Promming It Up

Promming it up

i.e. Having really high expectations, which naturally can’t be lived up to. Like prom.

My husband has an expression called “Promming It Up*.”  In its essence, it means having really high expectations, which naturally can’t be lived up to.  Like prom.  (Although, I went to prom with Steve and it was actually really fun - obviously he might feel differently.)

Steve always warns me against promming things up.  Don’t get too excited, he says, or else you will be disappointed.  Go in with low expectations and you will be blown away, he believes.

We are told we will LOVE Kyoto - then it is crazy crowded and we see think it is just a solid OK.

We read that Robot Restaurant is the coolest spectacle we will ever see - and it's fine.

We hear the Kiyomizudera temple is breathtaking - and it starts to feel like all the other temples.

But then we set our expectations low.

We know nothing about Hakone - and it wows us.

We have dinner at Locale - and it knocks our socks off.

We stumble upon a path in the woods in Nikko and it becomes our favorite part of our trip.

Heck, I knew nothing about Tokyo before we moved here and MY GOD, I love it here.

But here is the conundrum.  I find so much joy in the anticipation. The planning, the prepping, the daydreaming.  Sometimes, to be honest, the anticipation is as much fun as the actual event.  

So I have found a happy medium.  It comes down to ignorance being bliss.  It is a lack of detail that keeps my expectations low but my happiness high.

Especially when it comes to travel.  Here is how we roll:  We book a flight.  We book a hotel.  And then we pause.  

For example, we are traveling to Bali in a few months and I couldn’t be more excited.  I have wanted to visit Bali my entire adult life.  We have our travel and accommodations locked, but that’s all I know at the moment.  And I like that. 

Then a few weeks prior, I will do a bit more digging to get a general plan together of how we will spend our days.  I try to plan only one activity a day because when we are traveling with a 2 & 4-year-old the best laid pans of mice and men often go awry.  

Anytime we are too tight on schedules or try to jam too much into one day, I get disappointed. When I know too much and am focused on everything we missed - I am bummed.  But when we accomplish our one goal and have time for stumbling off the beaten path, discovering something cool or just spending time being - we are our happiest. 

My career has been in the details.  I am a detail person.  But in my personal life, I like to hover above the minutia, just be present and be none the wiser on what could have been.  And hey, not having my head in a computer for months prior finding the best everything, isn’t the worst. 

This state of mind has created a way for me to still “prom it up” but ultimately still have the Best. Time. Ever.

*A Note From Steve: “I have for 20 years thought that I invented this statement. As a realist I am sure it was already invented and used by countless others but anyone that points this out or references that I am not the only true inventor and owner of this expression will have to be removed from my Christmas List. In this case ignorance is bliss.”