can’t believe no one else has suggested this one. You mention your sister is busy with her new baby. I remember those days. yep, busy was it. busy and desperate to get the heck outof the house sometimes. how 'bout offering to baby sit the new babe (good experience, also helps get you out of YOUR depression by having some one else totally dependant on you for ** brief, controlable ** amounts of time, and as an extra bonus, maybe your sister would pay you some small sum (I sure would have if anyone had offered - and by the way, it’s not too late, Ben’s 16 and can be more tiring now than back when he took naps!), which might allow for some needed cash influx???
I hope all you wise-acres were kidding about all your suggestions on what to do with the cat!
Brat, I’m sorry for what you’re going through but if the cat doesn’t make you happy and you don’t like it, find it a home with someone who can love it and give it a good home.
We’ve all been there. I think I might save this thread for the next time I need some good suggestions . . .
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Take a class somewhere just for fun. Local community colleges sometimes have free “community enrichment” classes on all kinds of low-stress topics, like tai chi, macrame, writer’ groups, or even underwater basketweaving (if I ever found a place that actually offered it, I’d take it)!
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I really, really recommend the volunteer activities. It passes the time, and it makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something worthwhile. If you don’t have a good use for your time, I assure you, there’s someone out there who does.
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Find out if your local library offers computer access to the Web. You could log-in to the SDMB from there . . .
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Draw on yourself with permanent markers, somewhere no one else will see it, unless you want them to. Also, I’ve done this with old jeans, with some pretty neat results. Of course, I recommend starting with a pair you’ve already given up for dead.
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Buy some catnip and mess with your cat’s mind. It’ll amuse the heck out of you, and he’ll be happy, too.
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I like the writing letters idea, too. People love getting letters. It may help to do something that you know will make the person(s) on the other end happy. I like to be the phantom writer and send silly, anonymous letters to my friends, finding creative ways to disguise who is doing the sending. It can be even more fun with postcards.
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Get a cook book or a recipe from somewhere and try something making something new.
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Find a way to get exercise indoors. I worked up a sweat bouncing a ball of a wall inside my house, and just about died laughing as I ran to catch it, tripping over everything as I went. Also, I was afraid to suggest dancing, until Zyada brought it up. Consider this a for #8.
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Helping out with your sister’s baby is a great idea, whether you have the child to yourself, or whether you just hang out there and give her adult conversation, which she probably sorely misses if she’s there alone with an infant all day . . .
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When all else fails, there’s always masturbation. :o
Too bad we can’t all drop by and pester him in person . . . 
So, is that two separate thoughts, or was that an offer? 
I did move the GF out of here, you know. Nudge nudge, wink wink.
Just so you know…
Cat + Laser pointer = hours of cheap and mindless entertainment.
Patches is not impressed with the laser pointer at all. When I worked as an electrician, I worked with two deaf people, and carried a laser pointer to shine on the ceiling or wall in front of them if they were on a ladder eith their back to me to get their attention. (Don’t want to shake a ladder or someone’s foot while on a ladder if working with electricity.) I tried that almost as soon as we got the cat, who looked at the red spot on the wall and the floor and then wandered off to stare out the window.
It is fun to watch him get off on some catnip though.
Re. catnip. Often cats have a very good catnip-like reaction to valerian root (no, oddly, it doesn’t sedate the cat). I didn’t make this up just to be weird or irresponsible - it was mentioned in a perfectly respectable cat-care book. To be fair, I must mention that its smell is pretty unpleasant.
Volunteer to help with art projects at the nearest nursing home, or similar place. Walk there, and recite extempore Poetry out loud on the way. (Or sing original stuff, if you have the voice.) Do difficult math on the way home, in your head.
All of the above are free. Keep your intellect challenged, and your spirit connected with the real world of real people. Get some sun. Get rained on too. But for your own sake, get out of that house.
Tris
Ahh, the mysterious Triskadecamus. I’ve heard of you, but only recently seen any of your posts. I have been getting out of the house when I can. Exercise sucks in the heat wave we’re currently having (102 F yesterday!) but I figured that can’t stop me from going to the pool, where I spent about 4 hours after work yesterday. (And I’m paying for it today - I should know better than to go out without sunblock!) Monday after work I’m going to my dad’s house to watch the football game. I have no plans for today and tomorrow, but my sister (who also suffers from depression) has given me an open invitation to stop by whenever I need.
So today I’ll probably end up at my sister’s house and Sunday I think I’ll go to my old church. I haven’t been in about 9 years, but maybe there’s still some old friends going there.
When I’m bored or feel a bit sad,
I usually watch a movie.
I often then take one I think is funny,
like “Life of Brian” or “There’s something about Mary”.
It often works for me.
Bratman, dearest, pick up your pencil and paper and write. If you can write an intelligible post (which you can), then you can write other stuff. A journal, a poem, a free association piece, a bodice ripper, a short story, a letter to Penthouse.
Write, draw, cut pictures out of the newspaper and collage them to the cat.
And just keep on keeping on.
phouka that is just the kick in the head I needed. If you’ve seen my homepage, then you know I’ve been attemtping to write a novel for a while now. I’ve been putting it off and putting it off, but now that I’m alone with no distractions, I have no excuse not to write. I even got Wally’s permission a while back to use the gerbil story in the novel cuz it fits the character perfectly.