A Rule for Making Plans

Dear readers, let’s talk about our calendars today, shall we? Be they digital, paper and pencil, or simply a jumble of dates and times rolling around in your head, I’ve got calendars, and more specifically, the filling of them, on the brain.

(The new Lindsay Letters calendars are beautiful.)

In listening to many-a-conversation between Tsh and Erin Loechner, I keep hearing Erin talk about making plans at the last minute. It’s a rule she has when it comes to filling up her calendar. Because she’s got two little people underfoot almost all the time, and a travel schedule that makes she and her husband passing ships at times, she doesn’t commit to much far in advance.

Instead, when it strikes her fancy, she or her friends will send a text along the lines of: pizza at our house tonight. Bring a salad?

And if the friend(s) can join, then they have plans. And if not, next time, then.

I’ve been mulling this one over. At first I thought, nice for them, not for me. But over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a couple of get-togethers that have come together at the last minute and been wonderful. And a couple of in-advance dates on the calendar that haven’t worked out because you can plan and plan and plan, and then you can have a toddler who has other ideas.

So I might hang on to this one, dear readers. I might need to cling even tighter as Christmas draws near.