Anticipation (Carly Simon album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Michelle’s prompt: When you’re giddy with excitement, does time speed up? Slow down? Tell us about the experience of anticipation.
Carly Simon’s response:
Anticipation, anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting
I agree with her totally. Anticipation: hope + expectation.
There is a good side and bad side to anticipation. Which side are you on?
On the Homefront 
I too am with Carly (and oh how I love her)…I can get giddy and I can get anxious – sometimes at the same time!
me too — it is hard sometimes–but also wonderful
Definitely!
Love Carly’s writing. Anticipation is delicious, and should be savoured slowly, but sometimes we’re much too impatient to do that.
I love your take on this and I agree–savour it slowly and enjoy it!
Sometimes anticipation is better than the actual event. For some reason I love anticipating better than participating! 🙂
Me too!
I agree with Life in the fifties and beyond. Anticipation is exciting, makes me feel like a kid. I think the actual event you are anticipating sometimes doesn’t live up to expectations.
so true–I always loved getting ready to go to a formal when I lived in residence–but the actual formal itself was rather dull
When I was a little kid I didn’t handle the excitement of anticipation very well. Before a really great school trip, I always made myself sick with the excitement, and one time I even missed the trip because of it. I do much better now, but I still feel the effects.
it is easy to get overexcited–I belong to a group that is putting on a short story writing workshop tomorrow and while I have been looking forward to it–good anticiplation–I will be glad when the actual event is over
Depends on what I am anticipating really 😛
Usually it is good though!
Cheers
CCU
it does depend doesn’ t?
If it’s something good, then the anticipation is even more fun and exciting than the event you’re awaiting. If it’s something bad, the anticipation is usually just a feeling of overwhelming dread, and quite often the anticipation is far worse than the event itself. It’s funny how on both sides of the spectrum, the reality is usually less extreme than the anticipation!
such an apt observation–it is true, what we anticipate never quite meets expectations (sometimes thankfully)
If it’s something I’m looking forward to… time seems to go slow…but the opposite if it’s not! Right now it’s slooowwww as I wait to see a specialist and maybe get to start sleeping again…. Diane
nothing worse than not getting sleep–it colours your world and makes it hard to cope (or at least it does me)
You’re very right!!!! Diane
Bad side. I find it scary even if it’s a good thing.
it is because it is unpredictable and hard to get a handle on
That’s absolutely right.
For me, anticipation is a good thing -I get excited about something positive about to happen. (ie vacation, kids coming to visit, etc)
I think of ‘bad anticipation’ as dread.
that is a good definition of bad anticipation
Hmmm, this can go both ways. When I’m in the moment happily anticipating sometimes I forget time altogether and it speeds. Other times when there’s more of a sense of expectation and nervousness, then time can slow excruciatingly down. Good post.
so true–today my anticipation of a writers workshop my group put on proved to be a wonderful thing–it does not always work out that way
Anticipation is wonderful! The other side…anxiety or anxiousness, not so much. I find the good speeds by, while the negative moves slower…now how does that work?! ~ Sheila
doesn’t seem fair does it\?
Life seems to be a series of anticipations.. sometimes I wonder when we get to stop waiting for it all. But then I realize that the good bits are already here.
many of the good bits are already here, but a little anticipation just makes life all that more interesting–both good and bad interesting
the good side, is there any other? 🙂
good answer–I have not been visiting my favourite blogs lately but I will be back
Not a problem, as you probably noticed I am having trouble keeping up as well. Life just gets in the way some weeks.
it does sometimes–just as long as you know I am still your loyal follower
As I am yours, even if it takes me a while to visit.
we must both remember that