Of Punctuality and Punctuation

Here's the problem with being punctual: you do it for a lifetime and people start to expect it from you.

I'm not kidding.

If you're never late meeting up with someone, they assume the worst when you do arrive a bit late.

It happened to me a couple weeks ago when I was supposed to be meeting a friend at 2, but my noon lunch ran long and it was closer to 2:30 when I got there.

Good god, he'd called out the militia and S.W.A.T. teams before the cat dragged me in.

Today I was meeting up with my English teacher friend for happy hour at New York Deli and I was 12 minutes late.

By that point, he'd already tweeted that he was getting worried and wondering if he had the date wrong in his calendar.

Twelve minutes!

He'd also arrived early, so maybe it just felt like a longer wait, but, as he pointed out, I'm usually early, so anything past the fixed time is worrisome.

We moved beyond the social constructs of time and had a most enlightening chat while we scarfed sliders and basket 'o fries.

And since we're both such blogging geeks, we talked numbers and comparisons, lurkers and followers (he has a killer photography blog at: http://blog.punchphoto.com/ ).

We actually talked grammar and spelling.

He shared a story about a short-lived but passionate relationship he'd had at 25.

I shared a story about a newly-single friend having far more luck with the opposite sex more quickly than I am.

By this point, we were surrounded by a gathering of what we think was realtors, drinking and glad-handing each other- our signal that it was time to clear out.

We also noted that we have gone out together more in 2009 than in the first six years of knowing each other.

About damn time we both made room in our lives for someone whose company we so greatly enjoy.

Hey, I'm talking to you.