Thursday, March 04, 2010

Irritatingly Irrational

I've recently discovered that the person who I perceive myself to be and the person that I actually am are sometimes quite different people. Allow me to illustrate:

I consider myself to be a very rational person. I pride myself on being able to evaluate facts and come to logical conclusions. Another personality trait that I value is my thriftiness. My mother instilled in most of her children a love of finding "a deal" and always getting the best price for something. In fact, in the past I have been so incredibly thrifty that a less kind person would probably call it something more like "miserly."

However, my recent behavior has led me to doubt both my ability to think rationally and my ability to make sound financial decisions. The culprit is pictured below.


We have had a Netflix membership for $9 a month for the past year. At first, I was avidly updating my online queue and really enjoying our membership (in other words, I was getting my money's worth, which is very important to me.) Then, I started to consider canceling our membership - I didn't have much time for movies and we do have a Redbox on our block. As a result, I got lax in updating our queue and the above movie arrived at my house. The Tale of Despereaux. I had been mildly interested in seeing this movie months before, hence how it ended up on my list.

Now the shameful part: to date, I have paid about $18+ dollars for this movie and I have still never seen it. It has been sitting, unwatched, for the past two months!!! I've had the BEST intentions to watch this movie!! See how worn the packaging is? The movie went with us on our cruise, on vacation to Utah and to Las Vegas, and it sits next to our TV in plain sight, day after day, waiting to be watched. It is so accessible that Harrison has gotten his hands on it once or twice, hence the chew marks on the upper left corner...

For some strange reason, I just could not even think about sending it back without watching it. It seemed like a waste. And that is my irrational side coming out! I just kept it around for two months, each day hoping to finally watch that darn movie. Which, I never did. So, I mailed it back today. It was an incredibly expensive movie, especially for one that was never watched. Totally irrational, and now I hate myself!!

Strangely, this experience is similar to writing this post. I spent time writing it and even though it is pretty stupid, I just can't waste that time I've spent. So I'm posting it anyway, ha! This Netflix debacle has taught me nothing!

3 comments:

Caroline said...

well, i'm glad you posted it. it was dang funny. this might just be the only time i lol today. so thanks, Kim. keep up the good work.

Brooke said...

haha netflix is the worst, at least you don't have your boyfriends random movies from the 60s showing up on your doorstep because they won't send them to his house.
nothing is worse than a netflix movie showing up, getting you excited, having you rip open the packaging because it's the best thing that's happend to you all week, and it's a movie you don't even want to see. ever.

Carmen said...

HAHAHAHA! Loved it! I know the feeling. We have had the next disc in the Alias series sitting on our kitchen counter for the past 3 weeks and I just cannot get up the desire to watch it. Other problem, our wireless router broke which also means I am not even able to take advantage of watching movies thru my PS3. Definitely a wasted $9 this month.