two funny things
Jan. 22nd, 2006 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verbicideBoth of these relate to the Great Television Purchase of Friday.
I opened a Best Buy credit card because that way there is no interest until 2009 and only 2.5% of the total purchase needs to be paid every month.
1. During the credit check, they asked me some questions to prevent identity theft. I've never had that asked before, though I'm wondering if it's now fairly standard. The woman very seriously read her instructions to me, then asked me where my one aunt lived and had just bought a home and how old my oldest brother was. I know it's naive, but it kind of startled me that They had that kind of information. I mean, duh. But I never think of Them knowing that stuff. I mean, maybe my immediate family, but my aunt? A wee bit creepy. Though, again, I say: Duh.
2. The first salesman in the tv section we ran into was clearly a Paki. My dad was delighted. Asked him his name. It was, oh joy, a Muslim name. My dad practically offered him the tv as a dowry. He started speaking to him in Urdu, while I cringed underneath the counter. Parents, does the humiliation never end? As my dad jabbered on to this guy, it came up that my mom was in Pakistan at a wedding. The guy asked whose wedding (because weirdly his mom was in Pakistan at a wedding) and my dad jovially chirped, "Not hers!" while pounding me on the shoulder. I did not spontaneously combust, evaporate, or display any other useful ability. When the issue came up that the tv box was enormous, and the guy emphatically declared that it would not, in fact, fit in the back of my Jetta, my dad asked him what car he had. And when it came up that he had an SUV, my dad actually asked him if he'd take it home with us and we could take him out for lunch. This was when I started hissing, "Dad noooo! And tugging at his arm." The guy politely refused.
The guy was well informed about the tv, and he was happily not a pushy salesman, but he also wasn't Mr. Warm and Fuzzy. (Even before my dad's Take My Daughter, Please! act). He was. Hum. Dour? His lack of friendliness in no way slowed my dad down. Jesus. My interactions with him largely involved futilely arguing that I could take the damn tv home in my car. (And I did, we just had to take the various parts out of the Really Enormous Box.) That and not understanding his rapid-fire mumble about the mechanism of the Best Buy Rewards car and making him explain it 16 times until I got it.
But he was nice enough to speak back to my dad in Urdu and not do what I normally do when strange Pakis start jabbering at me in Urdu, which is gaze back vacantly and pretend not to understand.
Good times.
I opened a Best Buy credit card because that way there is no interest until 2009 and only 2.5% of the total purchase needs to be paid every month.
1. During the credit check, they asked me some questions to prevent identity theft. I've never had that asked before, though I'm wondering if it's now fairly standard. The woman very seriously read her instructions to me, then asked me where my one aunt lived and had just bought a home and how old my oldest brother was. I know it's naive, but it kind of startled me that They had that kind of information. I mean, duh. But I never think of Them knowing that stuff. I mean, maybe my immediate family, but my aunt? A wee bit creepy. Though, again, I say: Duh.
2. The first salesman in the tv section we ran into was clearly a Paki. My dad was delighted. Asked him his name. It was, oh joy, a Muslim name. My dad practically offered him the tv as a dowry. He started speaking to him in Urdu, while I cringed underneath the counter. Parents, does the humiliation never end? As my dad jabbered on to this guy, it came up that my mom was in Pakistan at a wedding. The guy asked whose wedding (because weirdly his mom was in Pakistan at a wedding) and my dad jovially chirped, "Not hers!" while pounding me on the shoulder. I did not spontaneously combust, evaporate, or display any other useful ability. When the issue came up that the tv box was enormous, and the guy emphatically declared that it would not, in fact, fit in the back of my Jetta, my dad asked him what car he had. And when it came up that he had an SUV, my dad actually asked him if he'd take it home with us and we could take him out for lunch. This was when I started hissing, "Dad noooo! And tugging at his arm." The guy politely refused.
The guy was well informed about the tv, and he was happily not a pushy salesman, but he also wasn't Mr. Warm and Fuzzy. (Even before my dad's Take My Daughter, Please! act). He was. Hum. Dour? His lack of friendliness in no way slowed my dad down. Jesus. My interactions with him largely involved futilely arguing that I could take the damn tv home in my car. (And I did, we just had to take the various parts out of the Really Enormous Box.) That and not understanding his rapid-fire mumble about the mechanism of the Best Buy Rewards car and making him explain it 16 times until I got it.
But he was nice enough to speak back to my dad in Urdu and not do what I normally do when strange Pakis start jabbering at me in Urdu, which is gaze back vacantly and pretend not to understand.
Good times.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 02:57 pm (UTC)Oh, man. That's too much. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 03:28 pm (UTC)I have so many good ideas for Pakimatch....hell..I'll partner with you....I don't have the computer know-how...but Martin does...
Hi to your dad!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 11:16 pm (UTC)And omg never use the word 'lovers' again. It just makes me think of *whisper* Lover's Package. And that is not okay.
I'll pass on your hello :)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 05:02 am (UTC)