The best part of my college days was always tailgating before the football game. All my buddies together, grilling, throwing the football around and shooting the breeze about the last night's hijnx. The games were great, but once the games were underway....it was already the beginning of the end to all the fun.
My buddies and I have a secret man trip we go on every year over Labor Day weekend. It's called F.O.V. (If you're guessing that stands for Foes Of Vagina -- you're wrong). The weekend is pretty much GOLF, MEAT, BOURBON, CIGARS and ROLLING DICE. The best part of the trip is reliving the trip all year long. Once you're on the trip, it's never as good as imagining being on the trip.
Friday used to be my favorite day of the week. Now it's Thursday, because I've come to enjoy the feeling of anticipating the weekend more than the actual weekend.
When I visited New Orleans for the first time, my first thought of Bourbon street was, this place looks a lot like Disneyland. I compared the actual place, to a replica in a silly amusement park. If you peek behind the curtain at Disneyland (I worked at the Happiest Place On Earth one summer), it's all a facade. The buildings aren't real. They're cutouts. In The Big Easy, not only are the buildings real...but there is a hell of a lot of history to go with them.
I don't know what it is about this day and age, but the real thing is never as good as anticipated. It makes sense because our imagination is flawless. We can make up any trip, place, vacation, person or ideal way better than an actual trip, place, vacation, person or ideal. In our minds everything can always be perfect.
Like a romantic trip to France would be amazing to go on right now. However, once you get there you have to sit on a smelly subway next to a non-deodorant using French person. Dogs poop all over the sidewalks in France. France is crazy expensive. You can't read most of the menus. In four sentences I completely took apart a once-in-a-life-time trip to France.
I suppose right about now some people want to punch me in the face and say, "wake up and be in the present!" and I'm sure they would be right.
Although, I truly believe its hard to argue with perfection. In my mind, the things I like most are perfect: Wife, Kids, Tahoe, Nor Cal Burrito from Burrito Express, BBQ's with friends and Sunsets. My kids are great, but they are not perfect--but in my mind they can be.
I'm not saying that we should just day dream all day and live life in our head. That is what the Home Coming Queen from High School does. She longs for a previous existence.
Life is prickly and pokey and sometimes it's best to just smooth out the corners with our memory . My honeymoon was awesome! However, we had to fly around the world to get there (I don't remember how long it took). I'd never lived with a woman before and so we fought about leaving on time and who slept on which side of the bed (small moments I only remember when I am writing QUOGs).
The lesson I am going to try and teach my children is to enjoy the freedom that comes with anticipating a fun upcoming event and it's o.k. if our brains crop out a couple of incidents to make a past moment feel better.
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