Do I Do Anything Fun?

I consider myself a somewhat social person, but certain very standard cocktail party-ish questions still throw me completely for a loop. Not long ago, I discussed the unanswerability of “So, what kind of music do you like?” Last night, though, I encountered the even trickier “So, what do you do for fun?”

The first trick with this question is that it implies that everything you have discussed to that point, from music to politics to whatever, falls into the category of “not fun.” This alone, of course, makes me uneasy and uncertain how to proceed.

The bigger trick, however, is actually answering without sounding either lame or pretentious. After all, most of my day-to-day fun things (obsessing about my iPod and Netflix queue, playing racquetball with P-Cot, running really far, engaging in strange projects involving drinks and vegetables, imbibing beer at the Terrace…) aren’t interesting enough to really count as the “thing I do for fun.”

On the other hand, the guy next to me last night made the mistake of going with “scuba diving in Indonesia.” Which he had done once. This is perfectly fun and interesting, of course, but it isn’t regular enough to be the “thing he does for fun” (especially since he lives in Madison) and he got called on it.

So what does one do? Pick something obscure to sound unique and interesting or pick something quite regular (like “hanging out with friends”) to sound like just a regular guy? Usually, I just end up muttering and rambling on about something. Not the best choice.