Summer is almost here; what are your plans? One thing I have learned the hard way is that some proper prior planning will dramatically increase the chances of something good happening. Look at it this way: How many more summers do you have, and how do you want to spend them and with whom? Now is the time to plan something for June, July, and August. Big or small, maybe a concert in the park, maybe a trip to a park, maybe seeing some friends at the beach. The idea is to create memories which you will have for the rest of your life. Staying home is predictable and usually not all that memorable.
During the time I was living in NYC, doing things was not a problem as pretty much everyone who lives there shares a singular obsession with leaving the city on the weekends. It is also a town where a lot happens and plans are easy to make, as there is not really an issue with transportation – thank you, MTA, and your astonishingly efficient subway. Los Angeles, on the other hand, may seem more livable, which means there is not an unending drive to escape. The urge to take a break tends to sneak up on one unless there is some forward planning. When every day is sunny and 72 degrees, vacations seem less important. The result is that suddenly – say, the second week of August – when the need to take a break mushrooms in importance, having done no planning, one is left with few opportunities. More than once, when left with almost no options, we ended up in some horrid beach hotel in Huntington Beach wondering how we let this happen.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we decided that the solution to all this, and the anxiety of what one will do when, is rather straightforward: plan out the next 2 years. This may not be possible for everyone, but it may be more doable than you imagine. It is much better to have plans one is looking forward to and need to change them than to sit in the ennui and simmering anxiety of no plans at all. Today’s suggestion is simply the next 3 months. Make them count. They will never happen again. Once they have passed, that is it. Boom. Gone. So how will you choose to spend that time? Personally, I am loving the thought of some mountain lake swimming, cookouts, a short vacation to our favorite beach, and spending some quality urban adventure time. How about you?
Onward and upward,
David