Most of us have more free time than we did when we were younger, and I hope we are having more fun. I’m wondering what kinds of choices you are making and if we are all doing essentially the same thing with our free time.
Please discuss your top entertainment choices? (Next week, we’ll talk about hobbies.)
Also, I invite you to answer any of the previously posted questions and respond to any that interest you.
Women & Aging 
I enjoy playing board games — Scrabble, Rummikub, card games of any kind. Socializing with friends. There are four of us that take in a movie about once a month. I read a books, about one a month. I love to travel.
One more leisure activity: Flamingo Flocking. A group of our friends gather once a month , taking turns as cocktail hosts and then heading to a local restaurant for dinner. Our venues are always decorated with an assortment of over-the-top flamingo paraphernalia. Perhaps we long for something more exotic than the Island (Holiday) we live on???
We gather to sip and share and squawk
like elegant birds of pink,
having a night of neighborhood news
and saying whatever we think.
The décor has a tropical theme
bordering on the absurd,
indelibly present and cloyingly cute
—The Flamingo, our symbolic bird.
Our avian band divides like this:
males in one circle of chairs,
females not far from the dips and chips
in a place they have claimed as theirs.
But once we hit the dinner hour,
and depart to claim our table,
we promise the waiter we’ll be discreet
and keep down the noise, if we’re able.
What better way to kick up our heels
(or click our claws, if you will)
than to flock together to laugh and sing
and argue over the bill.
Long live leisurely dinner and drinks
and friends who are there for you
when life is good and all is well,
…or when life is flamingo doodoo.
As I have freed myself of public service, specifically food and beverage industry, there is more time for “developing” entertainment. My favorite will probably have to be watching netflix and/or hulu shows and movies. Second to that has more recently been word games like scrabble or word jumbles.
I just found a quote that refers to last week’s topic, how significant is or was our life.
“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”
Maya Angelou
How about her last name? You angel you! ANGELOU
I have always liked to entertain others–friends, relatives, the occasional drop-in, and it seems that retirement has added to the complexity of the meals I prepare for those guests in my home. Since there are fewer time restrictions, the menus sometimes become outrageously decadent with all kinds of ethnic nuances. An ardent “foodie”, I pore over cookbooks, the internet, magazines for ideas and often spend days preparing a meal. Of course, the downside is that all that tasting and eating has contributed to a size up in my wardrobe, must work on that. My herb and vegetable gardens are the source of much of the food, so those must be tended; all that digging is a godsend I suppose in eliminating some of my aging girth.
For relaxation, I love to watch movies (many many movie nights in these leisurely times), sometimes I read and I have grown to enjoy going to a gym to workout. Hiking, camping, fishing, cross-country skiing always beckon.
Free time? Yes, I get up before my husband does, and in that stretch of time, I can do exactly as I please. Which means read, write a letter, take a walk, whatever. In past years, it meant keep up the acrobatics. Oh good grief, I’m happy to be on beyond that!
I enjoy my family & friends, my home and entertaining, playing bridge and garden club. And, I enjoy a leisurely glass of wine!
What leisure? Whether by choice or not, I seem to remain busy most of the time…BUT…I also like Netflix movies (uninterrupted and with freshly popped popcorn); some TV shows, reading everything from poetry to all the “Living” magazines. Rooms have always intrigued me with their infuence on what goes on in them. So when I “look at” rooms in magazines I become a part of some of them. Golf sometimes. Exploring on the internet. I have a needlepoint pillow cover I have not finished after 40 years (but the colors are back in style now…maybe I’ll finish it). When we get to the hobby blog, I’ll have what I consider to be my “art” (writing), but it’s really not a hobby.
My number one interest in use of “retirement time” remains to be, being as active as possible outdoors and somewhat, inside. I say “remains to be” because from age ten I was active, almost daily, first as a competitive swimmer which led to competitive water ballet team member, which later led to competitve running which included 11 26.2 mile marathons. Now, I do all w/o competition and w/o speed as running became walking and swimming b/c back stroking while looking at the sky when possible! The joy of movement is shared with my husband through daily walking 40 to 60 minutes.
Still movies … past, present, and future … I still continue to be entertained best by movies …