People who cannot entertain themselves

There are a few people in my acquaintance that are forever proclaiming their boredom - their fingers constantly humming over a keyboard or the keypad in search of distraction of any kind.

The instant their mind is not being fed something fun or entertaining by the TV or the computer or their cell phones, they start sighing and harrumphing.

"I don't like wasting time doing nothing!" they sigh down the telephone line. "Are you free right now?"

These are some of the same people who went pale with shock when I announced that I would not be installing cable or satellite TV in Casa Palanca.*

Previously, I would turn on the TV as soon as I returned home. Not necessarily because there was something on. I just liked having the buzz in the background. Made me feel like there were more of us at home. 

But now, I'm embracing the gaping chasm. 

Barring the occasional DVD, the TV is mostly silenced in my house. Sometimes the loudest noise is the hum of my appliances. But it never fails. Even if I do find myself lying under a blanket on my couch - staring at the burning candle - within a little while, my brain begins to offer suggestions for what we could be doing. Like:

• reading
• blogging
• cooking
• writing
• going back to lying under a blanket and watching the candle burn

Boredom never lasts long - and it usually segues to new ideas that I may not have hatched if my eyes were still bewitched by those pretty flickering images. But that doesn't mean that I'm discarding the relevance of and the satisfaction gained from watching a well-spun tale on TV. All I'm saying, taking into consideration my own tendency to wander, wander, it's a good exercise for me to watch less TV. It means more creativity - and a greater flow of clean laundry.

Hmmm... that reminds me, I want to watch Tout sur moi tomorrow night - can someone invite me over?

*A decision I regret only when hockey's on. GO HABS!