Oh.
Oh no.
It's happened. This is quite bad. I was worried that one day this eventuality would befall me and it looks as though now it has.
Rule #2 of my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge clearly states that in order to meet my quota of wearing 365 T-shirts this year, I must not purchase any. Not one. Not a single T-shirt can be acquired during the currency of my challenge care of my bank account. I am to only wear T-shirts already in my collection or those that have been donated to the challenge purposefully.
So far, I have been fervently loyal to this decree. In fact, there have been times during the challenge that I've had to go to great lengths to ensure it remained unbroken. The temptation to buy T-shirts has obviously been with me from the start (the whole point of the challenge's existence stems from my penchant for tee shopping) but I've not yet been placed in a position where temptation has sidled right up beside me and potentially made me buy a T-shirt.
Until today.
Today, I was handed a card from the postman that carried an unacceptable level of despair on it. The card informed me that an amazing person in America had donated a T-shirt(s) to my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge, but had done so in a manner that didn't quite appease the UK Customs office. As such, Customs have decided to hold the package to ransom for a fee of £13.09.
Now, it's not the fact that the overzealous agents at border control have seized precious calendar-busting booty of mine that's gotten me so upset (actually it is, those jobsworth package-hoarding tyrants), it's the fact that they have unnecessarily introduced a turbulent element in my challenge morals, namely the quandary: does settling this debt constitue a T-shirt purchase? On the one hand, any money I pay here is to cover the cost of 'handling' (interfering in the package's otherwise uninterrupted journey from A to B, thus, paying for the inconvenience I've already been caused) and not toward the garment itself. But on the other hand, regardless of who actually profits from this ridiculous process, I am parting ways with cash and gaining a T-shirt as a result, a direct conflict with action outlined in Rule #2. Or is it?
Most frustrating of all, there is no way to know what this package contains or who it came from - all I have is a lousy tracking number that echos what I already know.
The sensible thing to do is simply leave the package be, let Custom's protocol for holding packages lapse into its deadline, and let the tee return to whence it came, leaving me with clean, untainted rulebook and a lot of unanswered questions.
But the amazing thing to do would be to pay off the levy, claim that tee, and have myself a fully clothed October 5th, or November 12th, or whatever day I may need it to keep the challenge afloat, especially if stock levels are running thin during the final months of the project!
Like I said, this is quite bad. I'm in a bind as to what to do and would truly appreciate some viewpoints.
What would you do? How would you interpret the payment - tee-free or at the heart of Violation Station...?
