February 18, 2001
Gettin' hated at the book buyback
"We kidnapped your new wife and made her a stewardess," at least that was the message on the answering machine. I was trying to help this man find his brand-new wife. The kidnappers also left a poster of his wife dressed in a kimono advertising flights to China.
I was out at the farm and helping Grandpa find the right gloves for the job.
I had to hammer nails through a man's shoes into his big toe through the tip of the shoe so they'd stay on. The man told me it didn't hurt.
Something about visiting West Dallas. The note I scribbled as I was falling back asleep looks like "West Dallas nights."
I got a backorder from CDNow consisting of eight cans of chicken and two college textbooks (one on medicine and one on accounting). I didn't want to go through the hassle of returning them to CDNow, so I went to the university's book buyback and tried to sell them there. The book-buyer-backer asked to see my college id, which I presented even though I hadn't taken a class there since I graduated. He left and ran it through the computer. Then he came back, looking quite stern, and I started to cry.
"You're not in the computer, you know why? When was your last class?"
"I haven't been here since I graduated with my Master's. That doesn't mean I don't still want to learn. Can't a non-student buy textbooks and then sell them back? I bought them for personal enrichment."
"Oh, are you reading Isaac Newton too?"
"Well, no . . ."
"Yeah, I knew it. We get a lot of you types in here."
"I am reading Darwin's Evolution of the Species."
"Sure. We're not buying your books. Get out of here."
So I went back to work and had Caryn (our business manager) get me a copy of the invoice. It was for 9/08/99, so I immediately started to write a nasty letter asking them why they didn't cancel that backorder 1 year and six months ago.