Good things come to those that wait...

Adam and I get a photo of ourselves to prove where we were and at what time

There are times in your life when you find yourself waiting for someone and that someone is late. This happened to me today while waiting for the Fashion editor at Fab to meet me at Spadina station. I had to return some shoes I had gotten from him last saturday to photograph.

As it turns out the place we picked to meet wasn't in cell phone range. I had missed the call saying he would be late and didn't get the answering machine message until 10 minutes after he called (being half an hour after the meet time).

While scanning the people getting off streetcars I noticed another person doing the same thing. It wasn't until after the third streetcar load that I went up to him and asked if he was waiting for the same person as he was in the described meeting spot.

Turns out that Adam was waiting for some girl with tickets. To pass the time we talked about the people we were waiting for, giving descriptions to each other thinking that two sets of eyes might find these people faster than one. Kind of like pressing the elevator button multiple times to get it to your floor faster. By 6:30 it was apparent that both parties were a no show.

Shortly before this I checked my answering machine and had reached Max who had apologized for running late and remade plans to meet at Bathurst station. I took a photo of Adam and I in front of the clock so we could each back up our story of waiting should we be asked for evidence.

A winning ticket

I then took a train to the next station and waited for Max to show up. I knew I'd be waiting a while so I picked up a lottery scratch ticket. It took a while to play the thing and I ended up winning $5. Woo woo! The ticket was $3 so really I won $2. As my uncle would say "It's better than a kick in the head". When you think about it pretty much winning anything is better than a kick in the head but anyway...

By 7:30pm Max showed up and I gave him the shoe box of shoes then took the transit back toward home.

Some tips for waiting areas and meeting people...

1. If possible, meet in a place where you can do something, anything but stare at your shoes or stare into a crowd searching for that familiar face. (ie. magazine store, cafe)
   
2. Pick a meeting place where it's comfortable. If you're standing in the same spot for a while you might as well not be freezing. Maybe there's some where that you can sit.
   
3. Make sure the meeting place is in cell phone range or has telephones.
4. Narrow down the place to meet. (ie. Instead of saying Spadina station, say you'll meet at the news stand next to the streetcar platform at Spadina station). This is good just in case the place is unexpectedly crowded when you get there.