Let's meet at two at...

Those five words.... If I never hear them again Im starting to think it will still be too soon! Is it that I had a wierd upbringing, I wonder, because when someone says something like that I am usually led to believe they mean that we should meet at two [of course the one that makes sense, not AM :) ] and not 3:27 or 4:50, but I am constantly being proven wrong. I find that people actually say two meaning that's when they shall be starting the journey to our meeting point, which is always invariably six hours away from where they are [coz Id hate to think that people just dont make it on time on purpose in a bid to exasperate]. And so I am forced to look at my childhood and ask myself: What is it they were taught when growing up that I missed that makes me actually show up at two for a meeting slated for two and them at five? How is it that time ceases to be a universal concept when we need to be somewhere by a certain deadline, so that two and five are construed to mean the same thing for some and not for others? And why, why oh why doesnt the same consience that stops people from pulling stick-ups in banks also stop them from holding up others?
I speak like this because in the past week alone I have been held up not once not twice but three times. Three times! The first time from 4.30 to 7.15, the second time from 4.00 to 5.20 and the third time from 6.00 to 6.45 {{{times plus/minus five minutes}}}. I am starting to get so used to waiting I always walk around with a book to read, and if it were possible I'd also carry around a ka-little foldable chair. And the worst part of it all is that I still cant bring myself to go late, it's just not who I am. When I do that my psyche makes kish out of me. Of course after having run myself out of breath I still get there first, then the other person shows up 45 minutes later, strolling and telling me "Heh! That jam was horrendous today. I have never seen anything like it before"{{{until the next time you're late, I add for myself}}} - and this in a small town with a car population of about 200(!), or even in a place where jams are credible but honestly, at two in the afternoon! And so I lend a sympathetic ear to the transport woes [as if I who made it on time came by plane] and they promise it's never gonna happen again and the cycle repeats itself next time.
Im thinking Ill one of these days stop making plans that involve people. Machines are so much easier to work with!

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