Gotta Know When to Fold 'Em

Sometimes you just have to accept that you are not in control.

I had a meeting scheduled for Sunday. An important meeting.

Saturday night the guy calls me and says he can't come Sunday, something came up. We rescheduled for Tuesday. The problem with Tuesday is that he could only meet in the afternoon - at 1pm. I knew this would be a long meeting, and I hate doing these in the afternoon, because they always tend to get out of hand and go longer than necessary just because of off the topic discussion.

I am a yekke about my schedule and I hate having to adjust it for a reason that is not absolutely necessary or very important.

I knew when he called that this would get out of hand and mess up my schedule. But he assured me he would meet me at 1 and it would not take too long. Everything would be fine.

1pm comes and goes, and he does not show. Now this guy is very responsible, and very talented. he did not not come just because he was late - something must have happened. I call him up and ask what the story is.

he sends me a message saying he is stuck by a client dealing with a problem. OK, no problem. A short while later he sends me a message that they are coming at 3:30. I groaned knowing that that would definitely mess me up, but there was nothing I could do about it. It was an important meeting and I just had to suck it up and bear it.

Sure enough they get to the meeting and we talk. There is enough wasted time to frustrate me, but that is part of life. I see the clock creeping toward the time I needed to leave to make my regular train. There was still a chance. Grrrr.

Sure enough, we finished the meeting 3 minutes after the time I would have had to leave to make my train on time at the last possible moment.

Everything that could possibly have happened to cause me a delay, happened. Sometimes you just have to accept that you are not in control.