Sometimes things just work out, even when you didn't plan them that way.
Take, for instance, my upcoming trip to Europe. It started simply enough: the wife and I were watching the London episode of "Someone Feed Phil", and being a bit peckish, and more than slightly boozed, I jokingly said, "We should go to London!"
"Ok," my wife agreed.
Uh-oh.
"I was just joking, hon, and --"
"I said, OK!"
She emphasized "OK" in the same way she emphasizes "no improv comedy" when we're out at formal dining.
So now we're going to London.
"Just London," I said, realizing this could get out of control really fast, "We'll go at the end of September. It'll be fun."
I looked at the calendar and realized...
"Hey, um, listen: maybe we can also go to..."
"Yes, we can go to Oktoberfest," my wife said like she was telling a 6-year-old he can have a sucker.
Oh boy, oh boy!
"Well, since we're going to be in Munich, might as well hit Vienna," I said, because I was that level of beer-buzzed where every idea seems like the single best idea in the entire history of single best ideas. I still have no clue what spurred this thought, but like I've told many a cop, "it seemed like a good idea at the time!"
"Ok, but if we're going to Vienna, I want to go to Florence," my wife skillfully countered.
"Ok!"
Wait, what?
"Did we just plan a European vacation in under 120 seconds?"
Oh yes we did!
So here we go: yours truly, long-suffering wife, and two travel companions who have absolutely NO idea what they're getting into (well, they kind of do since we all went to Oaxaca together last September) are heading BACK to Europe! Let joy be unbound! Let airline tickets be bought! Let the early-warning sirens sound in Munich as soon as I step off that plane!
I'm sure I'll have questions; I'm sure you lot will have answers. I'll keep it light and fun and hopefully provide some chuckles along the way!
-- Mike Beebe