Planning

I'm sitting in a room with someone planning.  She's not plotting or scheming, but simply planning, trying to put together something that would work, something attainable, plausible, so that we could enjoy ourselves in the next couple of months.  Sometimes I wonder why I don't plan more myself.  I don't really know to be honest, but I've never been much good at planning.

Then again, I've always been the sort of person to let someone else take the wheel.  You want to put something together?  Sure, feel free, whatever you like, I'm just going to run through the final plans and make sure I'm okay with it.  I like being in charge of things without being in charge of things.  Then again, I don't mind legitimate planning so much as I mind trying to compete with other people trying to do it.

My father was always the planner of our family.  He'd plan these extravagant adventures and put together spectacular schemes and as soon as we got to wherever we were going, my mother would promptly squash any ideas that weren't set in stone.  Don't have a reservation for the night but still planned on stopping here?  Well I think we should go to the next city.  Wanted to go straight home?  I say we stop at this national park.  That's how it always was with her.

My parents worked that way, though.  They never got too upset about any of it because they got used to each other's quirks, they found a way to live together and respect each other's personalities and desires without stepping all over each other's feelings.  I never realized until recently just how well their disagreeing dynamic works.  But now I'm staring to really appreciate it and try to learn from it.  After all, they've made it this far, haven't they?