• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly

When it rains, you’re bored

But it doesn’t have to bring an end to summer entertainment.

By Shannon Sturgis (Contact)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

It is summer — the time of sun, warm weather and outdoor fun ... until it rains. But being rained in doesn’t have to be chock-full of boredom, sadness and tears to match the outside world’s damp environs. Here’s what you can do on the next day of inclement weather:

PLAY GAMES

Gather your roommates, friends, random people from the street, whoever and host a game night. It doesn’t take much, just one game and some refreshments. Play a game, such as Scattergories, Cranium or Charades, that requires a lot of group participation. The more the chance for rowdiness, the better. It will wake everyone up from the gloom of the day.

GO THROUGH YOUR DRAWERS

This might not sound very glamorous, but go through your junk drawer(s) full of old movie stubs, random photographs and other little things you may have decided to keep. Remember all the splendid, shameful, mundane times while rummaging through your disposable artifacts. If you’re feeling ambitious, put all of this “junk” into a book. Make it an album of sorts. There’s no need for chronological or categorical sense.

WATCH A SCARY MOVIE

What could be better with a rainstorm than a scary flick? Exactly. Nothing. When choosing a movie, don’t pick a horror film with chainsaws and gore. Go instead with a psychological thriller or something with ghosts. Think Poltergeist, Sixth Sense or Copycat. These films will go much nicer with the ambiance of raindrops and thunderclaps.

READ THAT BOOK YOU BOUGHT TWO YEARS AGO

Everyone owns this book. You’re at the book store, you see a captivating cover, read the summary on the back and decide this book was put here by the heavens for you to buy that very day. But, after adding it to your bookshelf, you never once attempted to start it. Your excuses for doing such — school or work got in the way, you were never in the right mood, you would rather watch reruns of Scrubs — are flimsy on a rainy day.