Irreplaceable

I'm still holding strong and wearing yellow in my strike against this cold weather in Spring. I'm also holding strong on what seems to be some sort of pattern I'm stuck in of leggings one day, maxi skirt/dress the next. Yes, I've been pretty lame all around lately. Take that last post I made, literally ever single blog I read on the daily had the exact same post bitching about the cold weather. Way to be original, Bonnie!  I guess we're all ready for something new, or at the very least, something different. Why are we constantly so dissatisfied as humans and always looking for that bigger and better thing?

Today is the last day the Blockbuster video store in my town will be open. I've known this day was coming for a few months now, what with all the "everything must go" signs and the increasingly empty shelves, but I'm still incredibly sad about it...and it's not just because I went in there every week to get my cotton candy fix, although that will suck ass. It's the memories, man.

I remember the first time I went into that store with my mom in the late 80's. It was a Wonderland of movies that were just a pop in the VCR away. I know you young folks don't get how big of a deal that was to us old timers, but it was unheard of back then to be able to watch a movie any time you wanted. You either saw it in the movie theater or waited for it to come on TV at some point. Now, you've got your Netfilx, Amazon, VUDU, HULU, and Roku with just a push of a button. Shit, these new kids on the block (pun intented) can't even come up with decent names, just acronyms. Yet, for all my bitching about them, I have to admit the new kids are much more convenient, so I've kicked old Blockbuster to the curb just like the rest of the world. However, I can't really say that these new technologies are necessarily better.

There was something endearing about going to a physical store. As a child, I would skip around the store with my mom, begging her to let me watch the latest horror flick even though it was rated R. As a teenager, I would peruse the aisles with my date, holding hands and kissing, while trying to agree on a movie for the night. As an adult with kids of my own, I would do my best to get out of there alive, maybe with a few movies and all the kids in tow. It was an experience, but now that experience will be no more.

Oh well, that's life. As the late Roger Ebert put it, "My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip." No matter what happens, we've got our memories, and we've got what we've accomplished along the way. I'm really trying to remind myself this as I face being obsolete in my own little world.