3 years of Italian in primary school, 4 years of Italian in high school and one semester of it at uni and the title is still my most remembered sentence (trans: Dario is always late).
You could probably have substituted Dario for Anna and still been correct. In primary school, we were learning about whales and the teacher said, "A blue whale's heart is about the size of Anna's family's car." I was astonished that the entire class new what kind of car my family had, and later my friend told me that it was because I was late for school every day, so when my mum dropped us off, someone would always point out that I was about to arrive and everyone would turn to look.
I was pretty much late for everything, until I showed up an hour late for a lunch with Sharon and MrMan5, and he said to me, "You know, once you get a job, this kind of stuff isn't going to be acceptable anymore." (I actually did have a job at this point, but I lived 5 minutes walk away - though I still managed to be late once or twice). From that moment on, I worked a lot harder on showing up on time.
However, judging from the last two parties I went to, showing up on time seems to be abnormal. We showed up half an hour late to a NYE party, and half the guests weren't even there, and the party didn't really "start" until around two and a half hours after the start time. The second party, I was an hour late due to a car usage clash, and when I arrived, I said, "Sorry for being so late", just as the host said, "Oh, you're early." I confirmed the start time with him and he said, "Oh, nah, that's in rectangular prism time™. I wasn't expecting anyone until X."
Is it now socially acceptable to be late? Is it the expectation that people shouldn't start arriving until an hour past the start time? I don't go to parties very often, but I am going to change that this year, and I don't really want to inconvenience the host.
Still, if this was the case, what is the point of the delayed start time? Why not just have the start time at the actual start time, and not an hour before you expect people to start showing up? I guess I'll show up a few more times to confirm that this delayed start is really a thing, since a sample size of 2 isn't really much to go on.
While I'm on the topic of party etiquette, I think parties should have a warning when there are going to be very young children present (newborns - old toddlers). I seem to have hit the age where this kind of thing is becoming more and more common. There is a phenomenon where the presence of young children just halts any intelligence conversation that is going on, and everything just devolves into baby talk and discussions on the stupid things that kids do. Even if you try to do something, you are constantly interrupted.
"So, did you still want to have dinner next Saturday?"
"Sure, let me just double check my- Oh, look, the baby opened its eyes! Everyone, look at how big her eyes are, she's just sooooooooo cute!"
If I ever become like this, please put me out of my misery. I don't know what a warning would do, actually, except maybe lower my expectations. Perhaps I am being too harsh. I keep being told that once I start having babies of my own, I will understand. Maybe I should use this time as preparation.
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