Yesterday I heard a shout from the stairwell, followed by a string of swear words. "What's wrong?" I asked, coming into the hall.

"Oh, I tripped and spilled this thing." It was my roommate. He had been carrying his part of the Indian food that She just finished making upstairs and his leg had gone funny since he just ran the marathon so he tripped and spilled about a fifth of the rice on the plate onto the stairs.

She came into the stairwell and walked by him and went into his room. I got out a broom and he and I swept up the rice. The Indian food smelled so delicious, I expressed how sorry I was that he'd spilled it and he said the same. He told me what a good cook she was, probably loud enough so she could hear.

Once he went into his room I could hear her start arguing with him. "I just finish making a beautiful dinner for you," she began, "and you had one hour, ONE HOUR and all you had to do was set up the placemats, and you didn't. Do you want me to spill rice all over your bed?? You can't do anything!! You can't even walk up a flight of STAIRS! You're so CLUMSY!!"

But they made up later.

This morning I came into work and my coworked looks like he was run over on Exhaustion Street by a truck with tires treaded with Depression. That's what we use instead of snow tires during the Providence winter, in case you didn't know.
I asked him what was up and he said that his girlfriend had called him at 4:30 in the morning last night. That's only 1:30 in the morning for people in California, aka her. She'd called because she had a paper due the next day and she was stressed out and she didn't know what to write and she wanted him to comfort her and give her ideas. Few ideas are to be had by someone who has just been woken up at 4:30 in the morning in the last few weeks of the semester.


So what is the moral of the story here?

That you should treat your significant other significantly worse than you would ever treat anyone else? That you make of them extremely selfish and ridiculous demands and talk to them in a discourteous tone of voice and say to them hurtful things that you would never even think about doing/saying, even to a perfect stranger, even to your worse nemesis?

An aside: I'd probably put up with a zillion crazy demands before I'd let someone talk to me in a discourteous manner.

To be fair, it is impossible to get my roommate to do anything. He always says he will, and then never does. If he did all the things he promised to do, I would have a working fan, a space heater, a shower curtain, a captured mouse, the trash taken out, a new car antenna, and a can of mace. Most of these things I do have, but because I eventually did them myself. The only thing he did get me in a timely manner was my bottle of Tylenol when I was sick a couple of weeks ago, probably because I looked like I was going to die within the hour and the drugstore is across the street. So the fact that he had an hour to put out the placemats and he didn't would be quite annoying to anyone who has known him. But come ON. Getting mad at him because he FELL UP THE STAIRS? I'd also be a lot more sympathetic if he didn't make them both dinner at least 50% of the time.

And as for my coworker's girlfriend, ok, so I wouldn't really be mad if my boyfriend called me at 4:30 in the morning. I would be worried! I'd be totally out of it at first, then I would be worried, and then when he told me why he was calling (if his reason was the same as hers), I'd be like, "what?" I mean, if he were in some totally random time zone and he didn't know what time it was here or that was the only time he could call, I'd be happy to hear from him- I'd probably rather talk to him at 4:30 in the morning than anyone else... and if it was a drunk dial then I would be like, "silly goose" and then I'd go back to sleep... but in California it's always three hours behind, and it's Tuesday night. The only answer to give is simply, "what???" followed by the classic,

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

I guess I could understand her getting a little upset about the placemat thing, but after awhile I guess a person would adapt. As you did to such a situation. Realize that the guy isn't exactly the 'I'm on top of it RIGHT.NOW.' kinda guy and do some of the stuff yourself. Not fair blaming him for tripping. Of course, I could be really biased on this seeing as I am a well known tripper.
I don't mind being awoken for a friend (much less a significant other) and am usually up late anyways so the 4:30 thing probably wouldn't have bothered me.
» Helena on 2007-04-18 11:17:54

RE:comment
lol! I hadn't thought about the hair thing. And, he IS pretty cute, aint he? I wonder if that would help dull the pain of losing your 'other'. I mean...she IS Avril. lol, I have no clue.
» Helena on 2007-04-18 11:20:04

Yeah, you're right, it would be very rare for me to not want to hear from my friend, no matter the time.

also, I think a good answer to the classic question, "Do you have any idea what time it is?" would be, "MANGO TIME!"
» Zanzibar on 2007-04-19 12:16:39

lol, While I'm not sure if you're refering to the SNL character or the fruit - I'm sure that that is the ONLY acceptable response to that classic classic question.
» Helena on 2007-04-19 01:28:52

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