Patience and presents

Just how much patience should we have? Is there a national patience quota that I can gauge my patience level against some national norm to see if I'm an outlier? When my fingers start drumming the steering wheel, when they edge close to the horn ~ then I know that my patience quota is running dangerously low. When the kid says "you've got to help me find this book so i can turn in my report tomorrow" then the fingers are a'twitch with impatience...... When I go to get said book and find that i'm number 5 or number 55 on the hold list, what does that do to my patience or lack thereof?

We are part of waiting lines all the time. Does it matter to you that you wait a week or a month for something you've put on hold? Is it better to just have your name on the list rather than not at all? How often are you managing your holds and deleting titles because you've found it elsewhere, have purchased it or simply don't care any longer? Especially during this month, when the anticipation of presents is all around, how much patience can we all expect to have?