Have you ever had to go on a road trip to do something you wished you could do by mail and instead having fun memories with it? My son and I are both dual citizens of the U.S. and Germany. We had to renew our German passports. Since we live in the greater Dallas area, the General Consulate in Houston is our closest go-to place to take care of this mission. You have to show up in person!
The drive takes 4 1/2 hours (not counting stops or dealing with accident-induced delays). We could only get early-morning appointments with the consulate – right before Christmas. That means we needed to drive to Houston the day before, stay in a hotel, go to the consulate, and drive home the next day.
It could have sounded like a chore.
Except I decided it wasn’t going to be a chore. I decided we were going to have fun and make some fantastic memories. Yes, we were taking care of what we came to do. But we were also enjoying it.
We had some gift cards for “Dave & Busters” for our 13-year old son. I bought them at a fundraiser – except it turned out that there is no Dave & Busters near us. But there is one in Houston! Cool! I told him we could go to Dave & Buster’s once we got to Houston, the night before we’d go to the consulate.
By the time we got to Houston, our son had suggested we’d go to Dave & Buster’s the following day, after our appointments with the consulate. I said, cool. I had no agenda except to a) take care of our consulate matter and b) have fun with each other.
We had picked up some goodies to enjoy. A bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling juice cocktail for him. A little bottle of champagne for me. We got ice from the hotel to cool both of them. Then we shared a burger at the hotel’s restaurant. While eating in the nearly empty restaurant we were listening to music my son was playing on my phone. We both had an earbud. It was funny. The restaurant was playing Christmas music. The earbud was playing whatever song my son had picked on YouTube on my phone. It was mostly 80’s music which I most definitely know but wasn’t necessarily able to name.
We laughed and had a great time.
The point is: Whether something is a chore or an opportunity to have fun and bond is often a choice!
I’m Curious
Which chore could you convert into a fun memory?
Dr. Stephie
P.S.: I appreciate you commenting and sharing this with others. Thank you!
