Red Box- Economically Sound or Tool of the Devil

I have to admit that in many things I am way behind the times. I didn't get a DVD player until about 3 years after they were popular. My first Ipod, which in fact is a sansdic MP3 player, I just purchased last year. I have a dress that I bought when my fourteen year old was born. And I still wear it. So it is an established fact that I don't jump on board with the latest things right away.

Probably this accounts for why three weeks ago was the first time I actually rented a movie from Redbox.

There is one at my favorite Smiths, that I pass each time I go to the grocery store. Often I have wondered, why are people staring at that box, and what are they waiting for. It is almost always busy with people contemplating what to do with their evenings.

What was all the hub bub about? I knew family members and friends who used the thing regularly, and still I stuck to my old ways of Hollywood Video.

One huge problem I did see with Redbox, was the whole keeping a movie for just one day. What a foreign concept to me, who checks out videos from the library for months at a time. (Of course the Library frowns upon this, and sends me dirty letters but they are still stupid enough to check things out to me again) And more times than not, I return my Hollywood Videos late also. Why the finer details of life are lost on me, I am not quite sure.

A friend of mine asked me, in a loving way if I had always been a flake. I was not offended, because hey, my behaviour has become very flake like in the past few years. Not even Head and Shoulders can help me, I'm afraid.

I don't think I was always flaky. It has been a gradual process that I would have to associate to when I first had kids. All that sleep deprivation has killed too many of my brain cells, leaving me witless.

So my daughter talked me into trying the Redbox thing. We rented Kit Kittridge, a movie she missed seeing in the theaters last summer when Jared was hospitalized. To correct this miscarriage of justice and avoid a life long sorrow for her, we rented the movie. I have to say that given the current economy, a movie about the Depression was not very well received by me and frankly rather depressing.

And then to make matters worse, we rented it right before Jared's last surgery. And of course that was one detail I didn't manage to stay on top of. You guessed it $13 for our $1 movie. AAAGGGG!

Last weekend I was desperate and decided to try it again. Shockingly, I returned things the next day. I heard the Hallelujah Chorus as I slipped that little case into the slot.

Perhaps there is hope for me yet. But I wouldn't bet on it, if you are the betting type.