The Yes Man

The Yes Man-

For the longest time I’ve been unable to shake the the, Clark Griswald esque, over planning on vacations. Even though I’ve wanted to I’ve had difficulty just going with the flow and allowing the chips fall as they may. I’ve always had (or at least used) the excuse of the limited vacation time of 7-10 days at a time so I wanted to pack it all in and see everything there was to see. After about 2 months of “vagabonding” I’m finding my stride and reached another stage of road warrior maturity. I’ve become the Yes Man.

Most of the amazing, bucket list type, experiences I’ve had recently have been unplanned. Hang gliding, sailing, ice climbing, 3 day music festivals and on and on and on, weren’t on the original itinerary, but it’s the unplanned that make the experiences rich and honest. Not intending to mirror Jim Carey in the movie it just sort of seems to happen that way. Hey we’re going down to the beach for a swim, wanna come?- Yep!… Do you want to learn how to carve bones into jewelry?- Sure do!… Who has two thumbs and is down to go to the BBQ at the park?- This guy! Even the charitable non profit fund raisers and petition peddlers grab my attention in strip malls now where before I would wave them off or just shake my head. I’m not donating to their cause, but am patient enough to hear them out a bit which seems to clear the dark miserable cloud over their head, if only for a moment, until they are avoided like an infectious virus by the next passerby. My intrigued willingness has however inspired some food purchases after tastey free samples of falafel balls and cured meats.

It’s very easy to plan, plan and over plan once you are exposed to the endless possibilities on how to fill your time. But then it also becomes easy to lose sight of what’s important… The experience. Sure I have things that I want to do before I leave, but the list of “must do’s” has shrunk from a laundry list to a scribbled note on my palm or a string on my finger. If I miss something so be it, as long as I had fun in the process of missing it I’m ok.

That also means less time planning, less time on the laptop and unfortunately less time working on blog posts. Thankfully I keep my iPhone handy and just jot down some blog notes and write as I go. A good time here, an interesting experience there and before long I’ll have a collection of coherent thoughts that form a post. I’ve been getting asked a bit lately when my next post will be or people messaging me saying they are looking forward to the next story (which I appreciate). In case you haven’t noticed the frequency of blogs has dropped off a bit and this is the reason why. To illustrate, this particular entry has taken about a week to write. I started it at a table after lunch one day- looked out of the window and saw a bike rental rack at my hostel. Turned off my phone and jumped on a mountain bike where I spent the next 7 hours. I rode back in the dark because I found a spot where I wanted to watch the sunset on the way back… Next day I took my writing to a park that overlooked beautiful Lake Wanaka. While laying on the grass I catch a few kites in the sky from the corner of my eye. Put my phone away again, threw my hands behind my head and watched the kids wrestle with kite strings for the afternoon. I finished one book and bought Agassi’s autobiography which I’ve almost read in its entirety without putting down (read that book it’s amazing). And so it goes, and so it goes.

After ascending a mountain summit recently on the way back down to my hostel I see a sign on a chalkboard outside of a little locals pub “Acoustic guitar act performing Friday” Excited about getting the chance to check it out THAT NIGHT I take a look at my watch- it’s Tuesday… Friday may as well be a month away. I’ve completely lost track of days of the week because for the first time in my life it doesn’t matter. All’s I know (with about 70% certainty) is it’s April. That and I have a 1 way flight to Nepal coming up soon. It IS April now right?

Bob