One time I read ‘Where the Red Ferns Grow’ for the nth time and chopped a small tree down with Dad’s 7 iron. The club was warped to shit. But I chopped down a tree!

It was wind assisted.

Young me did a lot or weird things. OK, they were normal things to a kid. Except when I soured a bunch of milk and tried to make cheese. That was the chef life calling.

My other obsession was animals. Usually things that were slow enough to catch. Or cheap enough to buy. There were a lot of toads in my life. Crayfish. Minnows. Feeder goldfish, or ones won at the fair every year. One Spring I had, unbeknownst to me, a jar of tiny little tadpole like things that ended up being mosquito larvae.

I spent a lot of time alone at home, either writing in one of my dozens of binders and note books or building some Lego creations. Having a much different life outside of school didn’t help my classroom . Like having to explain to the popular girls that the race horses we owned were a livelihood, and not a lifestyle choice. Most kids lost interest after that.

Most of my actual social life was at the track. I’d just find the video games and eventually kids would show up. A pocket of quarters and fries and gravy was my Saturday night. A loonie for a hot chocolate in the winter was great if you didn’t forget it outside and it froze.

I have spent most of my life making up my own fun. Summers spent outside building stuff or breaking stuff. I think we lose that creative ability to keep ourselves occupied to an extent. Working is mandatory. Housework is a bitch. We live in a world where free time is increasingly shrinking and than ain’t good. We need time to ourselves, to read and think and enjoy the simple act of being. and do stupid things like make up games.

See below.

A new game called Would you be mad?

AKA just in case.

Randomly ask people “Would you be mad if I …..”

Would you be mad if I tripped you while being chase by zombie?

If we were in a hostage situation, would you be mad if I antagonized the criminals?

Would you be mad I shaved my head?

Would you be mad if stole a dinosaur?

Would you be made if I stole a *rideable* dinosaur?

If I found a kitten, would you be mad if I brought it home?

Would you be mad if I replaced your body with a car?

Would you be mad if I got a sex robot.

I think this would be fun to do in a relationship. Any random night sitting around with the s/o and you suddenly turn to them and say “Would you be mad if I bought a giant bean bag couch?”

The answer was yes. Sad.

It also can be a communication tool, in its own way.

Imagine you’re in a friend/relationship. It’s been years. All this time, you had a nagging question about something that you wouldn’t ask at first, maybe out of rejection, or politeness. We all have one. Whether a request, or something about yourself you’ve never told them. Try the game.

Would you be mad if we watched more porn together?

Would you be mad if I pulled that hair on your face?

Would you be mad if I dated your brother?

Once again, sadly, but rightly so, the answer was yes.

Take 10 minutes and do something silly. Ice cream truck. Go find an ice cream truck. Mr. Whippy, Slushie, or Softee. Draw a sketch on a time limit and send it to a friend. We spend adulting forgetting why we wanted to grow up. Go eat animal crackers dunked in Nutella (trust me). Grab a seed bell and hang it in a park.

Reinvent the adventure.

Have a good life.

Amanda