Is that all there is to adult life, working 40+ hours a week with 20 days of holiday a year? Assuming you don’t want the mainstream (marriage, kids)?
I fly fish.
We spend summer weekends on the water with our dogs aboard their pontoon boat. Drink a little beer, smoke a little boo, sear a little angus, commune with nature.
Life is good.
Drink beer and play music with my buddies.
Drink beer. Dream about my yearly vacation.
Nothing special really. Watch TV, play videogames (usually “sandbox” or “builder” games like Cities Skylines or Oxygen Not Included), grab a drink at one of the bars I frequent, go to the gym, run, go for a walk, drive around, go out to dinner, stuff like that.
You have approximately 40 waking hours between 5pm on Friday and 9am on Monday to do whatever you want. When I was a single man living alone, that seemed like all the time in the world. Now that I have a wife and two kids, I kind of feel like I have to evaluate how I spend every free minute.
Lately, I write. Just finished the first draft of a wonderful little history.
Hike with the dogs
In the summer: sit in the sun and read, play badminton or bocce ball with my husband and/or grandkids, have a cookout, go to my mom’s cabin
Take the grandkids somewhere - zoo, aquarium, etc.
Watch TV
Crossword puzzles or other word puzzles/games
Many of my single and/or childless friends do sports leagues after work (volleyball, softball, bowling, etc.), they volunteer, they are involved in “young professional” type groups, and, lucky for me, they are super flexible and accommodating to their friends with kids when it comes to hanging out.
To relax, I read books or watch videos on YouTube. There are other things I do with my free time, but in my personal opinion, doing something athletic or going out somewhere isn’t relaxing.
Hang around the house, do stuff with the Firebug.
Knit/crochet/other crafts, watch TV, volunteer at the animal shelter, play with my dogs, go to concerts
I suppose I am mainstream, but I don’t see why it would be any different if I weren’t.
In no particular order -
[ul][li]Walk the dog[/li][li]Lift weights[/li][li]Read[/li][li]Watch cooking shows, or true crime shows, with my wife[/li][li]Dinner parties with our friends[/li][li]Make wisecracks on the SDMB[/ul][/li]Regards,
Shodan
Yeah, adult life sucks - if you can do the whole “perpetual childhood” thing, I’d go for it.
Well, except for not relying on other people to feed, house, and clothe you. And those other people have a say in your schedule. And never being able to buy anything you really want. And having much lower quality of sex life and potential significant others because you still live with your parents. And other people getting all uppity if you drink/party/have fun. And having to rely on other people to come up with the money and inclination to take you bungee jumping, on international trips, visiting famous historic sites, visiting scenic natural beauty sites, etc. And being able to own whatever pets you want, or live how you please.
But besides all that, adulthood really sucks! Avoid if at all possible.
I volunteer at a local food pantry. Nothing lifts your spirits like doing something that you know helps others. The clients are 99.99 percent good folk that don’t deserve the shit life has served them.
Also I drink beer.
Relax? Hahahahahah.
Well, I’m trying to learn to play guitar.
And I guess working on the house is a form of relaxation. Last weekend I replaced my water heater heating elements and thermostats for fun. Currently I’m managing a $50,000 renovation to my house. Oh, I have a GC, but things don’t always go as you wish. That I know is part of the process. Waiting for the electrician to show up to do the rough in. He is currently 2 hours late.
I’m relaxing now by getting on the SDMB. I should be looking at doors for the house reno.
I have more things that I enjoy outside of work than I have time to indulge in them. 
My hobbies and interests include:
- Playing roleplaying games (both face-to-face / tabletop games, and online MMORPGs)
- Playing guitar
- Running
- Reading (primarily science fiction, fantasy, and comic books)
- Writing fiction
- Playing fantasy football
- Attending church
- Model rocketry
- The SDMB
I’m married, and my wife shares in a number of my hobbies with me. We never had kids; if we had, while I’m certain that I would have had less time to spend on my hobbies, they would have also wound up being things that I would have shared with my kids.
I’m fortunate in that I’ve always enjoyed my job, but I’ve also always tried to make sure that I keep a balance between work, and enjoying the rest of my life outside of the office.
Fishing is my main hobby. Woodworking is my second. They don’t really fill up most of my time. During the week, the majority of my non-working time is filled with ‘kid’ things. Scouts, soccer, baseball, cross-country in addition to normal family outings to the park or hiking or canoeing when the nights are long. I’ll frequently try to get chores done during the week, so the weekends are free.
Let’s see, this week, we played some board games on Monday. Read a book on Tuesday. Went to a scout camp campfire ceremony last night. Tonight I have to clean up some overgrowth in the lawn and mow it. I think Friday the wife wants to go to a local ‘fun center’ with the boys. Saturday I’m going to go fishing in the morning, then the farmer’s market, then my Mom is coming to town, so I’ll spend the afternoon shopping with her. Saturday night we’re going to a minor league baseball game. Sunday morning we’ll go to church. After church, we run a ‘Sunday Funday’ where we provide games and crafts for kids at the local park until 2. After that, we’re going for an evening cookout on the lake with the church youth group that my wife runs. I would say that that is a pretty typical week.
That’s the catch they don’t tell you about as a kid- with the exception of major life changes like marriage and children, your life isn’t punctuated with big changes like it is before you get out and start working full time.
As a kid, time was marked by the semester, school year and the school I was attending. Each one brought some combination of new classes, extra curriculars, and people.
Once I got out, it was work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with weekends and a handful of holidays off. The trick is to figure out how to make YOUR life meaningful to you- some people essentially live for their jobs. Others have their jobs play a relatively minor role in who they are. Most of us strike a balance- the job is there to enable everything else, and as such is important, but the company’s goals and priorities are not ours outside of work hours.
Where it gets weird is that it’s easy to fall into a pattern and lose track of time. You know the date and everything, but things seem a lot more recent than they are. I play a lot of video games and was looking back at my game history, and realized that there are games I haven’t played in something like a year, and I had no idea it had been that long since I last played them. Same for other hobbies.
I play tennis, go to the gym, run, watch TV, go out for beers, read. Nothing exotic.