Have your therapist explain this to my hubby! pretty please LOL
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The way she explains it to me is like this:
By having something to look forward to, no matter what your circumstances, you bring happiness into your life well before the event actually takes place. In fact, sometimes the happiness in anticipation is greater than the happiness actually experienced in the momentā thatās known as ārosy prospection."
Everyone should be able to pull out a calendar and see at least a few fun things scheduled in the future weeks.
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Yup, for me even if itās a year, year and a half away it gives me something to plan and dream that is an escape from reality. But hubby likes to spend money on things. I really donāt care about stuff and itās all about the future trips. He doesnāt understand what this does for my sanity as he likes routine,
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Hmmmm ā¦
in the midst of a national lockdown here, 60k new cases today in the U.K., a 50% increase of hospitalisations with Covid in just 6 days ā¦
nope, nothing on any calendar yet. Except that I should be vaccinated by April.
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Youāre not alone! Reminds me of this thread from earlier this year:
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Yes, this.
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So important. This becoming so much more difficult over the last 10 months for most people is not the same as losing a loved one, but it has been damaging in its own way. I hope we donāt lose sight of the toll on mental health the virus has taken at the expense of only focusing on cases and deaths.
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We decided on about August 1 to take a last minute trip to WDW on August 12. After it was over, I kind of regretted not having that anticipation period. Donāt get me wrong, we had a great time! But it would have been nice to have been looking forward to it for a couple of months.
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If only they made a website with tools and tips to help people facilitate these needs to have something to plan.
Maybe something to do with touring different places? Itās on the tip of my tongue. 
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Iāve got it!
Traveling ā¦ Itineraries.
Iāll go register the domain name.
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I havenāt been anywhere at all either. For me, right now, itās projects / goals that I keep in front of me. I made that week of Disney recipes in September. I have craft / home improvement ideas. Since Iām just stuck at home, I worked out more than I have in 20+ years in 2020 and met my ādreamā weight. - back to what I was in before I became a ādadā. (Now, I need some muscles / abs! Thatās my 2021 goal)
IME - it doesnāt have to be a trip to look forward to, just something to keep me focused. 
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The soonest I have a potential trip planned is in July 2022, so thereās hope.
Last year our grandniece indicated she wanted to see Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon Canyon in 2021. This week Iāve begun serious planning as summer lodging availability is already diminished.
Working out daily mileages, interesting lodging, interspersed with our necessary points of interest makes me content.
But I think itās the doing, in the now. The puzzle of it. I have had much fun planning trips Iāve never expected to actually follow thru on. Disney and non Disney. On those trips, it never rains, transportation never breaks down and no one is ever tired of the road, or the crowds.
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Itās a toss up for me between Disney parks and national parks. And of the ones Iāve been to, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon are right at the top. But if you go to Yellowstone you might as well hit Grand Teton too. 
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Oh, yes. Grand Teton is spectacular. Itās on the list.
We have a short window. I told my grandniece itāll be like a 4 park wipeout, since she wants Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. Kinda skimming the high spots.
Coupla decades ago we were heading home from a family reunion in Idaho and I asked our two youngest grandkids did they want to repeat Yellowstone or Great Sand Dunes. Fully expecting to hear Yellowstone. They picked Great Sand Dunes which was alright, too.
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What resources do you use to plan National Park trips? I need a good planning site for every destination!!
We just did a four park wipeout last summer. It was Crater Lake, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier.
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I remember you talking about that. That was covering some ground, as well.
In maybe 12 days the plan is to cover some 3000 miles, and four national parks and a monument. Seems ambitious to me . . .
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Well, I use an atlas. And a calculator, as well as just googling how far between these two obscure tiny towns - altho I donāt use Google as a search. Usually duck duck go.
I use nps.gov for āplanning your tripā info. Somebody in that department years ago was smart because thereās a wonderful reason to the parkās URLs. Yellowstone is Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) while Grand Canyon Grand Canyon National Park (U.S. National Park Service) and Great Sand Dunes is Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service).
I like TripAdvisor for narrowing down lodging choices. There are other resources. Iām used to TripAdvisor. I do generally reserve at a particular lodgingās website tho. Mostly because on a trip like this, weāre as likely to stay at quirky places as the usual conventional places.
We used to do trips like this for a month or more at a time, plenty of time at each park. Lots of side trips. I would just search - one thing leading to another - for interesting things along the way and around our stops. We camped for these trips and I used an actual campground directory, paper variety, a lot, as well as a book that detailed all the grades on the mountain passes.
This trip is a fast one, and no new parks, so Iām not searching much.
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