Flaky People

You know what's really irritating?  Flaky people.

I'm sure we have all had moments of flakiness.  Other things come up, appointments don't get put in calendars, these things happen.  I totally get that.  But how come the same 3-5 people are consistently responsible for most of the flakiness I'm talking about?  They're late, they're inconsiderate, they forget more often than they remember.  Another thing that irks me is when I put the ball in their court - "hey, let's do this, call me and let me know."  And then I never hear from them.  The thing is that I'm being honest.  Seriously, let me know.  If you don't let me know, then I'm not going to follow up with you again.  I'm not your babysitter or wife, and even if I am your wife, I won't nag you.  I'll follow through what I say I'm going to do, absent a catastrophe, but I'm not going to hound people to follow through with their commitments.

Example 1:  My uncle.  I'm the only family member he has left, and we don't talk very often.  We talked in August when I called him, and then he said (about 5 times) that he would call me on Labor Day weekend.  In the back of my mind, I knew he wouldn't.  For my whole life, he's said he's going to do things and NEVER does them.  So why would this be any different?  Of course it wasn't different, and I only remembered that he didn't call me a week later.  What I don't get is WHY someone says he will do the smallest of things and then doesn't do them and doesn't consider the feelings of the other person.

Example 2:  My friend and I planned a date in Seattle tomorrow.  We planned it two weeks ago.  She said she would e-mail me about it.  Tick tock, it's been two weeks, and I've never heard from her.  So are we on or not for tomorrow?  I do not know, but since I haven't heard from her, I'll say probably not.  Yes, I could just call her.  But frankly, she said she would e-mail me and chose not to (for whatever reason) and considering that it's been a rough week for me, I'd rather stay home anyway so I'm not heartbroken.

Her schedule consists of 1 class.  It's a science prerequisite undergraduate class.  Yep, 5 hours a week of class.  She doesn't work.  She has 1 class.  No kids.  No house.  1 class and the homework from that class.  And she couldn't find the time to e-mail me within a span of two weeks. 

I'm not going to hound her about it.  Why?  Perhaps if I was itching to get out of the house I'd be more proactive.  But if someone isn't going to put anything into the friendship, why should I pick up the slack so much?  It would be different if she was going through a rough time or there were extenuating circumstances.  However, nothing is going on except for that 1 class (that I know of).  So I'll just wait until I get that e-mail from her, whether it be late tonight, Sunday, October, or November.

Again, she's notorious for not following up, saying she's going to call/e-mail and then not doing it.  It's not like this is the first (or fifth) time.