The Good Life?

I was sitting in the front seat of a motorhome, not an RV, the kind with all the comforts of home but the kind of motorhome that other more serious RVer's look at with their snooty noses up in the air. Anyway, here we were motoring down Highway 58 towards our summer vacation in Shaver Lake. Enjoying the drive, I put down my crossword puzzle book that I had been working on and lean my head back on the seat and close my eyes.

I wasn't really thinking of anything in particular when a brilliant idea popped into my head. I don't get them that often, brilliant ideas that is, so this one made me bolt upright in my seat and I thought to myself "what a brilliant idea".

Before I let you in on my brilliant idea let me give you a little background. We go to Shaver Lake every summer and spend a week with some extended family waterskiing, riding jet skis and sitting around the shore visiting. Every year I complain that I don't really want to go. I have lots of reasons that I don't want to go but none of them are very good......so I go.

I don't really believe in camping so every year we have stayed in a lovely rental house with clean bathrooms and a kitchen and everything, well, except for one year when camping with all the dirt would have been preferable to the house we rented. Anyway, this year in an effort to save a little money (in our dreams!) we decided to borrow the father-in-laws RV. I know you might be thinking an RV, that's not really camping. Well, excuse me but if it's not permanent and involves climbing a latter to get to your bed (your bed with the ceiling 6 inches from your head) it is definitely camping!

One more thing you may need to know about me is that I have a cowardly need to please everyone.

This year is going to be different. At this moment I don't feel the need to please anyone but me. Everyone on this vacation is going to have to be responsible for pleasing themselves...I quit. No more Mr. nice guy for me.

Okay, here's the brilliant idea that came to me while driving down the highway. I am going to spend this vacation pretending that I am a character in a novel. So while I am going about my business this week if I happen to encounter some sort of problem or I'm just really bugged about something or by someone I am simply going to ask myself, what would Janet Evanovitch have Stephanie Plumb do. Well, perhaps Stephanie might be a bit much for my family to handle so maybe I'll ask myself how would Jane Austin's character respond to the situation and that's the way I will respond. I will not think about the consequence of my actions and I will take no responsibility for what I say or do this week. I will let the repercussion chips fall where they may.

I feel so free....I'll let you know how this works out for me when I get home.