Every time I tell people that I don’t watch movies, or even television, or that I have never actually owned a telly for that matter, the response is pretty much universally the same question.  What do you do instead? is the follow-up response.  There is usually an underlying shock in the question, like it is almost unbelievable that I don’t sit down and stare at a blinking screen for hours on end.  I get too bored, just sitting there, trying to follow some truly unbelievable story line, or watching excruciatingly uncomfortable situations that are supposed to be funny.

I don’t actually know how to answer that question, what do I do instead?  I don’t have a problem wasting time without this diversion.  There are things to do, things to clean, art that can be drawn, a whole system at your fingertips to answer any question that you might have, endless hobbies to adapt, stories to tell your roommate, cats to be chased around the house.  Most people follow up the question with another question, do you read a lot?  Do I read, well yes some, but not like all the time.  From time to time, like before bed to calm down, but not as much as I would like to- I got a list of things to do, all of varying importance, but still they are on the to do list.  Today at the coffee shop, the other employee answered the question for me very well: living, she lives instead.