Well, going to Niagara Falls for a couple of days is hardly impulsive, but I'm sure if I racked my brain I could find better examples of spontaneous spontaneity.

Okay, bad.

Anyway, it's YOUR turn to write, okay?

-- Christine (chris@gta.igs.net), October 18, 1999

Answers

HAH - Impulsive!! NOT my usual style. One rare moment of impulsiveness does stand out though. I embarked on a midnight run to Petawawa with my sister and her two year old son with only about 2 hours planning involved. The trip is slightly more than a three hour tour shall we say? The plan was to leave about 10:00pm and get most of the way there and stop for the night at a motel and continue on in the morning. Such a fabulous drive through Algonquin park at around 1:30am. The view was...... nothing short of DARK and moose paranoia abounding. After all, if you should hit on those beasties whilst "speeding" you might actually get hurt. Jeeez, thanks Dad for the warning! By the way, would the plural of moose actually be mooses, moosies or perhaps, mices? Much debate regarding proper pluralizationwas had. Did I mention there are NO gas stations for a good 70-90 km stretch through the park? Huh. who knew! Ok, so our stopping point is only an hour away, and yes ok, we're just a tad above "E" but hey we'll be fine. Hmmmm, 2:45am, and not a motel to be had let alone a gas station that is open. Crap! Wound up sleeping in the Saturn station wagon using various clothing as assorted bedding until about 7:00 am till the gas station opened. Now I remember why I tend to plan these things to death!!!

-- B.Smith (barb@kw.igs.net), October 18, 1999.

Well, I'd have to say the most impulsive thing I've done is pick up and move every aspect of my life to Edmonton, acceptinging the first job offered to me over the phone, never even having met the people at the company I'm working for. All this becauseI was simply following my heart, so that I could be with my SO, who is now attending the U of A Masters program.

Of course, it's all paid off *very* well... I'm working at a job I love (They buy me Adobe products! The buy me Adobe products!), and I'm living very happily in a smallish apartment just outside the university with someone I care deeply about.

So I guess it goes to show you that doing something impulsive can lead to something really good...

PS: Excellent site redux, Chrissie... I like the revamped look. :)

--He of no fixed URL. :P

-- Darren James Harkness (solas@direct.ca), October 20, 1999.

Well I decided at the last minute to buy a plane ticket(several actually) to fly to Woodstock 94 . I decided on the Sunday and the gig started the Friday. From Sydney Aust, it was a hell of a thing to do, fly 3days, camp behind the main speakers 3days, then fly back for 3days. On my ownsome. It was one of the best things I'd ever done and had the time of my life. Impulsive, freedom, spontaneous, - life's too short right?

-- Katie (kcordes@chilli.net.au), October 20, 1999.

Thanks, Darren (re. redesign). Hurry up and get that address working!

I think completely uprooting to follow your heart is a really big life change, though I'm not sure I'd call it impulsive. Maybe it's just because I am a girl, and I'd expect that the man who loved me to follow me anywhere (and he did).

Now, flying from Australia to New York to attend Woodstock all-by-yourself -- that's impressive!

-- Christine (chris@mail.gta.igs.net), October 20, 1999.

This was a tough one to respond to because I think on a basic level we are impulsive, very impulsive every day of our lives. Within our grasp is the opportunity to change our direction, and the direction of others at a moment's notice. I think we make those impulsive decisions sometimes without even knowing we have. I'm also a believer that every decision you make influences the next one you are about to make, so that 'wildly' impulsive decision you thought you made, was just a succession of other decisions that led you to jumping out of a plane or flying around the world or following your heart. We call the decision impulsive if it seems to be coming 'out of left field', but in reality, that decision was probably defined by a number of other choices we already made, and the experiences we collected from making them. All theorising aside,and in the spirit of the question, I guess it would have to be the time my brother and I decided to play down by the river, and it was spring, and Mom had specifically said NOT to play down by the river. Rebels. An hour an four soakers later,we were walking home and who should drive by but MOM and the look in her eye was all we needed to see to let us know the wooden spoon was going to get a little extra air time when we got home. We talked about running away to avoid the inevitable, but the question was where? Barrie perhaps, Aunt Marie and Uncle Ross lived there, but neither of us could remember where the road went past Thornbury. Home we trudged, and the tears fairly flew...

-- Michael (meaford@hotmail.com), October 20, 1999.

Chris - believe me, I'm working on it. :P I have a couple options open to me for site storage, but it looks like I'm never going to get back my old addresses, due to a change in the way the new system is administered. I'm getting DSL Service through work, and I'm looking into having a subdomain set up so I can run all my stuff off my OWN box. Less chance of losing stuff that way. :)

I'll let you know in a couple days what's going on.

-- Darren James Harkness (solas@direct.ca), October 21, 1999.

In 1996, my band was on tour. One night we played in Chicago. During our song, "Spry", I thought it would be a good idea to demonstrate how spry I really was by jumping off the stage with a length of rope and attempting to tie up anyone I could catch. I jumped off the front of the stage and smacked my head on a monitor hanging from the ceiling. I later found out that the audience thought all that blood was part of my "act".

-- Stephen Boyle (soundbound@hotmail.com), June 07, 2000.