I am not a spontaneous person. I research, analyze, obsess, disect, examine, think once, twice, seventy-five times before I do anything.

So how did I find myself responding on a whim to yesterday's Air France one-day special Philadelphia-Paris airfare of $276RT for early April?

We swore we weren't going to take much of a vacation this year (we just bought an old house and promised that we would put most of our money into renovations). We swore that our next vacation would be in warmer weather, like June or so. We swore we'd try a new destination.

The best laid plans can go horribly awry in the face of a tempting offer. Why am I so weak?

Goodness, elle

$276 RT for "April in Paris"!!!!

You can do a week in Paris for less than June in Virginia Beach.

I can definitely relate...but you have plenty of time between now and April to research, analyze and perfect your plans.

Just go and enjoy wonderful Paris and you will have beautiful photos for the walls of your new old home!

Actually, I've promised my husband I would not PLAN. We'll just go to Paris and hang out.

This is going to be very difficult for me as I have a tendency to choreograph every moment of life. . .

Maybe I'll come back from Paris a new, free, spontaneous person!

Elle, it sounds as if you've already made a step towards that unplanned you: you whimsically bought those tickets! Good for you! Now, go to Paris and celebrate with your sweetie. Relax in the Turkish baths. Visit as many gardens as possible or at least a few that contrast between modern landscapes and ones of the past. C'est la vie! Save planning for the house not Paris.

I'd say you found yourself responding to a whim because that whim, though more likely a strong urge, induced you to be shopping air fares! A whim is a passing impulse, whereas diligently shopping air fares is not.

You know, someone brilliant (no recollection who) once declared that when there is no time left you will not regret what you DID, but, rather, what you did NOT do. And, the condition of your house will not matter when that time comes, but your memories and fond recollections will.

No matter how much you think you prefer to analyze, obsess, disect, examine, think over and over, often the best decisions you've made were from the heart/gut.

Your plans are yours, the changes to your plans are yours.

My husband and I have this list of places we hope to visit before we die (or don't have the money, don't feel like going...). Near the top is Ireland. Yet, we went back to Paris three times, then London, then Russia, now London again this year, and so Ireland keeps getting postponed.

All in all, though, every minute of every day, you're doing what you really want to be doing, or you'd be doing something else.

We haven't bought a new couch or a new refrigerator, or replaced the kitchen floor, or gotten around to the landscaping so much as we'd like (as we're always away during planting time). The money goes to trips and we just can't find the time to shop/install what with planning and being away.

Obviously, what you really want/need to do at the moment is "go to Paris and hang out".

The problem, if there is one, is not that the best laid plans can go horribly awry, since you, yourself, deliberately changed those plans.

And, whether you return from Paris a new, free, spontaneous person, is entirely up to you, and whether that's what you really had in mind.

You haven't mentioned your age, but, regardless, in five or ten years, none of this will matter a whit.

When you have friends over in your new house, you will be able to regale them with tales of your impulse trip to Paris.

I gentleman I work with lost his wife (age 39) to breast cancer last year. I am now getting married, and he gave me some heartfelt advice. He told me to not ever believe that we would have the opportunity to do things "later" or "when we had extra money" and to not put things off until "retirement." He said that there were so many times either he or his wife would dream of going to Paris or Venice or London or Maui, and they would think of excuses why they should save the money for something else. He said that now he has a really hefty 401K and an impressive stock portfolio, but that he regrets every day that he didn't take advantage of those whims of desire that would have left him with wonderful memories. It's something my fiancé and I have promised to take to heart.

There is a way to solve your planning habits vs. your desire to be spontaneous. Whenever you find a tempting restaurant or something to see when you are doing your browsing in the next two months (and you know you will do that, don't you?), write it out and put it somewhere. Take that collection with you and draw them out randomly. Whatever restaurant your research has shown might be great that you draw out of the "hat" will be your destination that night.

I am jealous. I tried to go to Paris for springtime on a whim airfare sale and my employer said no.

As jun04 states:

We had our photo taken by a man outside Notre Dame. He said 'It is so good to see you travelling so young. My wife and I saved to travel when we retired, and here I am.'