Monday, January 29, 2007 Fun By Elisabeth Baumgart Ink blots
“I WATCH plants grow,” I said to my friends when they asked me what I did for fun. All I got were blank stares. I really couldn’t expect more.
Call me weird, but watching vegetation grow is my idea of fun. It’s much better than going to bars, listening to deafening music and getting drunk to the point where your brain stops responding.
I don’t get the point of going to a cramped bar, with too many sleazy people and risk getting stabbed, robbed, drugged or trapped in a fire. If dancing with people you don’t even know on a sticky dance floor and in a smoke filled room is your idea of fun, then so be it. Don’t let me stop you, go on and frolic in the land of bars, bouncers and drunken people.
I have never been a fan of parties. I get uncomfortable with too many people around me, especially in a cramped place with no fire exit or real exits to speak off (unless you count the whole you crawled into).
Socializing has never been my best ability. I’m not, as they put it, a “social butterfly”. Perhaps I’m a moth.
At social gatherings, I crawl into a corner and nibble on hors d’oeuvre. The most meaningful conversation I might hold would be with waiters distributing fermented grape juice and tiny cheese balls on toothpicks.
I have more fun with small groups than with groups of 50 or more. One of the reasons may be because I easily forget the names (and faces) of the 40 other people I meet at gatherings. However, wearing nametags help.
Aside from watching plants grow, counting rain clouds and the cracks on the pavement, I do enjoy going out for karaoke. Then again, who doesn’t love karaoke? Virtually every Filipino loves music, no matter what genre or who the singer is.
I’m a highly incompetent singer. I cannot sing to save my life, but that doesn’t stop me (or any other vocally inept person for that matter) from belting tunes off-key.
We all have our own ideas of fun. Give me a spot on the beach, a good view of the sea (and perhaps, a good view of a beach hunk) and a good book, and for sure I’ll have the time of my life. Where I enjoy the beach and watching plants grow, others go to bars and dance to loud music (and get totally wasted).
It varies from person to person. Don’t mind me as I crawl under the table at social gatherings and talk to the dust bunnies down there. That’s my kind of socialization.
Speaking of fun and having a good time, the ‘Zup crew met up last Wednesday for the section’s ninth anniversary. Everybody had a great time, putting faces to the names we always see on print. It was all smiles and laughter over “grand slam” pizzas, humongous chocolate chunks and pitchers of iced tea. To another great year!
