Is there anything better than daydreaming with your best friend?

I think one of my all-time favorite things to do with my boo, more than eating burgers or marathoning movies, is daydreaming.

I think daily life has a good grasp on keeping us grounded in reality (read: crushing dreams) and judging by the number of memes about 20-somethings experiencing some kind of quarter-life crisis, I think we’re not the only ones who sometimes feel that way.

So whenever Jayne and I get together, it’s like therapy. We don’t just eat, listen to rock, and laugh–we encourage each other to imagine and dream. Much like a good book might do.

Yes, I just compared hanging out with my best friend to reading a book. And everyone who reads knows that’s a huge compliment.

Here’s what we’re dreaming about…

Where We’ll Go

There’s probably not enough vacation time in the world for all the trips we’ve got planned. And the fun thing about trip planning with Jayne (besides the fact that we see eye-to-eye on all the scrumptious things we want to try) is that there’s always writing involved.

Each of our trips relates to either a book we’re going to write or research we’re hunting down for something already in progress, or just knowing that  a drastic change of scenery (and a shove outside our comfort zone) is exactly what we need to get the creative juices flowing.

So, look out New York, Britain, France, Spain, Israel, and others. We’re coming and we’re bringing pens.

What We’ll Eat

Ok, well, you guys know how much of our mental capacity is reserved for food at any given moment (about 80%) so it’s never far from our minds.

Jayne and I plan restaurants we’ll visit, delicacies we’ll try, and elaborate (usually bacon-related) dishes we’re going to cook up together in our little small-town love nest (dibs on the band name!). We also fondly reminisce about going grocery-shopping together and tripping over each other at all the tasties in Trader Joe’s, like a couple of Soviet defectors.

What We’ll See

Because we have more than just food on the mind (we’re not total boors), we also like to plan cultural excursions like to bookstores or museums or to see films.

As I write, Jayne and I are exchanging a frantic all CAPS conversation about the new Richard Linklater movie, Everybody Wants Some.

 

What We’ll Accomplish

Well, obviously we’re both plotting out how we’re going to write the Next Great American Novels.

I’ve also got my eye on a Nobel Prize in Literature and some kind of trophy for most Nazis hunted (alas, I was born a little late for my dream career). And of course Jayne imagines her thriving career as a merciless warlord, emerging mysteriously from the jungle, saying nothing but communicating wordlessly with her faithful henchwoman (henchperson?), me.

So, our futures are looking bright and busy.

What We’ll Be Like 

Ah, the dangerous one. This makes me think of being a kid and imagining myself at the age I am now,  having accepted my Nobel Prize at the ripe age of twenty-something, and living in a humble but beautiful mansion in San Francisco’s Seacliff district with my handsome husband and an adorable brood of trilingual MENSA children.

Now, I may have one down, but that’s not enought to quiet the disappointed eight-year-old who thinks I should have done more by now. And that’s probably why so many of us millenials (ugh, I hate millenials) feel inadequate or unaccomplished. But that’s no reason to stop daydreaming. Just do it responsibly.

As for me and Jayne, we are keeping a level head about what we’ll be like someday.

Jayne, blue-haired and saucy, will be sitting on the porch across the street from mine, yelling occasional obscenities at the neighborhood kids holo-skating too fast. I’ll be preparing a tray of tea and cookies (and croissants and chocolates) for when Jayne comes over later and we sit around reminiscing about the good old days and daydreaming of days to come.

–T