Spontaneously Fun

In my past life, when I was a teenager, I was up for pretty much anything. I did have my limits & standards, but it may have been an understatement to have described me as spontaneous & fun-loving. Uh, yeah, slightly. The long lunches with friends on Wednesdays, or Fridays or any day of the week for that matter? Typical. The middle of the night road trips to Eugene (1.5 hours away)? Sure, why not. Going to the movies instead of math class? Do you even have to ask? Today those things might be called truant or delinquent or stealing (some consider it stealing when one drives their parents car to Eugene {full of friends} without permission). Believe it or not, I wasn't a bad kid, just a little crazy, lazy & irresponsible. In college (yes, I said college - I even graduated. Ha!), I was still up for pretty much anything. The all-nighters....... not studying, but staying up all night talking & playing. The middle of the night snowball fights. And I even came this close (picture thumb & finger squeezing together) to surprising my parents at home in Portland, a 12 hour drive, one weekend. If only my roommate & I had had enough gas $ we would have totally been there. Some people around me (actually everyone I'm related to) would say, and have said, Thank goodness she snapped out of it, I didn't have much hope for her. Rude, huh? But true.

Sigh.

Those were the days, and they are over. I got married, became a mother & grew up. In that order. I traded spontaneity for a routine, scheduled life & that's okay. It's better than okay, it's what I want. I enjoy who & what I am now. The responsible (stop snickering) wife & mother, the active member of my church, the classroom & community volunteer (also, please stop rolling your eyes. I'm just saying, that's how awesome I really am.). I am grateful for all of it & what I get to do every day (wiping bums excluded. I am truly not going to miss that.) But recently I've had a few simple experiences which have reminded me how being spontaneous can be like a breath of fresh air on a smoggy day. *Not that I'm comparing my children or husband to smog. It's me, sometimes I get smoggy.


Late one evening last week I got on the computer to "turn it off", *ahem. But, at just the right moment I received an instant message from a good friend of mine here in town (she's also a blogging buddy, I would like her better if she would leave more comments on my blog {hint hint} but I'm still a good friend to her. Anyway...) When that first message popped up on the screen I got all nervous & excited at the same time, just like how I felt when I was faced with the prospect of either going to the mall to try on formals or going to English class. At first I really wasn't sure if my friend actually meant to be I.M.ing me. Could this be a mistake, because I just don't do things like this. Did she really want to talk to me? Why? I'm not cool. I was just so confused. So after I made sure that it wasn't a mistake, I totally relaxed & started chatting & laughing. She called me an I.M. virgin & I called her an I.M. sl_t. Both are true & it was so great - total bonding experience! It was one of those things that just spontaneously happened. No planning. No scheduling. It just happened, I went with the flow & it was simply fun.



The week before that, I had gone over to another friends house, after FHE on Monday night, (to plan the pretty table) with the intention to get our plan on paper, make a list and go home. Soon after I arrived we started talking linens & then she asked, 'Do you want to run to Dillard's in Idaho Falls, before the mall closes?' Me? Can I do that? I.F. is a half hour away. My initial thought was, I can't do that. It's not planned, I should say no. But I couldn't think of 1 good reason why I shouldn't. It just wasn't scheduled - so what?! Manly was home with the kiddies getting them in bed. FHE was over. Dishes were done. I was good. So I agreed. Why not?! I felt like such a rebel (in a non-truant way), like those long lunches downtown giggling with friends. Going to I.F. last minute - unplanned - was spontaneous & fun. We had a great time & I felt young again.



There's more. The week before that a different, different friend (I know, 3 friends. I have 3 friends. These 3 friends will remain nameless because I don't want to spook them. If I publicly claim them as my friends I'm pretty sure they will mock me & denounce any claims of friendship I have made.) called me on a Saturday morning to see if I wanted to go down to Utah with her for the weekend. She lives in I.F. & was therefore a half hour away as she had just started driving. Um, can I even do that? Can I just pick up and leave for the weekend? Is that legal for a conservative wife & mother to do? Who am I, who does she think I am? After that brief identity crisis, came the answer.

It just so happened that Manly was sitting right there when she called because his big hunting plans for the weekend had been canceled. Then came the miracle. He agreed to it, & to do the whole taking kids to church by himself on Sunday thing. What!? Are you serious? I think he's even more spontaneous than I am (JK, that's like an insult to Manly, you are the most routine, responsible person there is!). 20 minutes later I was dressed, packed & on the road to Utah. I can't even describe in words how nervous, excited & happy I felt all at the same time. Those road trips to Eugene, had nothing on this unplanned, spontaneous weekend getaway to Utah. But the feelings were quite similar. My friend dropped me off on the side of the road, my mom picked me up & we had a great time. Totally unplanned & spontaneous. One of the best 2 days ever!

As I said before, I'm glad I've changed. I love being a responsible adult. I'm grateful my kids have at least one good parent to look up to (JK again, Manly. You're responsible too.) I wouldn't change the type of life I have, or who I am. But it has been so refreshing & fun to have these brief encounters with my past. To feel young & carefree again, even if just for an hour, or a day. They have made me laugh, smile & have fun.