Heidel in da House

So, this past weekend we celebrated our anniversary. We actually have two anniversary dates, as we had two ceremonies (on at the end of September and another at the end of October). Due to this fact, we generally celebrate the entire month of October as our anniversary. I am one of those rare women who cannot tell you either of the dates without looking them up, so lucky hubby only has to remember a month. Well, Friday night we saw Bobbie McDuffie perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons along with the American Four Seasons/Violin Concerto No. 2 by Philip Glass, a piece written specifically for Bobbie. My niece attends McDuffie’s school for strings in Georgia, and he was so gracious to us after the concert. Amazing, amazing, amazing. http://americanfourseasons.com/

On Saturday, we headed to the Heidel House Resort on Green Lake to enjoy a lodging/dinner/breakfast package. Very highly recommend this place. The décor is nice, beautiful setting on the lake surrounded by trees, excellent food…and only 1 ½ hours from home. Perfect for a quick getaway (their motto used to be “Run away and Heidel”). We packed evening clothes – a long gown for me and snazzy suit for hubby – and were ready to launch full-bore into the festivities.

It was Oktoberfest weekend at the resort, and we laughed, enjoyed polka music, watched the Klement’s sausage team race (go Chorizo!) and we drank fresh beer from a Madison brewery. The beer was unfiltered, tasty, rich, and…made us sick. So, just a few hours into our getaway we were in our room incapacitated. I’ll spare the details, but suffice it to say we never made it to dinner.

The next morning, feeling a bit better, we had a great buffet breakfast and pondered the schedule for the day. It was pouring rain outside so we forewent the hike through the woods, and decided to just head home. Were we down about the fact that our plans had crashed? Surprisingly, no! We both had had so much fun in the few hours prior to illness, and enjoyed just being together without the distractions of home and work, that we still considered the weekend a success.

It occurred to me that sometimes we set ourselves up by having expectations. It would have been easy to have high expectations of a fancy dinner and romantic weekend, which would have been dashed by our illness.  Instead, we just wanted some time together in a fun setting, so we were OK when things went a little south.  In general, I have found that expectations make you more unhappy than happy. If you don’t have expectations, you don’t have disappointment. Now, sometimes simple expectations are fine. At work, I expect that the receptionist will let me know when someone calls for me. On the highway, I expect that drivers will stay in their lanes (but I don’t always trust that they will---another matter). But when it comes to matters of the heart, family, friends and the like, expectations tend to open the door to bitterness or resentment. Hey, we’re all pretty flawed human beings, so we really shouldn’t expect too much from one another. Let’s cut each other some slack! Enjoy time together without thinking that it should be…fill in the blank. This week I encouage you to have fun, stop worrying about the past/future/what-ifs, and just be together in this messy stew we call life. 

Life is a matter of passing the time enjoyably. There may be other things in life, but I've been too busy passing my time enjoyably to think very deeply about them.      - Peter Cook, English comedian