On Promptness

It may be just me, but I feel like New York is less forgiving of tardiness than L.A.

I noticed this during my first trip to NYC (almost two years ago!) when we got yelled at for being 30 minutes late for a dinner reservation. We told them we were going to be late...it was not a fancy restaurant, and it was a weeknight! Of course, in the beginning I had no sense of space or time and I was perpetually 20 minutes late to wherever I went. Later, I was 20 minutes early to everything. It took a few months but I got it down pretty well now. I know I can get to Times Square in just under half an hour on a weekday. I know I can get to Chelsea in 45 minutes on a weeknight. But once in awhile, especially on weekends, when train service is totally unpredictable (even the most recent episode of 30 Rock had Liz Lemon stuck on a train while the announcer said, "The train will now run express for no reason at all!"), it is hard to get the timing right.

I don't get it. Is it just me, or is blaming your tardiness on the train not a valid excuse? And why not?

In L.A. no one is on time. And you always blame traffic. Or lack of parking. And people shrug it off.

I dunno, I mean, I was always relatively prompt even in L.A. I knew how to account for traffic, for the most part. I mean, sure, you don't know on some days whether that trip from Santa Monica to Torrance is going to take you 20 minutes or 70 minutes. You could leave early to account for traffic and/or lack of parking. And even if you didn't, people were OK with it. Maybe it's because you really don't know when it will take 20 versus 70 minutes. Maybe because in NYC, you DO know that the train is going to be running out of whack on weekends, or past midnight. And you're expected to account for it. Or maybe New Yorkers are just more irritable and impatient. I dunno.