I didn’t record something I wanted very much to see, and I have no one to blame but myself.
Hugh Jackman was on Regis this morning. He was also on Today, but I only wanted to see Regis, because I didn’t know what time he’d be on Today, and I wanted to see how smarmy Regis would be, and hi Opal.
8:00 Wake up.
8:10 Call job lead employment agency gave me.
8:32 Rejoice at being granted an interview tomorrow morning.
8:33 Eat toast
8:40 Get on exercise bike to fill in time till Regis.
8:56 Decide to set timer on VCR, because I don’t know how I might react to Hamster Huey live on TV. After all, if I spontaneously combust, that won’t be good for the home theater system.
8:58 Get back on bike, then do crunches.
9:20 Warm shower, then decide to lie down “for a bit”.
11:00 Wake up, panic.
11:30 After dressing, gathering stuff, and taking call from Mr. Rilch, go out to run errands.
2:00 Return home, put laundry away and redd up.
2:21 Finally settle on couch, ready to ogle some Aussie biceps.
2:22 Sit openmouthed and numb, realizing that the VCR recorded nothing.
It’s been so long since I’ve set a VCR, I forgot about having to turn the power off after setting timer. For six months or more, I forget, Mr. Rilch and I have been using VCRs that don’t have remotes. [Insert wav. file of world’s smallest violin.) First my own relic from college days, whose remote was dropped by Mr. Rilch whilst soaking his feet. When this broke down for good, we accepted a friend’s castoff, which also lacked a remote. Now we have this new SOTA model (b-day present from Mr. Rilch!) with VCRPlus and everything, and I’m too dumb to record on it.
Despite what Mr. Rilch accuses me of, I did too read the instructions. I just focused on the features that were new to me…I don’t need to look up how to set the timer! Right?
Sigh. And according to other Hughphiles (that’s what we call each other) it was quite memorable, because allegedly Regis was as much of a boor as I’d thought he would be. Mispronounced both first and last names (probably because he doesn’t know Australian from British. Maybe he thought he was interviewing Hugh Grant.) Made some dumb kangaroo joke. Grilled him about one movie that’s still shooting, and another that’s not out yet, instead of the one he was there to promote! Geez, Reege, studios send actors on talk shows to discuss their film, not to be a spy for you! From what they said, there were a few shots in which Hamster Huey seemed to be almost literally biting his tongue, but he allegedly always responded with class and good humor. And I didn’t get to see this. And I have no one to blame but myself.
Still, it’s better than the reverse. My primary reason for getting up was to pursue the job lead, not to see a dumb morning show. I’d rather that if only one task went well, that it should be the first, not the second.
VCRPlus, man. I’m old enough to remember when VCRs had function buttons on the machine as well as on the remote. Now everything’s just on the remote.
