Playing And Having Fun

This is the first morning all week that the first look on the phone wasn't weather related, you know checking radar and running the future-cast radar. It's about trying to plan a day and seeing if it was an all day event of rain or a smattering of showers here and there. Yesterday, no rain around here and that was welcomed, except in a few weeks when we haven't had rain, we will be wanting it to return. 

Last night while we sat on the porch, MJ, whose presence has been noticeably absent, made himself comfortable on one of the rocking chairs on the front porch. Must have needed a break from his mama and sisters. Mama Cat has this habit of hissing before anything happens. Putting out food, she looks and hisses at you. She does the same with her grown kiddos but the hiss is worse than actions, cause now the kiddos beat her to the food bowls and she waits, being outnumbered. She hissed this morning while placing the bowls out and I scolded her a bit...really, hissing at me? You sit on the back deck looking pitiful in the mornings prompting fast food production...to the back yard. Hissing? Really? Think it is just a bad habit Mama Cat has fallen into. 

The Wall Street Journal has a great article today on older adults having fun...you know, where play is involved and the title of the article...An Overlooked Skill In Aging: How To Have Fun

Play, often associated with fun, does have some experts, although mainly focused on children. One of the few studies on play and older adults concluded that “playful older adults are psychologically upbeat: they are happy, optimistic, cheerful, joyful, positive, relaxed, and enthusiastic individuals.” The study, published in 2011 in the American Journal of Play, looked at 46 people, 65 years and older to come up with an “Older Adult Playfulness Scale” of characteristics.

Fun is different for every person. What makes you happy? What makes you laugh? What activities did you do in your youth? Fun is usually not being kept busy by someone else. “There’s a real sense of choice,” says Peter Gray, 74, a Boston College research professor and psychologist who studies play, primarily in children.

Psychologist Elizabeth Skibinski-Bortman, 71, asks each client at their first session: “What do you do for fun?” Some can’t think of anything. 

If you know me, having fun and playing around is ingrained in my DNA. If I had a dollar for times when the more serious ones in life have said, "Does everything have to be play?" Uh, yes. The article stresses that fun is different for every person. The thought of playing dress up with hats and gloves to drink tea and eat little sandwiches...is not my idea of fun. Probably stems from childhood cause having pretend tea parties wasn't the epitome of fun for me. Now do I like to go have tea, yes, but not in some silly costume. And the dress up girls who like to do this probably feel the same about things that amuse me. Lisa and I like ourselves a good dance party, just about anywhere. I was texting with her the other day and reminded her she needs to get up here so we can have epic dance parties in Mustang Sam. No ceiling to inhibit hand raising, both for worship and dance, play. 

The other aspect of this article is, fun is not usually being kept busy by someone else. Ya's got to be able to have fun when no one else is around. To look at our home you can tell, fun is the priority not the constraining element of everything being in place or arranged just so. I threw away a quote on a board that said, A clean house is the result of a wasted life. Yes, I believe that but didn't want to make our housekeeper feel bad. 

The article in the paper the other day remains in my thoughts, there is a get back to tennis class available at the Asheville Tennis Center. It is for those who used to play tennis or for those who never learned. It fills quickly and the price involves a racquet and tshirt. They had me at tshirt. The thought of playing tennis doesn't attract me but the thought of hitting tennis balls does. When I played league tennis, several leagues...like HLTA on Mondays, Tuesday night HTA, University Club Wednesday league and Friday Indoor League...the fun in playing tennis was lost in the seriousness of winning. Add tennis lessons and clinics each week along with working out to be able to do all these leagues and lessons....as the song says, the thrill is gone. But just to hit tennis balls for the sake of fun...yes please. I do know me though, the racquet that comes with the clinic would surely be replaced cause I got a little bit OCD over racquets and stringing. 

I'm so glad that Roy agreed the second car up here needed to be a fun car. SequishShawn is a fun truck but it will be nice to have Mustang Sam around for those tight parking place cases. Yesterday going to workout and then running a few errands made the boring exciting. Although I have remembered a few incidents when we had a convertible before...like driving down Memorial and a lizard fell from a tree into the car. Nearly wrecked trying to get said lizard out of the car before he secured himself some hiding place. I also remember coming home from Macy's with a room sized rug and rocking chair tied to the back and with the top down. Now Memorial is a fancy place to live and we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies as we drove home. Roy would not drive so I could sit in the rocker. Now that's when a lizard dropping into the car might have had another outcome and this story wouldn't be able to be shared today. 

So today as I have done things here around the house, that are not fun, but have to be made into fun. Also look for the playful things going on around you. I just wasted, or did I, a few minutes watching a female cardinal see her image in the truck side windows. She jumped from the bird condo in the tree to the rim of the window. She jumped side to side, even going to the back windows and then began the jump up until she reached the top of the truck and much to her surprise did not see that other bird up there with her. So, back to the bird condo tree and begin the process again and again and again. I have been checking on her almost every hour and she has not given up. 

The Feral's sans MJ are in the backyard. Buddy is here beside me and with the stops and starts of the day, I have to get back to making my housework fun. But I have almost had fun and am played out or at least I will be soon.