[originaltext] At the theater, she disrupts the first act as she climbs over

At the theater, she disrupts the first act as she climbs over your knees toward her seat. When your doorbell rings on a Saturday night, long after your other guests have begun eating, you know he has arrived for dinner. At work, you don’t expect her at your 9:00 a.m. meeting.
    They are the latecomers and it doesn’t matter if they wear a watch or use an alarm dock. Lateness is their way of life.
    Chronic lateness has spoiled friendships, and a habit that has caused people to lose their job. Why, then, are so many people late?
    "Not arriving on time can be a form of avoidance," says Dr. Richard Kravitz, a psychiatrist at Yale New Haven Medical Center in Connecticut. "You are late for a party, or coming home from work, because you don’t want to be where you’re supposed to be."     Other reasons for chronic lateness are more complex. Dr. Kravitz suggests that some latecomers know that their lateness will cause anger, and this serves their deep need to be punished. Alternatively, some latecomers have a tendency to force someone to wait, which is a way of expressing anger or resentment.
    As for those of us who wait, if we can set limits as to how long we will stay before leaving when appropriate, we can make our anger known. And though it is true that being prompt can be as compulsive as being late, Shakespeare advised this: "Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."