A Man with a Plan

This weekend was a first (of a sort) in our marriage.

Often times I will inquire of Ross "What's the plan for ______?"  That blank could be any number of things:  tomorrow, dinner, this weekend, etc.
You see I am an agenda maker.
My darling Ross..... is not.

It's taken awhile for us to get used to this fact about each other.  I function much better if I have at least a general plan for the day ahead.  What time do we need to leave?  What tasks do we need to complete?  Do we need to run any errands while were are out?  This helps me collect my thoughts and keeps me from sleeping in until noon.  Ross, on the other hand, will get up at a reasonable time and start doing work.  Yes, there are tasks that need to get done, but he just sort of rolls with it.  He figures out what he feels like working on or what most needs doing and does it.  This works for him.

Neither style is wrong.  In fact, I think they're quite complimentary in many ways.  We end up pushing each other and expanding each other's perspective- a quality that I really value in our marriage.  We're learning to compromise.

Anyway- last Saturday afternoon I asked my husband what the plan for dinner was (usually the easiest of my "plan" queries for him to answer).  He shocked me by stating that he thought we could walk to the grocery store and get food to have a picnic and watch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.  FYI- I love a floor picnic.  It seriously makes me ridiculously excited.  That's not weird, right?  I think it dates back to my childhood when my mom was awesome at inventing activities for us to do.  Somedays we'd pack a little picnic and carry it out to eat in our front lawn.  Oh the excitement!

Ross then absolutely baffled me.  He didn't stop.  He went on to state that he thought the next morning we could get up and go to the Whitefield Farmer's Market and then go into town for the Manchester Day Parade.  When the man makes a plan, he makes a plan!

So we followed the plan.

We had a picnic!  (You should know that I'm re-experiencing my picnic-related excitement just by telling you about it.  I know... I'm a freak.)

On the left (top to bottom):  Potato Salad, Egg Salad, Prosciutto, Black Olive Hummus

On the right (top to bottom): 2 kinds of bread, pear, apple, grapes, brie, Cheshire, and Double Gloucester cheeses, olives, cucumber and tomato.  And a glass of Apple and Mint juice.  Delish!

The next morning, we got up and walked to the Whitefield Farmer's Market.  Whitefield is technically the town we live in.  It's sort of like a suburb of Manchester.  Ross had noticed a banner up at a nearby park which proclaimed that the Farmer's Market was back.  We were pretty excited to see if there was anything good.  Some tasty fresh fruit and veg, perhaps?  After about a 5 minute walk we were at the park.  There seemed to be people around.  There was a buzz in the air.  Then I looked down into the park and saw this.

Oh look some tents!

We walked a little closer.  

Wait... make that 10 tents.  10.

Yep it was, in Ross' words, "The World's Most Crap Farmer's Market".  Do you think they'll want the award in the form of a certificate, a plaque, a trophy, or a crystal bowl of some kind?  There were 10 measly stands. Two that were perhaps legitimately from a farm.  The highlights were: the black and white photos that the woman basically told me sucked and I'd be stupid to buy them, the "cute" kids costume-outfit thingies, and the pencils made out of sticks that a guy would engrave with your name.  Yeah.  It was lame.  LAME!!  Oh well.

Stay tuned for part 2 where we go to the parade...