How Varisty Blues helped me get a husband

My employed years at West Coast Video provided me with a few dating opportunities, while not always ideal prospects, I did get a first boyfriend out of the deal!  But little did I know that one football movie would change my life forever.  No one would argue that Varsity Blues starring James Van Der Beek, the late Paul Walker, and Oscar Nominee Jon Voight made you want to re-invent yourself or discover the meaning of life.  But for me this movie held the key to my future.  This was a movie that 4 young men from England, coaching soccer in America, decided they wanted to rent from their local video store.  What one of these men didn't know, was that after watching Varsity Blues and going to bed, his roommate decided to watch a porno.  So that when said young man wakes up the next morning, presses eject, then closes the box that he thinks he has put Varsity Blues in, he in fact has returned a porn entitled Horny Hispanic Honey's.

Fast forward 2 weeks later and I am behind the counter returning movies customers had just dropped off, restocking shelves, generally making myself busy when in walks a very cute guy.  I watch as he browses through the racks of videos eventually deciding on something.  I eyeball him as my co-worker is assisting him with his rental when up pops a late fee notice.  He questions it, swearing, in one of the cutest accents I have ever heard, that Varsity Blues was returned weeks ago.  "Not according to our computers." says my co-worker.  At this point my assistant manager takes over and in her hand is the bright yellow box labeled Varsity Blues however inside the box is the now infamous Horny Hispanic Honey's, which she proceeds to say a little too loudly, was returned in it's place.  My inner dialogue says, "You have got to be kidding me!  The cutest guy I have ever seen, and pretty sure is checking me out too, is the porno guy!"  Just my luck....

Cut to a week or two later and porno guy has returned.  He is still very cute and comes up to my counter to rent a movie.  I proceed with the transaction gaining enough courage to ask where is accent is from.  I say, "Are you from Australia?", in which he replies, "No, I'm from England."  (I know, really smooth, we've said one sentence to each other and I'm pretty sure I've offended him)  He walks around the counter, through the detectors, and leaves.  I turn around, to frankly check him out, and I notice that he left his movie on the counter.  So I chase him outside, both of us a little red-faced, and hand him his rental.

Maybe a few weeks later a friend and I are in our local diner.  It's Friday and midnight, I have just ended my shift at work.  As we walk in I notice, in a booth 2 rows down, is my movie guy.  I say to my friend, "Oh my god, it's the guy from the video store."  He and his friend are talking to some other girls we know and here comes the moment that my life is forever changed.  He looks up, we make eye contact, he says something to his friend, they get up and occupy the booth next to us.  We chat for a little while, they walk us out to our car, and the movie guys asks me out.  My future husband, who to this day swears he did not watch the porn and was an innocent bystander, just trying to return Varsity Blues.  So thank you James Van Der Beek for helping me meet the love of my life.  And my favorite story from a video store.
 

14 Years Later!

Wedding Day 2000

The Booger Box

For anyone that worked at a video store each store had a return box.  At West Coast Video we had two: an overnight box outside and a mail-like chute you could open the front door, drop-in, and leave.  When I would work all day on Saturdays one of my jobs in the morning would be to unlock the outside box from the night before.  You would open each box, check to see if you had to rewind the movie, and scanned the bar code for return.

Image courtesy of YouTube

One day I was opening boxes as usual and looked down to see snot, mucus, boogers, whatever you want to call it all over the video I was about to scan.  I screamed, dropped the movie on the ground, showed my manager (we both laughed hysterically after the initial shock) and then grabbed some paper towels.  I took a deep breath, picked up the movie, and scanned.  That's right genius the scanner showed who last rented the video!  And let me say the person in question was a young well dressed man in his early twenties that some girls in the store thought was cute!  Well....not after this!

Caught booger-handed and what a disgusting story from a video store.

How Adam Sandler almost got me fired

When I would work the opening shift at West Coast Video on Saturday mornings I would get to choose the first movie that would play for day.  It would set my mood for the rest of the day, like a good cup of coffee!  As you have read in previous blogs, I love a good musical Some of the best musicals you have probably never seen and I also love movies that have good soundtracks.  There is one Adam Sandler movie that fits both, The Wedding Singer.

This was a first pairing for Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.  A heartwarming romantic comedy with some hit tunes of the 80's as it's backdrop!  So there is this scene where Adam Sandler's character Robbie is trying out to be Julia's (Played by Drew Barrrymore) singer at her wedding.  Robbie has just been dumped and has written an original tune for the audition.  I would time this part of the movie perfectly.  It has a pg-13 rating, I think, because of the expletive in this one scene alone.  So I would wait for the moment, run over to the sound system, and turn it off until this song was over.  Well this Saturday morning in question was a particularly busy one.  Rainy days at a video store were usually a very popular time for renting videos. I was busy helping multiple customers and I just couldn't get there in time to turn the sound off.

Imagine having to apologize to a woman and her 3 kids under the age of 9 why this was blasted at 11:30 am for all ears to hear.  Oops!  However, I still love this movie and many other Adam Sandler flicks!

So watch the clip above, in all of it's 1 min and 54 seconds of the song entitled Someone Kill Me Please, which was the reason I got my first employee counseling session and how Adam Sandler almost got me fired in this story from a video store.

I hate Simon and Garfunkel

I really don't want to but I do, I hate Simon and Garfunkel, and it's not my fault.  Paul Simon can probably be argued as one of the best song writers, maybe ever.  He and Garfunkel are one of the best folk duo's with many hits, that people adore, but every time I hear Bridge Over Troubled Water, I die a little on the inside.  Why, you ask?

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

When I first started working at West Coast Video I had a male boss probably in his mid to late forties.  He was a nice, harmless man, and really gave me my first taste of the world of movies.  In our store we had a sound system, under the counter, that was hooked up to a VCR, and surround sound speakers with monitors throughout the floor.  Whoever was in charge of the store that day got to select what was played in the VCR.  Well my boss liked Simon and Garfunkel so much that he played Simon and Garfunkel-The Concert in Central Park (1982) every day he was in charge.  When the 90 minute concert was over, I got maybe a 2 minute reprieve as the VHS was rewinding, and then he started it over again.  This proceeded all day, every day for about a year.  It was like living in a folk inspired jail.  Then out of the blue one day he put in Billy Joel- Live From Long Island (1990) and that was it.  The last straw, he was NOT going to ruin Billy for me!  I had enough, spoke to my assistant manager and asked to never work with my boss again.  Fortunately for me he left West Coast Video and my assistant manage became my manager and Simon and Garfunkel were never heard from again.

I got to continue to love Billy in this story from a video store.