?” I thought and walked over to the lady at the cash register, who was busy with other things and seemed like she didn’t want to be bothered. I asked her what happened to their stock and she said, “didn’t you see the sign that says, “order yours now”? We’re out of stock. We sold out.” Again, the thought “WTF???” crossed my mind. Then she further helped me by having another clerk put in the order. However, the other clerk announced that the warehouse that stocked this thing is also out of stock and further more, there’s a long list of orders that it’s created a BACKLOG TILL OCTOBER. My eyes crossed with this news. WTF seemed no longer an appropriate description for this situation. So the guy called another store uptown and fortunately they had *one* left. So I walked up there, wading through the 5th avenue tourist crowd, in my dainty heels (because we had vendors visiting, I had to look nice) and hence of course the ill fitted sandals created blisters on my toe as I trudged on up there. As I was heading on up to the second store, all I can think of in my head was (for some reason, it was Heather’s voice, not mine) “UN• FUCKIN’• BELIEVABLE™!!!” repeated over and over inside my head. Funny how it’s Heather’s voice instead of my own – mine was “WTF???” which was milder compared to what she had to say.
“They’d better have that damn thing…” I thought as I finally hobbled to the 57th and 5th ave store. Their shelf was equally empty, except for one empty box and the display model sitting on the shelf. I asked the clerk, and she pulled out the one last decently packaged box from beneath the shelf. THANK GOD, I thought – by this time I should’ve already been back at the office for the next meeting. No one seems to know what caused this sudden urge for a flock of stressed out people to go buy this simple machine (well, it can also work as your iPod speaker), including yours truly… maybe there are many out there like me, who decided now was the time to buy this thingie. Who the hell knows.
I ended up having to take a cab back to the office because I had wandered so far off course. I did buy my lunch however – after all this walking I refused to go back to the next meeting ravished with hunger. It’ll just add to my stress.
So you might ask, after all this ordeal – how was the machine? It’s lovely. Thankfully it’s helped me laugh about the entire ordeal today and yes, it was worth the trip. I personally think there’s someone out there who bought a whole lot to sell on ebay (goddammit).
now it’s time for me to go sleep now (with the waves)
toodles,
Reiko
Little Reiko's Diary 