done and done

well, folks, i finally did it: i bought an air conditioner at PC richards last night. i went to pc richards (for those of you not in the upper-mid-atlantic, it's like, um, circuit city. but it's owned by a guy named pc richard) because, unlike mr. city or mr. buy, i've actually met pc richard himself. he came into my temp job at the real estate company with his big crazy jewish wife because they'd bought one of the four million dollar condos (and had supplied the whole building with gas ranges). he was very friendly. he gave me his card, which i still have because i think it's funny. it has his real phone number on it. i was tempted to call him and say, "mr. richard? may i call you peter? well listen, peter, i just bought an a/c at your astoria, queens branch! how are you!?" this would immediately be followed by "no. robert. you know, the temp with the really gay tie/shirt combination. no, not that one. i quit about two months ago."

anyway, after much him-hawing about the details, such as:

• how i would get to a place that actually sold air conditioners
• how i would choose an air conditioner
• how i would deal with the inevitably pushy, scary straight man in the a/c department
• how i would physically carry the a/c unit from the store to the corner
• how i would hail a cab while guarding my newly-purhcased a/c, which would be sitting on the corner
• how i would choose to go to target, home depot, sears, or pc richard, and then if i should go in manhattan or queens

...i finally just googled pc richard. i found out that not only is there a pc richard in my neighborhood, it was within walking distance. apparently amanda and hilary already knew this. why they didn't share this bit of information with me while i was having daily, sweaty panic attacks about how i was getting to target i don't know.

so last night, after i'd called amanda at work to make sure she'd go with me to pc richards, we ate dinner then made the short trek to the store. within ten minutes i was the owner of a new, shiny but cheap room air conditioner. amanda and i pretended to be husband and wife by "shopping" for air conditioners with our arms around each other. while i was checking out she said, "honey, i'm very impressed by the way you picked out our new air conditioner." and i said, "that's why you married me!" where are our wedding rings? um, we, uh, didn't want to damage them air conditioner shopping.

next up: installing the room air conditioner without hurling it out the window and through the roof below. i'll let you know if this happens.