"Why not seize the pleasure at once?
How often is happiness destroyed by preparation,
foolish preparation!"
-- Jane Austen, Emma
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| Movie box office 7-4-14 |
"Say yes and you'll figure it out afterwards."
-- Tina Fey
I'm not very spontaneous.
I like to know what's happening and when, well in advance, so that I can prepare myself for whatever's coming down the line.
Sudden change throws me off balance and makes me terribly anxious, so I tend to not do things on a whim. I like a set schedule. I like a set plan. I like a set routine.
Phrases like "play it by ear," "roll with the punches" and "devil may care" are not in my lexicon.
I don't "throw caution to the wind." I don't like things coming "out of left field."
You can't schedule or plan or prepare for spontaneity, or it would cease being spontaneous. Hence my timidity when it comes to being spontaneous.
But every once in a very blue moon I follow an impulse to go out on a whim (I know the phrase is "out on a limb." I'm making a play on words. Get it? Except if you say it out loud it sounds like Elmer Fudd is saying "out on a limb.")
I digress.
This is all by way of saying that Sam and I went out to see a late-night movie last night -- just decided right on the spot to bust out of the house and go. Sam is only marginally more spontaneous than me, and equally cautious and rigid about schedules and routines. Here's how the conversation usually goes:
[Sam working on his laptop. Me working on my laptop.]
Sam: We should go see (insert name of movie here).
Me: We should.
Sam: Wanna watch the trailer?
Me: Sure?
[We watch the trailer.]
Me: What time does it start?
Sam: 10:00.
Me: We should totally go.
Sam: We should.
Me: What time is it now?
Sam: It starts in 15 minutes.
Me: We probably can't make it.
Sam: Yeah. And I don't want to be up too late. I have to get up early.
Me: I want to get this done for tomorrow.
Sam: OK. See you in the morning.
Me: See you in the morning.
[Sam closes laptop and goes to bed. I continue working. We don't go see the movie.]
We are very good at talking ourselves out of spontaneity.
But last night, we defied our typical, cautious predictability and followed the impulse to see a late night showing of the new Melissa McCarthy comedy, Tammy.
We didn't think about it. We didn't talk ourselves out of it. We just up and went.
It felt wild and crazy going someplace and doing something during the part of the day when we're usually winding down for the night.
Sure, it wasn't as wildly, crazily impulsive as, say, cliff diving, or drag racing on the turnpike, or unprotected sex with strangers. There was no risk involved. But our unplanned act of spontaneity did feel a teensy bit dangerous nonetheless. I mean, we weren't exactly Thelma and Louise on a roadtrip, but it did feel good to do something out of the ordinary for a change.
Maybe we'll do it again.
Maybe we won't.
Who knows.
You can't plan these things.
I guess we'll just play it by ear.
