20 July 2001
It looks like it's going to be an absolutely gorgeous day. Sunny, with a high temperature around 80. This is not a day for being at work! (Especially when my office has no windows.) This is a day for playing hookey, for calling six or eight of your favorite people and going to the park for a picnic, or to the beach, or anywhere, really, that isn't stuffy and indoors.
And if we didn't have a deadline today, I might well have tried.
Actually, I was trying to figure out on the drive in to work this morning why I have such a hard time being spontaneous. Some of the most fun I've ever had has been spontaneous.
One day back when I was in high school, we showed up only to be told to go home again - the water main had burst. A free day! We gathered together a couple of carloads of friends and went to the beach for the day. I'd never been to Virginia Beach before. (Don't look at me like that. Do you go often to the tourist traps in your hometown?) But we had a real blast.
Every so often a friend will call and suggest an activity, and we'll just drop what we were doing and go, and it's almost always a great time.
So why do I have such a hard time wrapping my head around the concept? There are people out there right now who are poking around Travelocity or Priceline for last-minute air fare to some place they've never been and don't know anyone, just on the whim that they want to go. Just for the weekend. They'll go home and grab a couple changes of clothes and their toothbrush and put some extra food in the dog's dish and they'll dash to the airport, and Sunday they'll get home, and they won't think, Oh, god, now I have to do the laundry and the grocery shopping and weed the garden and... No, they'll think, That was fun. I'll have to go back some day with my friend Marge so I can show her that great little bistro and we can go to that museum I didn't have time to see.
How come I can't be like that? It's one of my fantasies. Even if I went someplace where I knew people, that would be a start. Pop up to New York to visit with Karen. Down to Columbia to give Jeff's research advisor a piece of my mind. To D.C. to visit Ashby - and possibly hook up with other friends in the area I haven't heard from in a while. Out to California to meet Johanna. To Michigan to hang out with Lisa and show her town what a terror a couple of cute fat chicks could be.
Wouldn't that be fun? What if I could stop everything right now, shoot off an e-mail to a friend I've never met saying, "I'll be in your town this weekend! Wanna meet for dinner?" and just go! Doesn't that sound fun and exciting?
Or not to see anyone! Grab Matt, or even go by myself, and run up to the mountains and check into a bed and breakfast for a couple of days. Just sit and relax and watch the wind blow.
Doesn't that sound wonderful and fun?
No, I'm trying to give up coffee, why do you ask?
Ah, well. Maybe I'm not brave enough for those sorts of things. Or maybe it's just laziness. I dunno.
But if you ever take a trip - planned or spontaneous - to this area, please drop me a line. I'd love to meet for dinner or drinks.
Word of the Day:
qualm - a sudden attack or access of illness or disturbing emotion; a feeling of uneasiness about a point especially of conscience or propriety
Currently Reading:
- nothing
Current Projects:
- drawing
- Hall stuff
- garden