Reefer madness.

After work and armed with some birthday funding, I headed to Best Buy (which has prices I love but a staff that I despise) to try and find the Criterion Collection edition of DAZED AND CONFUSED to immediately rectify the apparently giant mistake I made by not watching it over a decade ago.

So I go to the new releases, then the comedy shelf, then find a salesman shelving a giant cart full of DVDs. (I'm amazed he didn't run from me, lest I actually require assistance.)

I asked him if the Criterion edition was available. He walked to the shelf, showed me only the fullscreen edition of the original version and told me that they were out of it.

"It would be right here if we had it, so I guess we're out," he said.

"Um, can you check?" I asked, forgetting where I was. He returned to his GIANT CART FULL OF DVDS, though he didn't think to check the computer or look on the GIANT CART FULL OF DVDS for it.

No, he ignored me.

I found a $10 widescreen edition, not the Criterion, and figured it'd suffice if I just wanted to watch the movie.

Having saved money, I then looked on the salesman's GIANT CART FULL OF DVDS. (I'm practically a customer-service nuisance at my store. I ask EVERYBODY if they need help, and I actually try to help them and get them out the door.)

I didn't find the Criterion edition on the cart. I did find the first season of WEEDS on the cheap, and I'd been curious about that show. I love Mary Louise Parker, even if a hairdresser I met told me that she was a pain.

So I considered it and picked it up.

When I got to the cashier's desk, the blue-shirted worker looked at the two DVDs I'd brought up, then looked at the bags under my red eyes, my three-days-unshaven face and my untucked shirt. (I've not been sleeping well lately.) Then she looked again at the DVDs and smiled big at me, saying, "You have a really good night, sir!"

It wasn't until I called Lupo that I realized why she found me so funny.

"You bought DAZED AND CONFUSED and WEEDS together?" Lupo asked. "Having a theme night?"

I hate Best Buy.

NOTE: Oh my God, the workers at Best Buy are so STUPID! I just checked, and the street date for WEEDS isn't until JULY 11! I swiped it off that fool's cart and got it early!