Cut from the same cloth

It used to bother me when Arielle planned her future to the minute, always needing to know the next fun activity while in the midst of the current. example: We go to Disneyland (or some such place) and she wants to know "what are we going to do next?"
I always said, "Can't you appreciate THIS moment, the one for which you've been planning that last 6 months?" She said, "Mom, I always have to have something fun to look forward to."

Well amen, sister! I quit knocking this trait in her when I finally realized I do the same thing. Best way to cure the post-vacation blues? Plan the next one.

So I pleased to announce that 30 days after our return from the Oregon Coast, I have nailed down our 32nd wedding anniversary agenda.

For those of you who don't know, Kevin & I take turns surprising each other. This requires much secrecy, teasing, and inventiveness to match the yo-yo nature of our budget. We've had our adventures such as:

•sleeping in a barn
•getting deathly ill after a seafood dinner (the tuna wasn't supposed to be raw)
•riding a Grayhound bus full of white-haired seniors, older than us by decades
•celebrating Morgan's birth
•literally tasting the water at Soda Springs
•importing Mom Nelson from S. Cal for a weekend of getting-to-know-her-better
•riding the Thunder Mountain Express

This year: ha ha Like I'm going to tell. It does involve somewhere we've never been before, culinary daring, and volcanic rock.

Back to Arielle and me: Evidently we two live for the breaks in ordinary life. I've worked for CHI almost 8 years now. Previous to that I had never held a job for more than 1 year. I think it was a shock to the system to re-discover the vacation parsimony of employed life. I traded away free time for income, which income pays for my vacation fixes, pitifully parceled out though they may be. Too much irony.

In the meantime, I mapquest and drool about the keyboard in anticipation of October.