Quote Originally Posted by roadie gal View Post
I respond depending on the type of invitation. If it's something informal and my showing up on time doesn't change the other person's plans ("Do you want to join us for lunch on Wednesday? A few of us are going to be at the coffee shop at noon.) then I may give a noncommital answer.

I NEVER do the "fashionably late" thing. I think that's disrespectful to the host. If the invitation says 8pm I'm there at 8:05.
But at least you respond. Even a noncommital answer is better than none. If I invited you to go to lunch on Wednesday and you said maybe, I'd hold the day open. If you said no, I might make other plans. If I didn't know either way, I'm holding valuable time open just waiting for you...that's my real pet peeve.

The late thing is another issue for me. I was brought up to not keep people waiting. If we are meeting at 8:00, I'm there at 7:50. I allow for traffic, unexpected delays, etc and generally end up earlier than I want to be. I used to go out with a guy who was chronically late. Every time we'd make plans, he'd end up texting me to tell me he was running late. The last straw was when he almost made us miss a flight, because in his words, "we're checked in. They won't leave until we're on board." At that point I knew EXACTLY the personality I was dealing with and that we'd never meld.

It all just goes to being courteous to other people