5/6/19
It's 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon and I'm waiting for my
cousin Vincent to pick me up. He and his siblings
have planned a surprise birthday party for their father. He's coming from Brooklyn, I'm in Queens, and the party is in a Long Island restaurant.
At around 4:30 they-my cousin, his wife, and her mother,
arrive. Late, because of "traffic, traffic, traffic!"
Concerned about the time I say, “Oh we have to hurry up!
We’re going to be late!”
Since it's a surprise party, it was important that we didn't
show up after the guest of honor.
“No that’s alright," Vincent assures me. "We’re
running right on schedule. I created a buffer.”
I say something back like, “Oh good, so you factored in the
Puerto Rican thing!”
There was no response.
I’m not sure if he liked the stupid joke or
not, or if he even heard it. I was sitting behind him so I couldn't even read
his facial expression. No one else seemed to respond with neither a laugh nor a
tsk. I really hope I didn't offend anybody with that. One, it's not the nicest
thing to say and two; it's not even an accurate stereotype I grew up with. My father’s side is of the Puerto Rican diaspora- Nuyorican, Long Island, Connecticut, and Bronx folks mostly. My mother's side is of the Dominican diaspora- Dominican York. Corona/ Elmhurst, Queens, NJ and Floridian and what I grew up with was seeing that my mother's family were the ones where you
had to create buffers for invites- the whole thing of
"Island Time",
setting it for an hour earlier so that they'll actually show up on time.
My father's family, not so much. In my experience, the stereotype
they always joked about having amongst each other was "Puerto Rican
goodbyes." They took a long time to leave. They did their rounds, hugging
and kissing their goodbyes and an hour later they were still around, wrapping
it up. So according to stereotypes, me being half and half, I'd mess up on both
accounts. Predestined to arrive late and leave late, a shift to the right in
schedule blocking which would be pretty screwed up. In real reality however,
I'm basically a punctual person who doesn't linger and overstay her welcome- so
riddle me
that.
*********
I mostly wrote that
during the writing group I attended last week. Time was set apart for us to write what we were working on with the option to share it and get
feedback. Next time I go I would like to do that, not just hop on the train and
zip back home.
Pics from my great Uncle Pete's surprise 90th birthday which we were totally on time for and where he felt truly surprised :) We did take a little longer to leave though.
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