I’m an early person. This was molded into me at an early age by my parents – both of which did time in the military. In fact, my Dad used to say ‘if you aren’t 15 minutes early, you’re late.’ This made the teen year curfews particularly difficult, of course, and is the reason I’m standing in the dark outside a locked building.
Seriously, though, it’s become an issue. When we lived near Northern Virginia it was respectable, if not popular, to be a bit early. And then we moved to Houston. I got myself a few babysitting gigs and made some friends. I showed up on time. Everyone kept giving me these annoyed looks but I’ve been well trained and maybe I’m a bit dense – I figured it was something else, anything else. It took about a year of this, combined with my guests always being at least half an our late for me to figure it out.
And yet, here I stand, in the dark outside a locked building. Thanks Dad!
Chanteé Hale 