Preliminary Finding on Restaurant Table Patience
The table will be ready in twenty minutes. The table has always been ready in twenty minutes. This is not how it feels.
INCIDENT REPORT Subject: Restaurant Table Patience Date: Saturday, March 2022
Summary
The subject arrived at a restaurant at 8:05 PM. The subject had made a reservation. The reservation was for 8 PM. The host explained that the table was not yet ready and offered a fifteen to twenty minute wait.
The wait was accepted. The subject is reporting this to no one. The subject is processing it internally.
Pre-Incident Context
Between March 2020 and December 2021, the subject ate at restaurants approximately four times. Three of those occasions were outdoor seating. One was an airport restaurant because there was no other option. In all four cases, seating was immediate because the restaurants were operating below capacity.
Before that period, the subject waited for tables regularly. The subject did not find this unusually difficult.
Incident Timeline
8:07 PM: Subject and companion are standing near the host stand. A small waiting area is available. The subject chooses to stand.
8:09 PM: Subject checks phone. No notifications that require response.
8:11 PM: Subject looks at the dining room through the archway. Several tables are occupied. One table appears to be finishing their meal, based on posture. Subject notes this table.
8:14 PM: Table the subject was monitoring does not appear to have progressed to bill payment.
8:19 PM: Table is shown to their seat.
Total wait: fourteen minutes.
Finding
Restaurant table patience is a calibration issue rather than a patience issue. The subject is patient. The subject waited fourteen minutes without incident or complaint. The subject simply found the fourteen minutes longer than they remembered fourteen minutes being in a restaurant context.
The event was wanted and often enjoyed, yet recovery from it is treated like a separate appointment. The subject felt tired after the dinner. The subject described this afterward as "a nice evening, but a full evening." The dinner was two and a half hours. The dinner included nothing stressful.
The Governing Rule
Social recovery time must be hidden inside the calendar because wanting people and needing rest are treated as opposites. The subject wanted to go. The subject enjoyed going. The subject required the following Sunday morning to be unscheduled, for reasons the subject does not articulate to the people who ask about availability on Sunday morning.
After repetition, other people begin adjusting their behavior around restaurant table patience. The companion has begun factoring in a "wind-down buffer" after social outings when organizing shared plans.
The buffer is called "nothing scheduled."
Status
The food was good. The wait was fourteen minutes. The incident has been logged and requires no further action.