Laura Vanderkam posted a summer bucket list this week, which made me say, "Hm, I should think about that." I have this quirk, you guys, that allows me to write cheerfully about the 17 new habits I want to form this summer and then shrink away from planning fun things as if they were trips to the dentist with a cavity-prone angry toddler.
Maybe part of it is that it's hard to please all the people in a big family. In the same way that I find it demoralizing to cook night after night when there's always some dissatisfied person at the table, I tend to focus too much on the grumbly moments from family activities. But seriously: why go to the trouble of planning a vacation when you could stay home and be annoyed with each other for free?
Picture my fun-planning machinery clunking into motion like the Tin Man.
This summer we are going to head to NYC as a family, so we can visit Alex while he's working there. Other things I want to do for fun: plan a couple of exuberant picnics, run the local 5-miler for the first time, go see a Shakespeare play, play miniature golf, go boating, buy a piece of art at our local arts festival, check out one of the Celtic music jams at a nearby nature preserve, and go camping. There are a couple of things already on the calendar that are mostly for me: I'm going to a conference in June, and I'm doing that triathlon with my college roommates again.
I'm feeling like if I were a more fun person I would have a more persuasive list of fun plans. I would plan trips to Chicago for concerts and the Boundary Waters for canoeing. But I am only me, and I am better at habit lists than fun lists.
What about you? Are you a bucket list type? What's on your summer list?
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