Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Too little too late

I have never been a punctual person. I tend to always be 5-10 minutes late, or "fashionably late", as those of us who can't drag our sorry butts anywhere on time call it. Neither am I one of those people who are perpetually 30 min-1 hour late though, and despite my own lateness, those people annoy the crap out of me. I know a couple people like this, and I think it's just rude. Any lateness is rude, but I at least try to get places on time. To be half an hour to an hour late ALL THE TIME, you just have to not care.

My problem, however, has been exacerbated by having a baby. If I'm leaving her behind, I have to get all of her food and diapers etc. set up for whoever will be watching her. If I am taking her with me I have to collect an incredible number of food items, toys, pieces of clothing, diapering necessities, bottles etc. into the diaper bag before I go anywhere, not to mention getting Emily changed and into clean clothes, bundled up, buckled into her carseat and out to the car. My own personal appearance usually falls by the wayside. I have been experimenting recently, giving myself ample time to get ready and trying to see how long it actually takes so that I can know in the future "I have 40 minutes until I have to leave, it's time to start getting ready now". I have discovered that there is no such thing as ample time when you're getting a baby ready. This morning it took me well over an hour just to collect up the necessary items and get Emily out of the house. Last Friday, I started getting ready to leave at 10AM for a lunchdate at noon. I arrived my customary 5 minutes late.

Later that day, I dropped Emily off at my mom's house, picked Will up at work, and we drove to Baltimore to have dinner at Lebanese Taverna. We were approaching downtown at 5:24PM, but because of traffic we got to the restaurant exactly at 6PM, precisely on time for our reservation. We went in, sat down at a table for 7, and proceeded to wait for the rest of our party. Luckily we had cell phones, and we quickly realized that our friends would not be there for awhile. We ordered and ate and had a wonderful belated Valentines day date at a big empty table for 7. Afterward, we continued on to the 1st Mariner Arena to meet our friends (who had arrived in Baltimore at 7:20PM and ended up eating at McDonalds) to see the Blue Man Group.

I saw that as quite a victory on my part. I had to start getting ready at 10AM in order to get Emily taken care of and get to my 6PM dinner reservation on time, and our friends who have no kids missed dinner because they were an hour and a half late!

We all made it to the show though, and although I had been looking forward to it, I can't say I really enjoyed it. The Blue Men were amusing, and many of the things they did were amazing to listen to and look at, but for the most part the show consisted of a large band playing original songs with terrible lyrics. It was loud and annoying honestly, and I didn't understand why I was getting so irritated. We left before the encore so that we could escape the parking deck before the rest of the crowd, and in the car Will reminded me of something I had forgotten. I hate concerts. I can handle them if it's a band I know and love and can sing along with, but for the most part I hate the noise, the crowd, the dirty crowded bathrooms and the cheap beer spilling everywhere. I had gone into this show thinking I was going to see something more like a play...I didn't know it was in an arena until a day or two before. I had expected something in a theater, a sketch show maybe with some music and an intermission.

Oh well. Even if I didn't enjoy it, I was on time and that's something to be happy about!

-Sara

1 comment:

Lindsey Michelle said...

sara. we saw BMG in december. i actually really liked it...but generaly like concerts. although you are right...much better when you know the lyrics or relate to the music.

and also like you i am always late. my boss picks on me about it thank goodness bc i'd say 2 days a week i show up about 10 minutes late. to me if someone says 9am...showing up from 8:50 to 9:10 is on time. hehe that is what i tell myself anyway!