Look out, folks! Pet peeve of the week is a-comin' your way!
PEOPLE WHO NEED TO BE ENTERTAINED.
I cannot emphazise this enough. It's not that I have something against entertainment. Movies and TV can be art at best and loads of fun even when they're terrible. But there's something intensely tragic about people who require some form of passive entertainment.
We've all seen it. Sitting around sad living rooms that never seem full no matter how many people plop down on the ugly blue couch and stare vacuously at the TV while their beers go flat. Suddenly, the movie or the game cuts to a commercial, and an awkward pause hangs over the audience. Taking advantage of the silence, the sponsors blare on about hemmorhoid cream until someone says, "Uh, are there any more nachos?"
It doesn't have to be this way. For starters, I personally believe that far too many living rooms are really just TV rooms. Try pointing the couches and chairs at each other. All of a sudden you'll notice something freaky - there are OTHER PEOPLE in this room! Chances are some of them even have something to talk about.
The fact of the matter is, a group of grown-assed adults sitting around complaining that there is "nothing to do" is just pathetic. Play cards. If you don't have cards, play charades. Tell a damn story. Walk down to the liquor store and spend forty-five minutes debating what to buy - and trust me, if you don't have a story to tell on the way there, hang around. You'll be sure to have one for the way back.
This is something I find deeply troubling about my generation. Perhaps too many of us spent too much time being shuttled from practice to practice in minivans, or maybe we're just dumb, but listen: you're going to spend roughly a third of your waking hours from age 18 on working for someone else. When you're off, you're off. Your time is your own. Don't just hand it over because you can't think of anything else. Embrace your time. Do things. Build things. Redecorate. Move the furniture. Open the hood of a car and stare at the engine until you know what that noise is.
But please, please, please - don't just sit there.
Nemo.
