stood up

I have one friend who, while not technically allowed to stand me up, does so so regularly I have stopped asking "so, when are we getting together?" but instead, "so, when are you standing me up next?"  He never fails me.

It's when it spreads to other friends, though, that I feel the situation has gotten a bit out of hand.  Have you ever had one of those weeks where everyone stands you up?  Give "stand up" a slightly looser definition than usual -- stretch it to include last minute cancellations, minute-before-last-minute cancellations and minute-before-minute-before-last-minute cancellations and multiply it by 8 and you'll have a good idea of what last week was like for me.

Now, of these upstandings, a small handful were of the ouch! variety, a couple of the you-owe-me-so-big-for-this variety, a few of the legitimate variety and the rest of the drat-not-again variety.  None, for once, fell into the thank-goodness-because-I-was-going-to-do-the-same-if-you'd-waited-two-minutes-longer-to-call variety.

It was most frustrating.  It's in times like these, when you're suddenly on your own in a city with two hours to kill, that you start pondering why.  Do they not like me?  Do they know how frustrated I am?  Do they know how many times this has happened this week?  Are they sick to their stomachs from overdosing on Max Brenner every day for the last month?

Canceled plans, you see, are among my greater grievances in life.  Having nothing on I can handle -- barely -- but having had plans and then having had them pulled out from under me I cannot.  I get very grumpy.  I run and jump in bed and fall asleep.  I write scathing notes to twist into blogs.

Please don't misunderstand.  I am a very forgiving friend.  Goodness knows I've stood people up and canceled at the last minute a few times myself.  And I understand things happen.  It's just when they happen, and happen, and happen, and happen, and happen, and happen to happen that I happen to get upset.

But Upstanding Pal, no worries if you're reading.  You haven't stood me up in ages and certainly weren't part of the eight last week.  It's really about time, I'd say.  Want to stand me up for Easter?

I can't wait.