Crime and Punishment

Good MORNING everyone

I can say morning because it's now past 1am on a weeknight and i'm not asleep.  For those of you who are insomniacs, I see now why you are so wierd!  This is not normal people!!!

Let's talk about normal.  Normal is getting home at a reasonable hour on a weeknight so your respective other half isn't woken up, of if they're still awake (aka me) that they can finally get to sleep at a reasonable hour once you are home.  This is of particular importance if you have say jobs that require your attention the next day, law school and study the entire weekend (or should i say the next 3 weekends straight).  Note. a job to go to the next day would suffice here, a baby, or actually anything remotely respectable would be enough (exceptions include: being a dole bludger).

Considerate is taking one for the team when getting home from a night out on a weeknight at say 10.30pm and doing your other half's washing while they're sound asleep so that they may have clothes for work the next day (even though you're exhausted and would much prefer soaking your tired body (instead of dirty laundry) in a HOT bath).

Following from normal and considerate, there's reasonable.  Reasonable is where my special new theoretical legal training comes in (aka my first year law degree).  There's what's called a 'reasonableness test' in the law in Australia.  It's a fantastically ambiguous notion that ultimately leaves a wide ambit of possibilities for the judge.  Let's just park that notion on the side for a moment.  Let's see if we can apply the 'reasonableness test' here and maybe you can be the judge.

Scenario:

Me skipping yoga after work today (my 1 hour of bliss every week) to cook dinner, clean, do washing and study (ie. for the benefit of our household).  My other half went to work, played tennis and then went out drinking (which let's not forget I encouraged earlier in the night - but I add... this was when I did not suspect it would turn out to be a mid-week massive booze session).

Other half - intoxicated sending text messages with incorrect spelling at 11.30pm informing me that he might be a little later than the previous discussion of midnight we had 4 hours earlier.

My text message response includes the notion of fairness. 

I receive a gushing drunken 'but I love you' *hiccup* phone call immediately after. 

I reiterate that I do but clearly you are too drunk and at this point I can hear my voice getting louder and louder as the music on the other end of the phone gets louder and louder.

I remind him that it's pre-exam time, he is about to go away soon and perhaps sleep deprivation for me really isn't a good idea right now so could he maybe think about coming home soon.

He continues to be annoyingly drunk.  I hang up.  Consider smacking my forehead for thinking it was a good idea to encourage weeknight drinking sessions.

He rings back. 

He stupidly puts me onto this evening's co-conspirator.  I refuse to talk.  Hang up.

I turn off the phone.

I've had enough.

I am reasonable.  To a point.  That point expires when I don't get sleep or there are incredibly important things at stake for me which lack of sleep makes incredibly difficult to do.  I also don't appreciate making sacrifices for others when they don't feel like returning the favour.  Blind love doesn't cut it.

We're a team.

Have some respect.

Be reasonable.

Tomorrow (or today)... or the days following that, I guarantee that you will pay.

Judge Elle (decider of all things reasonable)

ps. enjoy the sound of the hair dryer in about 5 hours time hunney.