Ingredients for Fun

I had been excited for this weekend for months. Back in the fall of 2007 I met 4 fabulous ladies in Australia (a story for another time) and we have made it a point to meet up in a different location once a year....though sometimes it is more often! This year we planned to meet up in the San Francisco area... And that is ALL we had planned. A “normal” group of people would probably have had an itinerary of sorts, but not us. We don’t roll that way, and we have “fun!” and yes, there is a difference between “fun” and “fun!” and I am going to attempt to share this with you.

I was the last one to arrive Saturday morning, and the excitement was incredible, because I. KNOW. THESE. LADIES. We don’t fly to a different location every year “just because.” We do it because we are “fun!” Each lady possesses a desire for excitement, laughter, something new, good pictures, (I am going to add shopping in parenthesis, because I am sure this is already assumed), and for good, nay, AMAZING memories.  So the expectations for our weekend trips are always high, and we are never disappointed. Here are a few necessary ingredients for a fun trip:

Variety:
Before our weekend trip had even begun, the saga had started because packing must first be accomplished before departure (insert ominous music here).  I don't know who I think I am, but I had the "brilliant" idea that I could pack for a weekend trip within 30 minutes. I will go into more detail below, but if you don’t have a plan for the weekend, then it is pretty difficult to pack for a weekend trip. So of course, the best thing to do is pack for ANY occasion. If you are a guy reading this and not of the metro persuasion, let me explain, this means that if there are MANY different types of outfits then there must also be MANY types of shoes that need to be included and they ALL have to be crammed into a little overnight bag... don't even get me started on jackets, makeup, hair dryers, straighteners, etc. After successfully using every bit of available space in the overnight bag, the thought had occurred to me to sell my expertise of space conservation to potato chip companies. But I digress.

Spontaneity:

We met Saturday morning and after much laughing and talking, quickly took off to go. Go where? We do most of our planning en route, so the first thing is to get into a car and go. While driving we decided the general list of things we were going to accomplish: Take our traditional coffee picture at Starbucks (this is really one of our number one things to do and is time specific as we need to do this picture first thing in the morning, so for a weekend trip, that means we have only 2 options: Saturday morning or Sunday morning), go outlet shopping-day trip, go wine tasting in Napa-day trip, have amazing breakfast on Sunday morning, make a Paleo-style dinner Sunday night, watch Downton Abbey Sunday night, and stay up late…ok, this last one was really a plan that I had to make for myself, because I am not traditionally a night person. Not at all, actually.

Example: Girls' Latte Picture from New York 2010

 

The spontaneous dance party should also be a part of any fun weekend, obviously. This dance party can happen everywhere and anywhere. If you are on the go, you can have it in the car, but make sure there is always a good soundtrack available. I'm not going to pretend like Brittney Spears didn't occasionally visit our weekend drive sessions. We have even come up with “moves” to our favorite selections and dance parties often turn into cardio/calorie burn parties. That, my friends, is what you call a "win-win".

Flexibility:
Although you may not think the above list is that extreme, you may not realize that a drive to Napa is not just “a drive to Napa”. For instance, if along the way you drive by an antique store, or privately owned one-of-a-kind boutique, and there is an open parking space out front, there will of course be an immediate diversion from the set course into said empty parking space, an immediate pause in the plan and an instant stop along the way. So if you have an hour long drive, the amount of possible side stops are countless. Flexibility is a key factor for a successful weekend trip and a huge indicator of what type of “fun” will be had.

Food:
Food is something that brings people together, we need it, we like it, we consume it. So if you want to have a good time you have to have good food. So our plans for Paleo-Dinner obviously needed to be changed. I would say that cooking (when there is time for it and it is not rushed) is fun, but when you have a large kitchen full of friends cooking together, listening to music, the fun becomes “fun!” We had our 2 head chefs that were in charge of the stove area and thus the main course and side dish (scallops and risotto). We had the kitchen photographer capturing the moments. We had the table settler and wine pourer. And then we had me, the chopper/measuring cup estimator/dish washer. All these positions were important and necessary ingredients for a good time and a good meal. Especially if you wanted perfectly chopped parsley as a garnish...thank you, no thank you.

Awkward Laughter:
Initially, this doesn’t seem like it belongs in a recipe for a good time, but let me explain. While wine tasting we went to an awesome vineyard that I had been wanting to visit for quite some time. The man leading our tasting was not only knowledgeable on wines, grapes, family, but basically thought he had the answers to all of life's questions. Yay. You can probably imagine that one with such a large…personality, might find it difficult to keep the tasting moving along in front of 5 ladies, so to keep the tasting moving, we found it best to insert some laughter when necessary to fill the void of empty jokes, or failed attempts to seem like a ladies man, aka “catch”. For you younger people reading this, I am trying to artfully explain that someone was attempting to prove he had SWAG, but did not have it.  So the laughs, however awkward, became a way to keep things moving, a method to regulate and control time.

If you think these ladies are fun, you should visit their sites because they are also creative. I am serious, do it: This one is on food and love, and this one is on photography.

Well, I think that concludes this post recipe for fun. I have left a few pieces of this weekend’s happenings out as I will likely write another post about awkwardness and will need to refer to this weekend later on (my first installment on awkwardness can be found here). That, my friends, is what I call a “tease” and you’ll have to keep reading my posts, I guess.

For those of you that are new to reading my posts (first, thank you and welcome), I end each post with a video that I do not own, and I felt this one was appropriate for this weekends trip, so here you go!

“Classy Girls”-Lumineers