No matter what the situation is, I always try to be on time for it. Usually, I will try to be a little bit early, which I kind of hate, because it means waiting around for a bit before you can actually start whatever you had planned, but at least it means you won't put anyone else behind schedule. I just don't understand people that can't keep a schedule.
It's a really big pet-peeve of mine to be left waiting. Whenever I'm running late for something, I try to call whoever's expecting me so that they know that I consider their time valuable, and I appreciate when someone calls to let me know that they'll be late if I'm expecting them. It's when someone doesn't bother to let me know ahead of time that they won't be there on time that I get annoyed, and maybe that's because I get places ten minutes early, but it seems like a common courtesy to keep someone from feeling stood up.
I'm no stranger to being kept waiting, having had to forgo a morning shower because someone was straightening her hair in the bathroom for an hour and almost made us late for the ferry, so maybe it's just my bitterness at an irritating situation coming through, and maybe it's my fault for not waking up before her so that I could get in there first, but she still would have spent an extremely long time on her coif.
If you have plans with someone, you should probably also plan how to get there in a timely fashion. If you're habitually late, maybe set your clocks ahead so that you know to start getting ready sooner. It's understandable to be late every now and then, but if you're late every time then there's clearly a problem.
If you insist on being late to everything you do, and you have a patient partner by your side, it's very possible that they will begin to tell you to be somewhere sooner than you need to be, and they might also start to show up a bit later than they tell you to get there because they expect you to be late. This could backfire on you, as you might eventually be on time and find yourself getting to the destination at a far sooner time than your partner, both because you were told to get there far before the event begins, and because your partner is taking their time thinking that you're still getting ready.
Nobody likes waiting, it's boring and a little bit lonely. When someone makes you wait on them, it kind of gives you the impression that they aren't nearly as interested in you as you are in them.
You should always leave yourself more time than you need to get ready. I know you probably don't want to wait around for an extra twenty minutes all dolled up in your formal wear, but it's better than rushing around at the last second trying to get everything done while your date's knocking on your door.
More irritating is waiting for someone to arrive knowing that they've already made the two of you late for something. When I invite you to a movie, I'm fine if we miss the trailers, because I'm not there for them. I'm probably not even there for the movie so much as I'm there for you, but if I'm paying thirty dollars for the two of us to sit down and watch something, I don't want to miss the set-up.
I have a theory that, if your date is late, they should pay. It hasn't really panned out for me yet.
I understand finding yourself running out of time, as I am quite fond of the snooze button myself. There have been morning that I've set my alarm for 7:30 and hit snooze until 8:20, knowing full-well that I need to be at work at 9:00. But I still get there on time.
It's as the military-adage says: if you're not 5 minutes early, you're 10 minutes late.
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