Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Getting out of the house

We haven't been getting out a whole lot recently. And I am totally fine with that. Torsten's been working, I've been relaxing and plowing through a bunch of library books, the dog's been chasing flies... it's been very domestic around here.

Not that we don't get out at all. We go to friends' houses and we have friends over here. We go for hikes and to the dog park and to the gym and occasionally to the mountains. We even run errands from time to time. I go to my book club, and thoroughly enjoy it.

But we don't go out, like the way a lot of people go out. Part of it is being on a budget, and part of it is liking being at home. We're homebodies, I guess. We don't go out to eat, and we don't go out to bars, and we don't go out shopping. We don't really go to festivals (unless you count the weekly farmers' market). We don't even go to the movies.

We keep MEANING to go to the movies. We have a list of stuff we want to see. That dragon movie, we wanted to see. A bunch of Oscar nominees. Shrek. Toy Story, shortly. Sex and the City 2 (though based on the reviews of that one I'm thinking it can wait until we can get the DVD for free through Redbox).

But somehow we never end up going. The last movie we saw in the theater was Avatar, and I can't even remember the one before that. We did buy discount movie tickets at Costco, but let me just say it's lucky they don't expire because we've had them for months. I think we'll use them on Shrek and Toy Story. But I make no promises, because seriously, I don't know what it is, but we somehow never actually get out the door and to the damn theater.

The thing is, our lack of nightlife... it doesn't bother me. We've been watching more of The Wire, and it's been growing on me. We've been reading, and spending evenings on the patio enjoying the weather, and playing with the dog. I've been well-rested and Torsten is getting a lot of work done. We like our house, and we spend a lot of time in it, and when we do get out of the house it's mostly to get moving.

And I like it that way. Even though it's probably not the norm for most people. It suits us, and our lives right now, perfectly.

What about you? How often do you go out? And when you go out, what kinds of things do you do?

23 comments:

  1. You guys could be J & me. We're saving like mad, we're on a one-person income and we quite like being homebodies. :) It works for us!

    (And guess what the last movie we saw was? Avatar. On Boxing Day. SERIOUSLY.)

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  2. That's how we were, even before having kids. We would go to dinner occasionally, or the movies, but we're not big nightlife people. Our favorite way to spend a weekend was on the couch watching DVDs!

    Now that babysitting is an issue, it's just much easier to be home!

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  3. My husband and I are homebodies, too--and really always have been, even as far back as college.
    We average a date about once every 18 months now. We've made to the movies a few times (last one we saw just the two of us was the new Star Trek--before that the latest Batman) and a concert (Rusted Root over two and a half years ago!). Usually we just go places as a family (depending on the finances)--and Friday nights are spent eating frozen pizzas and watching something from the kids' DVD collection. Well, my husband has gotten some sort of bee in his bonnet, and has just gone crazy getting tickets to concerts this summer! Putting no thought apparently to the sitter situation or expense thereof..., no that all falls on ME. Ah well. It WILL be nice to get out sans children a few times this summer. (But I'm mad he didn't buy the Weird Al tickets before they sold out!)

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  4. I'm such a homebody, especially at night. We do fun stuff during the day--run errands, go to the library, go to the farmer's market, etc. but at night we're curled up on the couch watching a Netflix or reading. And you know what? I like it that way. I couldn't keep up with 21 year old me who went out 4 nights a week and what's more, I really don't want to.

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  5. I love being at home, and when I was married before we NEVER went out. I was fine with it at the time, but now that Tosc and I DO go out often, I've realized that I like that too, within reason. I think either way can be enjoyable, as long as you have SOME balance.

    But, there is no doubt that staying at home is cheaper. And easier, if you have kids.

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  6. We don't really go out either; your routines sound similar to ours. When we go out it's usually just for dinner and often some shopping. When we have a babysitter, it's most likely that we'll end up at Home Depot! We are ROCK STARS. But it's nice just to talk to each other without interruption, and to shop without entertaining someone as we go.

    We haven't been to the movies in ages... I think I last went to see The Hangover? Which has been on DVD for months now, so yeah. It's likely that the next time I'll go will be with girlfriends for Eclipse. ::blushes::

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  7. We are total homebodies -- we were before our daughter arrived. I'd rather kick back at my house with a drink and my husband than deal with the crowds. :)

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  8. Right around the time I bought my first condo was when I started staying in more. And when Sweets and I got married, even more. I think it's a combination of maturing (and no longer needing to go out and eat out all the time) and really enjoying the times we spend at home. If it makes you feel better, I've only been to a movie theater once in the last 2 years. And that was because Sweets dragged me there for his birthday.

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  9. I feel like I am always out. On the nights I don't see my boyfriend I usually have plans or chores to do. Luckily Mr. Darcy is more prone to being at home so when we're together we often stick around the apartment, I make dinner, we watch a dvd and be cozy on the couch. Once we live together maybe that will change? Or we will do more of it?

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  10. Homebodies, FTW! I like my house -- actually, I love my house -- and I couldn't agree more that it is the place I want to be the most. Garrett and I are in a similar financial situation so it totally suits our goals, yet we still have a blast! Sure it is nice to go out on occasion, but right now it really has to be something super great for me to invest the time and money. Most of the things we enjoy are things we can do at home: working in the garden, cooking, reading, watching dvds or awful reality television. And that's a lot to find time for when you work full time outside of the house, hit the gym often, run errands, etc. Time to just be at home is precious, and when I'm out and about (unless it's catching up with friends) you can bet I'm usually counting the minutes until I can get back to my own personal sanctuary! :)

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  11. we definitely stay at home...and find that we do so more, the busier we get. it's the one thing i want to get everything done for...so that i can come home and relax!

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  12. We're homebodies, too. Which I love, because we both work long hours and by the time we get home, walk Shorty and eat dinner, it's well after 7:00. If we go for a run, it's closer to 7:30. Plus, we have to do all our errands on the weekends mostly, so we'll maybe go out for dinner on Friday or Saturday and that's it.

    The last cool thing we did was get dressed up to go to an art gallery where one of Jason's friends had a photo exhibit. We planned on spending a good couple of hours there, but the gallery was so teeny, and his friend only had 6 photos displayed, so we were done in 30 minutes and were kind of disappointed.

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  13. I'm a real homebody but Tim likes to get out so we do stuff like the pub quiz at our local (we have a regular team of close friends), walk around the city with our cameras stopping for coffee and cake, go to friends' houses, the occasional gig or play or cinema trip. We try to pop into some of the many local events that are held...art trails, festivals, etc. But I do like to curl up on the sofa!

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  14. For us it goes in waves. We'll have a few weeks where it seems we're doing a lot of stuff outside the house, but then we'll go for several weeks without going out. On our weekend days we like to walk around town or go into Seattle and just wander around the city, but staying home, cooking for family or friends, playing games, working on projects is more the norm and I love it.

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  15. We don't go out. We're new here, we don't have a sitter and it's expensive. We cuddle and watch a movie on the couch or play a game together instead and that's fine with me.

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  16. We don't go out as much as we used to. Partly b/c we are saving money, partly b/c our friends are over an hour away. We haven't been to a movie in forever b/c we will just watch it on our huge HD tv when it comes out on DVD. We eat out about once a week which is enough. If there were more things to do in our town we would probably go out, but sadly, there are not. In law school we mainly went to people's houses to hang out as opposed to going ot bars. Less expensive and most of us were in committed relationships so it's not like we were heading out to meet people.

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  17. We don't go out much, either, unless it's to a friends' house. Our social life in nearly 100% family friendly- we see our friends often, but it nearly always is dinner at each other's houses WITH the kids. (I see friends during the day too.) Or sometimes we'll get together after the kids are in bed. Like, I'll go t my friend's house, and her husband will come here... I get to see my friend and David gets to see his.

    The good news is, your lifestyle sounds totally compatible with having children! ;)

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  18. my bf and i are pretty much the opposite :-) we have plenty of quiet evenings watching movies, but that often occurs AFTER one or both of our evening plans have occurred, like after i finish at the pole studio or after a work happy hour for him. we make it work!

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  19. Now that we have a baby we rarely go out...
    Before Charlotte came along we weren't the type to go to night clubs but we did enjoy a lot of evenings at bars or out to dinner with friends.
    Like you we rarely go to the movies, The Christmas Carol 3d was the last I saw in the theatre. Not even Avatar!

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  20. Hey, you guys bought a fantastic house in a place you love so that you COULD enjoy being home-bodies! I say, live it up in your gorgeous home! Hanging around in the backyard is AWESOME.

    I'm totally a home-body, I just can't wait to own my own home. Sometimes I think Martin and I go out places on the weekend just because we need that time away from our parents (since we both still live with our respective families, but we are saving up to make living together a reality sooner rather than later!).

    Often though, by the time Martin and I see each other on Fridays after a week of work, we're both a little tired and LOVE lounging around, cuddled under a cozy blanket, catching up on TV from through the week or watching a movie off of our Movie Network On Demand channel. It's nice, relaxing time together. We don't really need big excitement out there in the real world -- a comfy couch is fine by us!

    Martin is probably more of a nightlife person than I am to start with, but he never minds hanging out at home if that's what I'm a little more in the mood for.

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  21. We go out occasionally, but we also tend toward the homebody side of things.

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  22. We do fairly well about getting out given that we have kids- if you consider going to TJMaxx by yourself occasionally, or going to your sister in laws for a happy hour with the girls, getting out. I want to clarify we're not CLUBBING or anything. Jim plays basketball with some guys at least once a week. We have a close couple friend we try to eat dinner with at least every other week. But we are VERY lucky in the sitter regard, since both our parents live very nearby.
    In general, I am more the one wanting to get out and Jim would be happy to never leave the house except for sports, though. I mean literally NEVER.

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  23. We almost never go out together and I KICK myself now for not doing it more before we had kids. Of course, we were flat broke but geez. If I had only known how hard it was going to be, I would have made sure we did more adult-ish type stuff before all the babies came along!
    Not to say that everyone will feel that way, but I sure do!

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