Theory 58… The Expectations and Ice Cream Theory

Wow… has it been a whole month? So I haven’t blogged in the past few weeks… but the theories have been stacking up and it’s time I get rolling again… I’ve probably got 50 theories that I haven’t posted yet… so hopefully I can up the frequency for all 7 of my readers out there!

I started to slack while Laura and I were in Asia. We were gone for 2 ½ weeks and had a wonderful time. I’ve posted a few pictures online. You can see them by visiting http://picasaweb.google.com/brad.ball76

So the other day I was eating some ice cream and I got thinking about EXPECTATIONS. You see, as a kid ice cream was our favorite family treat… the official Ball family dessert. Usually about 30 minutes before bed, Dad would pull out the Western Family generic brand ice cream and serve us each a half-cup. Melanie (my sister) and I would always use our spoon to stir our cup of ice cream until it turned into a sugary medicine-like texture… then we would prolong our bedtime by slowly savoring every last bite. Oh what fond childhood nostalgia! That is… except for the Western Family ice cream… I can’t exactly pin down a date… but sometime in the early 1990’s my palette outgrew generic ice cream… and once you get accustomed to the fancier stuff… there’s no going back. Ice cream today is all about Breyer’s and Dreyer’s… or maybe Ben & Jerry’s if I feel like splurging. Come to think of it… I’d only purchase generic ice cream for the kids… the NEIGHBOR kids.


And therein lies the problem with life… how do you lower expectations and roll back your life style… it’s tough to do! I often wonder how we ever lived without cell phones… Really… how did we coordinate meeting times on road trips… I guess it went something like “Lets meet at the Hanksville Chevron sometime after 3pm”. Somehow the world made it through centuries without that pesky Verizon guy… but I sure wouldn’t want to give up my phone anytime soon.


Speaking of road trips… next week we’re going on the big family trip to Newport Beach… it’s usually the highlight of the summer… but I’ve been having a tough time getting excited for it this year… Newport Beach just isn’t as sexy after having just returned from Asia… and that’s sad… I miss the anticipation. Reminds me a little bit of a quote from Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory… “those golden tickets make this chocolate taste terrible” No Kidding!


Of course sometimes warped expectations car work in your favor… for instance…those of you expecting multiple blog posts from me every week… you’ve now been tamed and I can pleasantly surprise you by kicking out a few theories in succession after having been absent for a month.

But my theory… expectations are like ice cream… once you’ve tasted the sweet stuff… it’s awfully tough to go back to the ordinary… even if the ordinary isn’t that bad to begin with… I think I’ll go out and buy me some generic ice cream this week and try to restart the whole cycle.