At Your Service

Early yesterday morning, a friend from up the hill had a medical appointment in YV, so we decided that we would have b'fast following her appointment. I had something to give to her and she had something to give to me, so we would meet in the middle, share some quality time, and then go about the rest of our day. We agreed to meet at a restaurant at 10 am, so I was there about 9:55. After waiting in the reception area until 10:15, I decided to get a booth and a cup of coffee while I continued to wait ... and wait ... and wait. When I called to see what was the matter, I got voice mail. Finally at 10:45, the call came that "we are on our way and should be there in a few minutes." I'm not sure how "a few minutes" is defined, but they walked into the restaurant at 11:00 am, a full hour late for b'fast.

Now, that would have been okay, but I was also picking up a friend from the PS airport at 4 pm, and she wanted to get a bite to eat after her arrival because she would have been traveling all day, which is not conducive to eating a meal. I agreed, but now was off my schedule for the day because b'fast had been so late and an early dinner was not sounding so good.

Come to find out, dinner was also later than I thought.

Our plan was for me to park across the street from the airport and wait for her to call me to pick her up, confirmed by a phone call the night before her flight home. Pretty simple, right? Well, I heard the big airliner land at 4 pm, but had no way of knowing it if was her flight or another flight, so I sat in the car and watched the dogs in the dog park while I continued to wait ... and wait ... and wait. I tried calling her phone, but it went to voice mail. I figured something had gone awry with the flight, and just sat tight as the clock continued to tick off the minutes.

Finally, my phone rang, but it was her mother, calling from the east, wanting to know where I was because my friend has been standing outside the airport waiting for me for the past 45 minutes.

I responded, "Well, I've been sitting across the street, waiting for her for the past 45 minutes." I didn't add that I was ready to drive back home and leave her to find her own way home (it's maybe 2 miles), but had decided to give her until 5 pm before taking that action.

Mom said, "Her cell phone quit working, so you need to go pick her up," which I did.

When she settled into the car, my rider started in on me for leaving her standing outside for almost an hour! I drove back across the street to where I had been waiting for 45 minutes for her to call me to pick her up, stopped the car, turned to her, and asked, "Are you for real?"

I then told her that I had been waiting since 5 minutes before 4 for her to call and tell me she landed -- as per the plan put in place before she flew back east and confirmed the night before. I said, "You were supposed to call me from Phoenix to let me know if the flight was on time, which you did not do. I came to the airport on time and have been waiting to hear from you for almost an hour, so don't go there with your attitude about me leaving you stranded at the airport." I told her that I was determined to drive back home at 5 pm and leave her to find her own way home, and she was flabbergasted.

"You'd do that to me?" she asked. "You'd just leave me after you promised to pick me up?"

I was totally pissed that somehow her failure to call me to pick her up was my fault and easily could have dumped her ass in the parking lot and gone back home. She again told me that it wasn't her fault that her phone quit working in Phoenix, but as I said to her, I not only did not know that, but it did not change the fact that I was committed to waiting in the parking lot until she contacted me, so why the hell didn't she find a pay phone in the airport and call me.

You're going to love this: she only had a $20 and didn't have any change for the phone. I just stared at her in awe, finding it hard to believe that anyone can be this dysfunctional and live to their mid-40's. After suggesting that perhaps she could have either traded the twenty for change for the phone and called me or walked across the street from the baggage claim to my car so I could take her home, it got pretty darned quiet. Yeah, she literally could see the parking lot where I was waiting from the baggage claim area, so it's not like that 5-minute walk would have done her in, but the thought never entered her mind.

I did take her home; we did go out for a quick bite to eat; I refused her kind offer to sit and visit for a while; and I came back to my oasis of sanity where life is lived on my terms and conditions. It still irritates me this morning that somehow this whole fiasco was my fault and, believe me, there won't be a next time.