Help me not be bored on the weekend

January 29, 2006 4:43 PM

I am always bored on the weekends. I like to be really busy all of the time, but I am not very good at finding things that I enjoy that aren't also expensive (I have very little disposable income). Also, I dislike doing things alone, but I'm single and most of my friends are in relationships and hang out with their sig other on the weekend. What do YOU do on the weekends? I'm one of those people who likes work-type things more than play, but I don't really want to get a part-time job or anything. I guess what I'm saying is that I like things that are challenging and "suck you in."
posted by mintchip to grab bag (28 comments total)

You should tell us more about your hobbies, etc. Are you looking for something sporty, geeky, artsy...?
posted by ori at 4:48 PM on January 29, 2006

In the warmer months, I invest a huge amount of time in my community garden plot. It's a bit of work and responsibility, but also fun and a way to chat with other people.

I also like to cook intricate things for myself or others, spend time at the gym, knit, and am also in a book club. I do some volunteer work too that is off and on--a few days every couple of months doing a pledge drive. It's less work than a lot of other volunteer jobs.

All those things are sort of task-oriented/work-type hobbies, in a way.
posted by divka at 4:49 PM on January 29, 2006

I don't mean this to sound wiseassed or anything, but have you thought about trying to get a significant other, too?
posted by MegoSteve at 4:50 PM on January 29, 2006

Can you find some kind of volunteer position that would get you out regularly on weekends, working on projects with others?
posted by jacquilynne at 4:51 PM on January 29, 2006

I like to hang out on askmetafilter...

Have you considered getting a second, weekends only job? That would give you something to do and help with the cash flow.
posted by caffinatedandcurious at 4:52 PM on January 29, 2006

Author a website about something you care about, and then promote the snot out of it. You'll find that will suck up alot of your time.

Get involved w/ a bowling league or dart club or get good at pool, something where you can meet people and have a good time.

Get involved with the community by volunteering and helping others.

Go to church (apparently, that the #1 place to meet women btw) but maybe you'll find getter purpose and meaning in your life.
posted by rinkjustice at 4:52 PM on January 29, 2006

Throw yourself into a charity that you passionately believe in? (That might help you find a like-minded significant other too).

It's kind of like work, but you get no money for it.
posted by visual mechanic at 4:54 PM on January 29, 2006

I take a yoga class, and then go to brunch every Saturday. I always look forward to brunch food- mmmmmm.

But for cheap, you can't beat finding a church- not only will it take up a good chunk of your Sunday, but some have food before or after the service (mine does! yaay free lunch!). If you get involved, by joining the choir for instance, you'll make a lot of friends.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:09 PM on January 29, 2006 [2 favorites]

Libraries are cheap, and often nice places to spend time.
posted by Aknaton at 5:09 PM on January 29, 2006

Thanks to the kind efforts of easternblot, I've been listening, on my iPod, to a full semester of lectures for a course. It's two 45-minute lectures per week over four months, or approximately 24 total hours of university-level instruction.

I can listen when and where I want, in the car, sitting in a park, at a coffee shop, in the bath, whenever I feel up to taking in more knowledge. when my head gets full, I can stop, even in the middle of a lecture.

The class does rely on visual aids that aren't available in the audio podcast, but this is not altogether bad, as the effort to visually re-create what's being described probably leads to better retention.

Other things I enjoy: local public radio stations generally broadcasts at least one opera per weekend, this weekend marking the anniversary of Mozart's birth, it was Cosi fan Tutti. The Met Opera performances include a good description of the story line. Of, course, again, you miss the visuals.

You can take up programming. Generally, find something you'd like to be able to do, and write a program to do it. This definitely "sucks you in". Or join an open-source project: even if you can't (yet) program, you can test, or write documentation or possibly make artwork.

Project Gutenberg offers lots of free books, although generally with atrocious formatting. Distributed Proofreading adds new books, and while somewhat tedious is a good volunteer activity (and without the egos and stupidities of wikipedia). If classics aren't your thing, the Baen Free Library offers mass-market sci-fi and fantasy -- not great but a good escape -- and also free.

This year will be a big one for political volunteering, if that interests you. Even if your district is gerrymandered out of play, you can phone bank remotely. Not everyone's cuppa, but a civic virtue.

You might also consider joining a book club, in person or virtually.

Or download something like The GIMP and start doing Fark's or Worth1000's "photoshop" contests. I had a lot of fun doing politically themed photoshops, and I learned a few things about image manipulation. (I also learned I'm no artist, but I can nevertheless churn out something.)

The above are all pretty much "inside" activities. Some cities offer community gardens, where for a small fee you can get your own patch to plant. Or put together a window garden in your house or apartment.

If your city has a museum or a zoo, when's the last you've been? It can be absolutely fascinating to go when you have the time to really examine an exhibit or a painting. I went about a year ago to the Natural History with a co-worker, and had a wonderful time pointing out to her the exhibit on the evolution of horses hooves, and was blown away by a reconstruction of Roman frescos. Wow.

You can join a sports club -- there's a lot of interests, about the 20s and 30s set, in "children's" sports, like kickball or Frisbee. (But Ultimate Frisbee players are a bit hardcore and well, odd, so be careful.)

If you speak a popular second language, there will often be clubs of that language speakers, for people to keep their skills honed.

These things may require a nominal cash outlay, but nothing excessive.
posted by orthogonality at 5:17 PM on January 29, 2006

Wikipedia.

Chances are, you have an area of interest that is underrepresented on Wikipedia. I personally find it a fairly good intellectual exercise, as it forces you to do some personal research, recall old lectures / papers / projects, etc., practice your writing and self-editing, and so forth.

Even if you can't think of something that you know well enough to communicate to others, there's plenty to do on Wikipedia. Some suggestions:

• Check out the Community Portal for a large list of things that need to be done.


• Comment on, copyedit, or Peer Review articles to improve them.


• Check out the list of requested articles to see if you can write or contribute to them.


• If you are more artistically inclined, take a look at the Requested Pictures page.


• If you can speak another language, you can help translate articles into English.

I realize that it's not social in the "go out and do stuff with friends" sense, but Wikipedia, in my experience at least, has a very vibrant and thriving social community.
posted by Pontius Pilate at 5:18 PM on January 29, 2006

This also depends a lot on where you live, which you don't say. A charity is a good idea but there are also lots of more general projects and things going on in every city - things to get involved in.

You could also have personal pursuits - learn the piano, write a book, join and help build any of the numerous (arts, practical, business etc.) weblogs looking for contributors, or start your own, or pursue a sport, get healthy, do yoga, join a meditation group, learn to surf, go on long hikes (by yourself or in a hiking group), build something useful (a bookshelf?), read books, explore different types of music, pick a recipe and cook it, or, as previously suggested, go out and meet new people, get a dog, go read in a park, be open. Life doesnt usually come knocking at your door but is very friendly to those who get out the door and seek it out.
posted by vacapinta at 5:18 PM on January 29, 2006

Projects!

Seriously good times with some things lying around the house.
posted by disillusioned at 5:25 PM on January 29, 2006

Ultimate Frisbee players are hardcore and, well, odd? heh. Just because we run around in skirts, eschew referees, play naked points and develop cheers for the other other team after every game doesn't mean we are "odd".

Ok, well, it probably does me that we are odd. And hardcore. But Ultimate is a very welcoming community. I always liked being active, but never really found a "sport" that worked for me until I found Ultimate. Don't give in to the haters, its a great time with weird people chasing a plastic novelty flying disc. You'll be glad you joined the cult.
posted by afflatus at 5:48 PM on January 29, 2006

freeway blog!
posted by specialk420 at 6:09 PM on January 29, 2006

Do you enjoy cooking? Learning a new cooking skill can be extremely rewarding, time consuming, and cheap (you have to eat anyway!). Baking your own bread is cheaper than buying loaves at the store, tastes better, and is not at very difficult to learn.
posted by gatorae at 6:16 PM on January 29, 2006

And I agree with those above who said to get a dog. Your local animal shelter has loads of lovable animals who would fill your life with laughter and fun.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:53 PM on January 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

Knitting can be inexpensive, mentally absorbing and a chance to meet other people (through classes or knitting circles).
posted by Lucinda at 7:43 PM on January 29, 2006

Watch your local paper for open meetings of groups that you might have the slightest interest in. If the very idea of something turns you off, maybe you wouldn't enjoy it; but if it sounds like something you'd at least like to know more about, by all means go. You may well discover something you enjoy but would never have just come up with to try.

I've recently moved to a new (small) town and have rediscovered biking, hiking, and just plain walking. Consequently I attended a meeting of the (all-volunteer) Town Trails Committee and joined. I'll be helping with trail building and maintenance, writing grants to fund same, and probably some advocacy/PR work. I'll also get to put in my two cents on the overall trail plan - where we need trails, what type they should be, etc - based on my needs as a pedestrian/cyclist. This has also led me to become more interested in local politics in general, and I'm now considering running for City Council in the upcoming election.

I also sometimes go gold prospecting with my neighbor (another single guy who's new to town).

I also belong to a local theatre group. Currently we're not doing much as a group, no performances at the moment, but I'm writing a play to be considered for our summer show.

I may soon be doing some computer work for/through a local volunteer agency. (I've found in the past that volunteer work is rewarding only if it involves doing something you enjoy anyway. It also probably helps to like helping people.)

In short, try anything you think you can stand. If nothing else, you'll meet some new people, who can in turn introduce you to other new things and people. There's plenty out there to do, if you'll only look for it and keep an open mind. Have fun, hope you find something you like!
posted by attercoppe at 7:55 PM on January 29, 2006

Three words: World of Warcraft.

A MMORPG can REALLY draw a person in (personaly, I got sucked into the superhero world of City of Heros, and BOY what I would give to have a couple of hours ever day to play that again (Wife and kid + Job + College sorta take up the lions share of my time)). Ok, gotta learn to be more conservitive with my parenthses...

Good luck finding something you like!
posted by TrueVox at 8:51 PM on January 29, 2006

Euchre/go, tutor ESL, join a running club. Local community meetings/boards. Big brother/sister, etc. Writing is also cheap, and there's a lot of writer's clubs out there. Adult education/hobby/art classes at area highschools are cheap & offer interesting classmates.
posted by ejaned8 at 10:07 PM on January 29, 2006

Learn a new language, and save up to travel to a place where you can put it to use.

Also, learning to cook is a great thing to take up time. It doesn't have to be expensive, but you will have fun in the process (and if you learn to cook well, you'll impress plenty of friends and potential significant others).
posted by anjamu at 12:19 AM on January 30, 2006

Take pictures! I tend to have a lot of indoor hobbies but this weekend I tried wandering around the city doing some photography and I really enjoyed it. It gave me an excuse to just be out there instead of holing up at home like I usually tend to do. If you get really into it there are tons of photography clubs out there, to add a social element.

As far as your requirements: It's definitely the kind of thing that sucks you in and there's a lot to learn. But if you don't already have a digital camera, then there's a significant outlay of cash at the beginning. If you use a film camera, developing is expensive. Even if you develop yourself in a darkroom, you need supplies. So I'm not sure it would work for you, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
posted by hazyjane at 1:15 AM on January 30, 2006

Make fancy soap, then when you've made enough go sell it at a craft show.
posted by leapingsheep at 2:56 AM on January 30, 2006

I volunteer at a local social centre - it started as just the weekends, but now I do it many evenings a week. I've made a number of good friends, widened my interests and had a lot of fun. I'd highly recommend it. My social centre is politically-motivated (radical anti-capitalist), but you can get involved in any similar project. The important thing is that it be a place you can make new friends, and a place where a variety of things go on (thus you are often doing different things and finding new interests).

Other than that: cinema, playing sport, playing guitar, band practice, getting drunk, fooling around, blogging, putting on gigs, going to gigs.

Note: the activities I list above centre around a few key things: music, film and friends. It's not the interests that are important, but what you do with them. So, think of something you enjoy and then think about how you can develop it. Like to watch films? Why not make one? Enjoy watching soccer? Why not join a team? etc.
posted by pollystark at 7:38 AM on January 30, 2006

I would really discourage getting a dog just to fill up the weekends. It's a lot of responsibility - you need to go home after work to feed and walk your dog, and you need to plan things while keeping the dog in mind. Plus there's the expense factor - it's not so cheap.

Maybe you could borrow a dog? You might have friends that would love to have you take their dog to the park or for a weekend visit.

Maybe check out Single Volunteers? Even if you're not looking for a SO, you might find a new group of friends who are single and like to keep busy?
posted by KAS at 9:31 AM on January 30, 2006

Free time is great, especially if you're not absorbed into your career or school, because it allows you to really work at whatever you want to do in life. What is that? Do you want to be well-read, to have friends who like to debate politics, to build things, to break things, or to travel? I know that not all of these are immediately possible due to time and money constraints, but most ideas have a way to start, even if it involves some research or discussion with others.

Few people get to the end of their lives and wish that they hadn't had so much free time.
posted by mikeh at 1:13 PM on January 30, 2006

Second the recommendation of gardening. Playing in the dirt is cheap.

Someone mentioned wikipedia, but I'd submit that Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreading is also performing a valuable service. Can be an easy way to spend time, or incredibly challenging.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 2:51 PM on January 31, 2006