"Ms. Ribeiro, I am so bored!" To which I reply, " Well go find something to do then." This has been our back and forth chant for several weeks and I admit to not being too sympathetic.
When my children were young they would occasionally sing me that refrain, but they quickly learned that I had a list of chores a mile long that could certainly be done by bored children rather easily. At school, however, where people pay almost as much to have their children attend as I make in an annual salary,it seems rather unwise for me to ask them to clean the floor, take out the trash or do the dishes. So my little friend and I are at an impasse on most days, and she knows it. Off she trots, grinning from ear to ear, and I am left to decide how to occupy her remaining minutes.
Today being the weekend has me slowing down my routine a bit, and especially in the chill of winter I am less inclined to fill the hours of Saturday with too many planned activities. When I was a younger mother, house full of children and high on energy, I usually had more activities scheduled than hours in the day , so this has been a refreshing change. It happened gradually , at first taking me by surprise, then causing me some stress as the changes occurred weekly, and now it has become my own favorite refrain. "I am bored." "I have nothing to do." I have plenty of things I could do, like clean the floor or take out that trash or do the dishes, but I am choosing boredom.
What is boredom? It simply means lack of demands on me, from without and within. Nobody expects anything from me because I have no more small children, no longer is a husband part of my dynamic, and no work needs to be seen to. In my state of boredom I can sit in the spot of sunshine on my couch and leaf through a magazine, or finish up that chapter in the book I fell asleep on last evening. I can watch television if I want to, which I never want, or slip in a movie and eat myself sick with popcorn. Probably won't because some of that young energy still pops out and sitting for 2 straight hours really puts me over the edge.
Boredom meant that I could go scrounge around in my refrigerator, choosing not to clean it properly, but rather pull out random things and create a lunch casserole. It wasn't half bad, I might add. Guess I will now go and have a cup of hot chocolate, since there is nobody to have a cup of coffee with. One of my quirks is that I feel I must only make coffee when someone is here with me and tea is always for two, so that leaves me only able to drink cocoa when alone and bored. Strange creatures, aren't we? Don't go laughing at my oddities, I am just brave enough to admit a few of my conclusions about myself.
I also saw a magazine with a picture of a pie on the cover, so made a cherry pie. Yesterday was National Pie Day. How many reading this knew that little known and talked about fact? I thought not. Since I am talking about boring topics, can I just tell you that it should be illegal for someone trying to walk, lose weight and eat healthfully less, to be able to subscribe to a FOOD magazine??! Holy Mashed Potatoes!it is ridiculous the amount of tempting pictures and amazingly simple recipes that can be found in one food magazine. Gourmet. Even the name is delectably enticing. It makes me want to go have a chocolate eclair with my hot cocoa.
Boredom makes you do things that normally people place in the 'do when I get around to it' category. This morning while waiting for Ethan's parents to pick him up after a spontaneous overnight at Grammy's last night, I rearranged and cleaned off my entire desktop. Who does that? Who has time? Me. Because I was bored.
Are you getting this?
The phone rang and I chose NOT to answer it. I had time to see the caller ID, realize I had no desire to fill my boredom with idol chatter , so I ignored it's ringing nag. When we are busy we grab it off the hook, listen angrily and slam it down muttering about how ridiculous it is to get so many dumb calls! Not so for my Bored friends and I who leisurely ignore these problems.
Blogging is Boredom in written form, reading blogs is boredom a step further.
Well, my cocoa is waiting for me, my head is throbbing from so many boring thoughts, and I think I may need to go take a bubble bath. It is 4:00 pm and I am so bored.
2 comments:
Actually, you posted this at 3:52, lets be accurate. And just for the record, thank God for teachers who know what to do with bored kids. If they all learn the same thing at the same rate, they will all graduate with the same skill set. That isn't really indicative of real life now, is it? Giving bored kids extra work that matches their desire and ability? Now that is an art form. And those kids who had those kind of teachers? They stand out pretty well in real life. They have the skills to keep them from ever being bored. Coffee alone? Philips Senseo.
Caelen and I find ourselves bored. We're both looking for work and not that motivated in our art right now. The weather doesn't help much. We moved into Wilmington and find that fun things to do are now farther away than before. That's ok we're broke anyway.
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