Star Wars Sunday: The Best Thing to Happen to Television

Thank you Spike Television, for this glorious gift you hath bestowed upon me.

At least today, anyway...

I really couldn't catch a break, today. Sure, my Sunday started out pretty good. Slept in. Perused the internet for a bit. Had a small cookout.

And then I decided I wanted to do a little shopping. You know, I had the urge to buy something. I really felt the need to go to the mall. I was a little concerned about my timing, because it was getting later in the evening, but after a brief counsel with my friend, we came to the conclusion that the mall would definitely be open at 6:30PM on Sunday.

OR WOULD IT?

No, my friends, it would NOT be open at 6:30PM on Sunday. After wasting a bit of gas and about 15 minutes of my time driving all the way to the friggin' mall that turned out to be CLOSED, I decided that T.J. Max might fulfill my need to shop. It had been a while since I had the opportunity to rifle through discount racks. I mean, of course T.J. Max would be open at 6:45PM on Sunday.

OR WOULD IT?

No, no, they weren't. Well, to their credit they were technically open until 7PM, but as soon as I strolled in, some wretched women in skin tight stretch khakis told me "We're closing! You only have 5 minutes!". Rather than point out to her that "No lady, I actually have 15 minutes to buy a cheap pair of shoes I will probably only wear once," I decided it wasn't worth the time or effort and turned right back around and left. The khaki nightmare totally ruined my shopping vibe. As I trudged back to my car in the rain (can't a girl catch a break?!), I decided McDonalds was my next stop. Woof, you might say, but after two failed attempts at shopping, I felt like a $1 fudge sundae would do the trick. And McDonalds is reliable...they will have what I want.

OR WILL THEY?

No. Friggin. Ice cream. "What?!" I shouted into the speaker at the drive-thru. "You don't have any ice cream?! This is McDonalds! What is your deal?!" After catching a wary stare from the soccer mom in the minivan full of kids behind me, I shouted "Well then I will have NOTHING! THANK YOU!" and drove away. Pissed off, dreams of shopping and ice cream crushed, I came home and decided to get into my pajamas, get ready for bed, and hunker down on the couch for the evening. I slipped on my sexiest pair of sweatpants and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. There is nothing like a refreshing teeth brushing session before bedtime.

OR IS THERE?

The toothpaste I've been using for the past friggin' month has been expired since March...of 2007. I slammed my stale toothpaste in the mini bathroom trashcan, pissed off that I didn't even notice, or bother to check when I dug the tube out of the bottom of my bathroom drawer. I got out a fresh tube of travel paste, did the deed, then went downstairs to watch television.

And then I got my one break of the day. Star Wars Sunday on Spike TV.

May the force be with you.

Why you should never trust acronyms

IS NOT THE SAME AS

So, um, yeah. Who friggin knew that ATA stands for American Trans Air and NOT Air Tran Airways. Not me. Which is why I now have TWO friggin flights to Atlanta for next weekend. I mean, hey its cool if you totally knew that, but I didn't.

I was actually in the airport when I heard that ATA went bankrupt. I was on my way to a conference in Kansas City for work. My colleagues and I were waiting for our flight when someone brought up the news about ATA and how they unexpectedly cancled all their flights. Panicking, I said, "Wait, ATA went bankrupt? Air Tran went bankrupt?! I have a flight on AirTran in the weekend after next! Is ATA Air Tran?!"

My co-workers looked concerned, and all nodded, and commented "oh what are you going to do?"

At that moment our flight was being called to board, so the conversation ended and we hopped on our plane. I figured I'd have to book another flight as soon as we landed and I could whip out my laptop. I had also discovered that to get your money back from ATA, you had to call the credit card company of the card with which you booked your flight. Armed with this arsenal of information (however incomplete), I booked a flight on Delta on cheaptickets.com, and then promptly called my credit card company to see about getting my money back from ATA.

So I get through to customer service, tell them I have to cancel my "ATA flight" and get pushed through to someone to file a claim.

The customer service agent asked me, "You need to get money back for a flight you booked through ATA?"

"Yes, yes!" I said, "I booked the flight about a month ago, and they are bankrupt...all flights are cancled. The website said to call my credit card company."

"Are you referring to the Air Tran flight you booked on March 18th?" the lady asked.

"Yes, thats the one! I need my money back for that one!" I cried.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but Air Tran did not go bankrupt. ATA went bankrupt," she responded.

"Yes! ATA! Air Tran Airways!" I was not going to let go easily.

"No ma'am. I'm sorry, but it was American Trans Air."

"What......" I trailed off.


**Long pause in conversation whilst I processed this information**


"Are you sure?" I asked mildy, finally realizing what this meant.

"Yes, ma'am. Are you ok?"

The customer service agent asked me if I was ok, because at this point I was laughing hysterically. I had realized my stupidity in never actually paying attention to the fact that ATA was NOT Air Tran. I had gone to the ATA.com website, thinking it was Air Tran. Ugh. It pisses me off just thinking about it.

ANYWAYS

Now I have two friggin flights to Atlanta. There is a fee to cancel either one. Damn it.