Days (of the week) and dates (of the month) - oftentimes a single day can be labeled with two identities. Do you focus on the day or the date?
A few weeks ago, we received an invitation from our friends for an event on “Friday, 11/11”. Without realizing the error that the day and date didn’t match, we entered the event for 11/11 on our calendar.
We waited for our friends on Thursday, 11/11. Since they are often late, we were only mildly concerned when they didn’t show up on time. We called and left messages. We texted.
As we walked to the venue, we checked the original email invitation. It was Thursday, 11/11 and the email said Friday 11/11 and we still didn’t know which was correct.
It turns out that, while we were “date” focused, the sender of the invite was “day” focused. We were a day early.
The take-away is to check carefully and be mindful that there are day people and there are date people. And…although old-fashioned, a telephone call to confirm may not be a bad idea.