unscheduled pleaseure

My life revolves around my Outlook Calender and Tasks. Thank you Microsoft for giving me the tools to schedule almost every minute of my day; I have become become a slave to your reminder ridden, color coded wonderfulness. Most of the time I follow it pretty strictly, if I didn't chapters wouldn't get read, tests would be failed, Den meetings wouldn't get planned, soccer games would be missed and birthdays forgotten. I have become accustomed to this lifestyle and have come to terms with this aspect of growing up and parenthood. 

This afternoon Ethan went to his Dad's, my Mom and Maci got situated with some Granny/Maci time, and as planned, I snuck off for a few hours to get some studying done. About 30 minutes into my studying I received a text (I know, I should turn my phone off while studying, but I'm weak) from my friend, Jim, who I hadn't seen in a number of months, the conversation went something like this:
Jim: You busy tonight?
Me: Why, what's up?
Jim: Want to go for a walk in the park?
(normally, I would respond by saying that I was studying and maybe some other time, but a walk in the park sounded very appealing, especially after the busy week I've had)
Me: A walk would be nice, I have to get a little more studying done, how about in a couple hours?

I let my mom know I would be home an hour later than planned (since she was home with Maci) and shaved off 1-2 hours of study time. I planned to get the majority of my studying done before going and decided I be home at a reasonable hour and finish when I got home.

Jim and I met up at a place in Boulder, we had decided on a simple hike/picnic instead. Both of us must have been under the delusion it was still summer, since the sun was setting as we began our trek up the foothill. Jim brought some snacky snacks, and since there was a shortage of picnic tables on the narrow path, we laid down a blanket he had brought on a little bridge, and had a picnic by moon/flashlight. We chatted a bit and caught up on the happening of each others lives.
(Side note: Jim is the photographer that had done my pin-up style photos. Check out some of his work here).

After a little eating and chatting, we packed up and head down the hill. About half way down, we spotted something move towards the edge of the path. We had joked earlier about getting eaten by wildlife since we were the idiots walking around the foothills... at night... and with no one around. So naturally I was a bit spooked (more like we both peed ourselves a little). Upon further inspection with Jim's flashlight, we had come across a young deer who stood silently looking back at us, only about 15 feet away. He was beautiful, and I just stood there and took it all in. I wish I had brought a camera, and of course the photographer I did bring, was camera-less. I took a minute to just take it in and appreciate the moment. I felt lucky that I live in such a wonderful state and a little proud of myself for taking some time for me and tossing my schedule aside, if only for a couple hours.
The deer finally ran off and we continued our trek to our cars so that I could head home and finish the studying I needed to do.




The deer we saw looked similar to this guy, just pretend it's night time.



Spontaneity is the quality of being able to do something just because you feel like it at the moment, of trusting your instincts, of taking yourself by surprise and snatching from the clutches of your well organized routine a bit of unscheduled pleasure.

- Richard Iannelli