expecting

"Picnics were like Christmas Day, better in the future and the past than in the present." -- Galsworthy (229).

Not one of his better similes, but I like the idea of things turning out better in one's minds eye when both thinking about what it will be like and then some time after how great it was. Somehow the present action of being never lives up to expectations.

Perhaps events are only good when you don't plan them. Anything is better when it just happens, and sometimes you don't realise how great it was until some time after.