Plans and expectations are two different things which I tend to confuse. A plan is simply an itinerary, a road map, a flow chart if you will. “First we will do this. Next we will do that. Finally this other thing will be done. We will need a jacket.” That is a plan. An expectation is a premeditated judgment of some aspect of the plan. “First, this is going to suck. Next, that is going to rot. Finally, this other thing is going to blow. The weather will be crap.” That is the typical line of my expectations. (Atypical expectations involve either achieving the Bodhisattva state or qualifying for the Boston Marathon, not that the two are mutually exclusive.)
I do much better with plans. For instance, my Sweet Lady, Tallulah, and I are planning a trip to Israel in early December. This time frame will allow us to attend the wedding of my Sweet Lady’s Maid of Honor. She does, in fact, live in Israel and is marrying an Israeli, so the whole trip makes sense as a destination wedding. Needless to say, there is a lot of planning involved. I like the plans.
One plan involves taking a lot of pictures. My assumption is that there will be a lot of things we want to photograph. Corollary to this plan is a plan to post said pictures on the webs. I expect you would like to look at them. See? See how I just did that? I stuck an expectation into the plan. You may not give a fig about “The Holy Land” which I have to say is your damn problem because it looks pretty interesting to me. I expect I will be having a fabulous time.
ACK! There. There is my problem. Sure, I do think planning can lead toward having a fabulous time but come on. Do I really need to load stuff up on this trip? Why carry such a large weight of expectation on this trip. For God’s sake, it’s a long enough plane ride without all the expectations. Or the laptop, by the way. That is the current issue at hand, after all. What I want to do is post pictures and video. Blog a little bit. Skype a little bit. Mostly, you know, be “on the net.” I think it would be wise to plan on bringing a netbook on this adventure. I expect I’ll need to keep working on justifying this expense.