Surprise!

If there is one thing I miss in my life it's spontaneity. I feel like my life is just way too predictable.

When I was growing up my mother used to stock the basement freezer with cakes from the Sara Lee outlet store. We never knew what we were going to find when we opened them up because they were all rejects. Sometimes half of a cake would have no frosting or sometimes it would have too much frosting. Occasionally a coffee cake would be missing nuts. A few times the brownies didn't fill the whole pan. But most of the time everything looked perfect (and tasted perfect) and we would never know why it had been discounted.

The cakes were in the freezer, ready to be taken out at a moments notice if someone dropped by unexpectedly. We never knew when we answered the phone if it would be a cousin or friend of my parents' from high school who just happened to be in the neighborhood. Most often they were out for a ride and realized that they were in the area so they called to see if we were home. We would drop whatever we were doing to prepare for company. The first thing that would happen is that my sister, Ellie, and I would run to the basement and pull out a cake. We'd open it to make sure it was presentable to company. In the days before microwave ovens made defrosting easy, we'd put the cake on top of the stove, strategically placed over a standing pilot light. If it was really frozen we'd put it in the oven at a low temperature. Coffee cakes were really good when we only had a few minutes to spare because they could actually be put in a warm oven.


We weren't always just the recipients of unexpected visitors - we frequently were the unexpected visitors ourselves. Some Sundays we'd get in the car and just drive in a direction to see where we'd end-up. Of course Ellie and I thought it was a great adventure and in the back of our minds always hoped we'd end up hopelessly lost. But my father, having been a truck driver for many, many years, knew his way around the whole area. Sometimes we'd head north to Wisconsin just to have a drive around the countryside. In the fall we'd drive south to buy corn right from roadside stands in central Illinois. We'd drive to a field near O'Hare just to watch planes taking off and landing. Occasionally my mom would say, "I heard about a good diner in so-and-so town, let's go for lunch," and off we'd go to the diner. Many times times our destinations were nears relatives or friends of my parents and we'd end up at their houses too. They, like us, were always glad for the unexpected company.

As I got older I cared on the impromptu tradition. After college I worked in downtown Chicago. Once a month my friends from work and I would see a play. We'd get all dressed up and one of us would drive that day instead of taking the el/subway as we usually did. Then at lunch we'd each give one person our money and that person would go to the Hot Tix booth and buy 1/2 price tickets for a play that night. We never knew what we were going to see or where we would be going. We'd tell the person who was buying the tickets what our preferences were, but we found out what we were going to be seeing when that person returned with the tickets.

A friend and I bought an entertainment book together. Once a week one of us would close our eyes and open the book to choose a coupon for a restaurant. We ate at what ever was randomly chosen. Most of the time the choices were places that we never would have chosen on our own. Sometimes that was bad but most of the time it was good. The one restaurant I remember was a fancy French restaurant. We were not dressed appropriately and we did not have reservations but according to the rules that we had made up we had to go there. So we drove for almost an hour. We had known that the place was fancy, but hadn't realized just how fancy until we got there. We were apologetic about the way we were dressed and for not having reservations. We fully expected to not be seated but we were pleasantly surprised. We were treated exceptionally well and I had one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. It was an experience that I never would have had if our fate hadn't been put in the hands of a random decision.



My life is anything but spontaneous now. The only excited that I get is when I come home at 6:15 every night Geoff says, "What do you want for dinner?" It doesn't matter how many times I have said that anything is ok with me. I have tried to make the dinner decision at lunch, but Geoff likes to wait until I get home. I guess that another surprise in my life now is seeing if the kids finish dinner before their bedtimes.

Whenever I bring up the subject of making our lives more exciting Geoff says, "We have kids." Duh! But that didn't stop my parents from throwing us all in the car for a impromptu car trip. Of course this isn't all Geoff's fault. My kids just aren't the spur of the moment type of people either. Even when we go on well planned trips they panic if they don't know where there next meal will be. There is always a big to-do about where we will eat. The three of them can never agree on what type of food they want. If we just drove until we found a cute diner I can guarantee that one of my kids (I'm not sure which one, I just know that it would be one of them) would not like the food there.

The kids also do not like "long" (anything over 15 minutes) car trips. When we drive to the Chicago hot dog place, which is a 45 minutes from my house, they pack iPods/Zens, DSs, and paper and crayons. I try to point out interesting things and have discussions with them, but that never seems to work. I've tried prohibiting any "carry ons" but that backfires because they start out the trip already upset with me.

I guess that I'll just have to accept the fact that my kids have inherited a lack of adventure from their father, and if I want spontaneity I'll have to sneak out on my own. Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea. I can say that I'm going to the grocery store and just head in the opposite direction. How long do you think it would be before I was missed?