Mine is. I pretty much do the same things every week: go to work, come home, hang with the family, walk on the treadmill, and get on the computer. I don’t go out much–oh, I could if I wanted to; my husband does fairly regularly. But that’s my writing time, and I don’t drink much. The older I get, the less I can drink without it making me feel really bad. And it’s just not worth it to lose time for doing other things to feeling bad when I can avoid it.
Dog Shaming is one of the more exciting things that happens around here – and I’m OK with that!
I do things like laundry and once in a while, even clean. But we don’t go on glamorous vacations (can’t, with a kid about to go to college), and I’m not much of a shopper.
And you know what? That’s not a bad thing.
Twenty-pus years ago, when I was single, I might have thought differently. Of course, we didn’t have Internet back then, so if you wanted to be social, it required getting out of the house. Sometimes, finding someplace interesting to go, where there were people I actually wanted to hang out with, was a challenge. But I managed, met my husband, got married, became a mom, and by then I didn’t have time to get out just for the sake of getting out. I was too busy to be bored.
My daughter has friends, a boyfriend, after-school activities, so she’s often not home. My husband likes to go out for a beer with friends or to play darts or watch sports. At home, it’s me and computer.
And that’s not a bad thing.
Twenty years ago, had I been able to look forward to see, I might have worried.
But then think of the other “excitement” people at my stage of life have. My brother had a heart attack on Christmas night. He’s fine now, but that’s the kind of excitement no one wants. I know people getting divorces, or contemplating it. My DH and I hang out enough, and we stay out of each others’ way enough, and we don’t have that kind of drama. We have other friends with grown children, who are constantly into some kind of ugly disagreement with them. Our daughter is 17 and still doesn’t mind hanging with us, so I take that as a good sign we’ll avoid that kind of drama too (one can hope!). So far she’s made good choices.
So I’m okay with being boring! Of course, there’s another side of the coin. We can get complacent, get stuck in a rut, stop trying new things. Life in general becomes a comfort zone, and you know how that works. Staying in our comfort zone for too long means we stop learning, stop growing, and stop developing our skills. We stagnate. I do feel that from time to time, but am unsure what to shake up. Years ago, that feeling of complacency might mean it’s time to look for a new job. But who wants to do that in these uncertain economic times, when I have a good job, working with good people, doing work I like, for decent pay?
For some people, “shake something up” might mean it’s finally time to kick the deadbeat boyfriend to the curb, or the tell the slacker (grown!) kids it’s time to move out. My family’s great – no messing with that!
Some people move. This can be great if you’re single and ready to make a change on the job front, or if you have the kind of job you can do anywhere. But for me, see family and job, above. Not going to mess with that, although maybe in a few years!
Last fall, I shook things up in my writing by writing in a genre I thought I never would (YA), and with no speculative elements. I had fun, and I did stretch myself, even if it’s not something I’ll publish (still haven’t decided on that).
What about you – is your life boring? If so, is it in a good way or not so good? What do you do when you sense you’re in a rut? I’d love to hear from you!
Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.
