Things that aren't as good as the idea of them seems to be

David Foster Wallace wrote an essay in the '90s called "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" about taking a cruise.   Although the cruise was supposed to be fun, to him it really wasn't.

I've been mentally compiling a list of things that SEEM a lot better than they actually are. Here are some I've thought of:

1.  Camping -  I love the idea of being under an open sky, getting close to nature, being resourceful enough to live with the basics, and cooking over a fire.  But after a few days of being bitten by bugs, and worse, not having a really good, clean place to take a shower, I tend to feel dirty.  Also, tents start to get stuffy.  So the whole idea always outstrips the reality. 

Last year, the Hubby and I were in a hotel that overlooked a place where some Boy Scouts were having an overnight.  They were camping on a baseball field.  Anyway, at 6 a.m. the next morning, most of the dads were packing up the tents to go.  I could just imagine that for weeks and weeks, the boys and dads were so excited about their first camping overnight and couldn't wait for it.  And then it came, and one or both parties couldn't wait to go home and get some real sleep.

2.  Funnel cake - Those warm doughy fumes pervade any amusement park, luring you nosefirst.  But they smell better than they taste.  Because it's just thin dough with sugar.  It's tastes decent, but it smells divine.

3.  Baltimore's Inner Harbor - Fun for a day or maybe two days.  But really, beyond that, what is there to do?  Shopping can't last three days.  Not really a place you can vacation for a long time.

4.  Coffee.  Smells delicious.  And you hear people extolling the value of a "good cup of coffee."  But it tastes sour to me.  I can drink it with a lot of skim milk and sugar, but then it's really milk with some coffee flavoring.  Anyway, it's so bad for your health that I guess I'm lucky I never got into it.

5.  Hmmm, I think I've had other ideas in the past, but now I can't remember 'em.

Anyway, even though I'm sounding sarcastic, I could still enjoy some of these things (with the exception of the coffee) and find the good in them.  The point of this is not at all that these are bad things.  It's just that the IDEA of them sounds way better than they often turn out to be.

I bet you've got your own list, eh?  Feel free to blog about it.