The more things change...

My husband and I are getting ready to celebrate ten years, which is amazing in itself considering that it's not unusual for me to say things like, "We've been to that restaurant/park/event before. Remember? When we were dating." So it doesn't seem that long ago. But time marches on.

To celebrate, Jim and I are planning a trip back to Chicago, where we spent a lot of time...err...when we were dating. And first married. Before kids, really. We live in St. Louis, and sometimes on Fridays I'd come home from work at the ad agency and want to go somewhere, do something. Head out of town. So we'd pack a quick bag and go.

We really should have checked the weather as well because one time, we were half-way to Chicago and it started snowing. Hard. We turned on the radio and learned they'd been predicting a foot of snow. Turns out they were right. Oops. We almost spent that weekend in an old Red Roof Inn in the middle of rural Illinois.

But it was fun and we always had such a great time on our impromptu road trips. Alas, they ended when we had kids. Now with writing and other things, I haven't really felt the need to dash out of town at the end of the day. Or maybe my husband and I just know we can't!

Still, for the 10th, we're doing it again. Only this time, we're planning. And frankly, it has us confused.

Like last night, we sat on our laptops and showed each other fun things to do in Chicago. New things. Things we'd never done before. But we couldn't decide on anything. We looked up hotels. But we ended up making a reservation at the same place we'd always just showed up at before. Then we realized our problem - these trips are not meant to be planned. They're meant to be savored. We'd gotten to be too parental. We were messing with the system.

So we ditched the planning and have decided we'll just show up. We'll revel in the "let's see" attitude that made the trips so much fun in the first place. We'll explore with abandon. Well, mostly. I did notice Jim has kept the reservation.