One Stop Rental

I’m one of those people that when I have an idea, something creative to do, I’m not going to let it go. I almost become obsessed with getting it done. It becomes like an earworm, digging into my brain and the only way to kill it is to bring the project to fruition — and I so want to kill it! Oh god how I want to kill it
So last week, when I had the idea of a marketing stunt to blow up exactly 99 red balloons and walk around with them, talking to people, I knew one way or another it was going to happen.
I realized that blowing up 99 balloons by hand wasn’t going to work and I needed a helium tank. I called a party rental source that had places all around the country. They told me it would be $ 20 for the tank and then $ 10 for every portion of helium I wanted. To do 99 balloons, it was going to be about $ 100 for a day! Ok, I guess that could be reasonable, I don’t know the going-​price for helium after all.
But just for kicks, I called a more local source, OneStop, just to see what they said — they laughed when I asked if the price was around $ 100. «No,» they told me, «it’s not.» In fact, it was only $ 38 to rent the tank and the helium for the whole weekend! Woo.
I could have had them deliver it, but eh, why. I know West Chester is kind of far away, but I wanted to get it and have it and not have to worry about them trying to find my house. So I went down there and found out they don’t just do party rentals, they do tools and lawn care equipment and all other things for rent. Neat.
The guys were very helpful when I got there — they found the right tank, made sure it worked and helped me load it into my car. They even told me I could bring the tank back whenever I wanted on Monday, even though the slip said it needed to be in by 9am. Win!
The only thing disappointing is that they didn’t have party materials to go along with it. I really expected them to have balloon string to go along with their balloon-​filling tank, especially because they’re called OneStop. I shouldn’t have to make two stops for my party needs. If they were called TwoStop, then I would understand, but OneStop? Come now, good sirs.
Still, a win of an experience and I know where I’m going back for all my OneStop … er, two stop party needs.