Timing is Everything

A very close friend of mine, named Alan, is chronically（长期地，慢性地） late, and not by just a little. Anybody that knows Alan knows that he is totally undependable and will always show up an hour late, if he shows up at all. But somehow people put up with this frustrating（令人沮丧的） characteristic because he is one of the funniest, most charming individuals you will ever meet.

An occasion that I remember provides an illustration. A group of 4-5 people had plans to go to dinner together, including Alan. The plan was to meet at the home of "Brent", who had arranged the whole thing, at 8:00pm, have a quick drink, and still make our 8:30 dinner reservation. At 9:30, Alan had still not shown. Everyone, but especially Brent who had by then made 3 calls to the restaurant, was hungry and extremely angry at Alan.

Just when we had decided to go on without him, he showed up. As we were all climbing into Brent's car, Brent had to take some stuff out of the back seat and put it into the trunk so we would all have room to sit. Only Alan could have then said "Gee, Brent, you had an hour and a half. Couldn't you at least get the car cleaned out?" The laughter that ensued（接着发生） caused everyone to forget how hungry and mad we were.