Being Bored Is Fun and Good, Sorry
The importance of idle time
Recently I was on one of those budget airlines where you have to rent a tablet or provide your own to access the in-flight entertainment system. In preparation for one day being the most annoying 75-year-old alive, I refuse on principle to pay for any onboard extras and do not own an iPad. Usually I fill the time on planes by drinking two (2) glasses of wine with one (1) anti-nausea tablet and falling hard (hard) asleep about 40 minutes in.
On this particular trip, I had a slight hangover from a birthday party the night before and did not feel like landing at my destination a shriveled husk of a woman, desiccated from altitude and alcohol, so I decided to abstain. A few things then unraveled in quick succession: First, my goddamn wireless headphones died, which meant I could not listen to music on my phone or to the plane’s four weird audio channels of classical/French pop mashups. Then my computer died. Then I realized I had brought a magazine (the New Yorker, leave me alone) I had already mostly read. Also, it became apparent that no one was going to sit beside me, generally a rare treat, but in this instance a small disaster, because silently avoiding conversation with/judging the film choices of another person is at least a form of activity. We had seven hours and 48 minutes until Toronto.
