Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Let's Do Lunch! No Really ... Let's Do Lunch!!


I never extend an insincere invitation. My time is too valuable so if I don’t have time to do something I won’t suggest it in order to be polite but secretly hope that you’ll say “no”.

Why do people arbitrarily extend invitations and then fail to follow-up? Am I supposed to be the one who follows up?

A month ago an acquaintance invited me to go to some karaoke place with her. Sounded like fun so I said okay. She said she’d text or call with the details. Still waiting.

My daughter’s friend’s mother, who is going through a divorce, invited me to go to a comedy club. Sounded like fun so I said okay. She said she’d call me on Friday … three weeks ago. Still waiting.

In the past two days, two former co-workers said that we just HAD to get together in order to catch up. Sounded like fun so I told one that I would meet her for lunch this Saturday. I told the other that we have to put something on the calendar. Still waiting for a response from both of them. **

Whatever.

Is it me? Seriously, is it me? What’s the protocol? If I invite you somewhere, I’m going to confirm. I’m going to follow up. Conversely, if you extend the invitation I expect you to do the same. Otherwise, do us both a favor and keep your mouth closed.

**Update: I just received a confirmation for Saturday's lunch.

5 comments:

TJ said...

It's not you. I'm glad you got a confirmation for lunch. Unless an emergency comes up, I follow up with invitations, and even then, I'll come back with information that I have a conflict or something. I guess some people are just flaky like a good pie crust.

Shell said...

Did you read last week's BFF post on my blog- it was about this same thing, though from someone who says it and doesn't mean it. It was an interesting take on it.

This One Woman said...

This is one of my pet peeves. I actually ended a friendship over something like this happening repeatedly. It involved my son and my now ex friends kids. You are not gonna keep making me disappoint my kid and being inconsiderate of my time.

Diva (in Demand) said...

If you invite me to one of those restaurants that you've reviewed.....and there's wine involved....I'll get a plane ticket and confirm asap!

I think people get so many insincere invitations or guests who don't show.....that they don't know who to take seriously anymore and they, like you, feel that their time is valuable so they just don't follow up.

Remnants of U said...

It's not you. Although I know how busy I am so sometimes I give the other person a pass & maybe call or e-mail them to see if I missed a call. But with caller ID I know better. I've been known to be a last minute planner, so I could be that friend. LOL! But then after a few times I really know who the flaky people are and they labeled as such.

Have fun at Saturday's lunch!