I've never had the problems with finding a game on XBLive, one usually comes up within like ten or fifteen seconds... if I'm waiting to thirty seconds I get pissed. Is this an east coast / west coast difference?

Bungie really needs to make a custom game list like in Battle.net*. Here's my work-around: I usually add people who are fun to play with in public games to my friends list, and then we create our own parties which bypass the stupid matchmaking altogether. There are a group of us who play regularly now... this also allows us to play more esoteric gametypes rather than just the stock ones you get from the XBLive ladders. Of couse, if you're one of these people who's like level 19 and cares deeply about your "ranking" that won't work for you.

*ZERG RUSH OMG