A phone call woke me up during an afternoon nap. It was one of my friends asking me along to go out tonight. I’m not really in the mood to go out since the weather is bad and I feel like staying home. This can be categorized as one of my “stay home and crouch in the couch” evenings. My refusal got me wondering though. Is it a lack of energy? Did the relationship with them become weaker? Have I got other things I’d rather be doing? I haven’t decided yet…

When we were kids we spent huge amounts of time together, day and night, playing and sleeping over. We were usually found outside doing all sorts of things like skating, biking, playing soccer and other games. In the evening we would play on the computer or watch TV, just to start it all over again the next day. We somehow rarely got bored and if we did, we didn’t really mind.

Nowadays I see my friends approximately 1 or 2 times a week for one evening. Then we go watch a movie, go out, eat dinner and that kind of stuff. It’s pretty much the same every week, but sometimes we skip it altogether because one of us is tired from work or has other plans. On rare occasions we plan something like going snowboarding on the closest snowboarding track. This has to be planned at least 2 weeks ahead for everyone to clear their schedule for it.

Image via Wikipedia

Now I’m wondering to myself: What happened to us and why aren’t we spending time together during the day at weekends? Why is it that we only find time and motivation to do stuff together once or twice a week for a few hours? If I’d answer myself honestly it’s probably a combination of lack of energy and not being in the mood for spending hours outside in sucky weather. I do feel like wanting to do more with my friends, I just don’t know how to get the same amount of fun we used to have when we were kids. It always feels like everything has to be planned. Instead of just asking someone to come over, I need an excuse to do something together, otherwise it’d be boring, wouldn’t it?

Image by orphanjones via Flickr

By writing my little issue down, I’ve decided to take action and just ask my friends to come over tomorrow. Not at night, but during the day. Heck, maybe we can play some computer games or go out to do some geocaching (see www.geocaching.com ). Should be fun. I’ll probably ask them to stay for dinner as well. That way we get to talk a bit with each other again instead of just watching the regular movies.

Maybe you’ve faced the same problem and found a nice solution for it. If you do, I’d love to hear it! I want to build the strong relationship with my friends again.