OPINION: A dormant weekend

I don’t like weekends. Or at least, I’m not using them to the fullest.

For a while now, I’ve noticed myself being excited for the weekend. I’d fill my head up with ideas on what to do with all my free time. Then, when that weekend comes, I deflate and end up in a minor hibernation throughout the weekend doing literally nothing.

This wasn’t much of an issue when I was spending every Saturday driving to West Des Moines for movies, but now that I’ve settled down (buying a car will strongarm some smarter financial decisions into one’s mind), I have been quite bored on my weekends.

A few immediate thoughts: As I’m going through a rainier mental state recently, I’m noticing a lot more triggers of mood swings and depression. For example, every time I eat fast food, I have a pretty downer mood for the next few hours.

Having too much time to myself is now, apparently, extremely stressful to me, often leaving myself in a practically dormant state. I often don’t get out of bed unless I had something scheduled for the day. But scheduling your free time seems like a job. Isn’t that what I’m avoiding on the weekends?

Well, here’s the thing. It might help me out. Remember, every Saturday used to be a drive to Des Moines where I had a slate of movies at specific times. Plus, I had to schedule free time, and I do love a good walk between movies, especially when I get to walk around the little lake outside of the Jordan Creek mall. The geese there are my friends.

Could scheduling my weekend like an itinerary make me a better person? Maybe.

I’ve talked plenty about my compulsive need to start new hobbies to maintain a feeling of productivity. My current hobbies aren’t at all productive in the traditional sense. Watching movies, reading books and playing video games are exceptionally sedentary, which probably fuels my mood swings and need for active hobbies a bit more.

In a retrospective sense, it must be hard for me to make a commitment which requires a full level of discipline to accomplish. It would explain a lot about how I can’t seem to decide what to do with my free time. So, in the sense that an itinerary is an expectation of what I need to accomplish on a specific day, then maybe it’s possible to follow.

I do want to be an active person. I’m at my highest weight ever right now, and it’s hard not to be desperate for a change. I want to start swimming again. I want to visit local trails. But to do that, I need the discipline.

If a pre-planned weekend itinerary is an admission I can’t be trusted to control my own free time, then I’ll just have to admit I’m not quite an adult yet. On one hand, it might seem like a loss of control. On the other, it’s a decision I don’t have to worry about.

It’s certainly worth a try.

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After seeing rave reviews from my friends for Ryan Coogler’s new movie “Sinners,” I figured it might have been time to finally return to the theaters, at least locally. It would certainly be a lot easier on my finances to go to a local theater than spend the full tank of gas to get to West Des Moines.

However, on that Easter weekend when “Sinners” was supposed to release and even into this latest weekend, no local theater actually held the movie that’s doing exceptionally well at the box office (only a 6% drop in the second weekend is unheard of for a number one box office, first time since 2009 with “Avatar”).

While it’s disappointing, it’s the unfortunate nature of having so little options around us. Of the six local theaters I keep track of (Winterset, Mount Ayr, Corning, Stuart, Osceola and Greenfield), they all only have one screen and seek to cater to the audience around them. All six of them opted for the religious animated film “The King of Kings,” produced by Angel Studios.

While I have a lot to say about Angel Studios (and their pandering faith-based movies which are now saturating the box office), I’m just disappointed as we head into summer how likely it will be the local theaters won’t look for anything challenging.

Movies don’t have to be just superheroes and live-action remakes of cartoons. They can be mature, weird and wonderful. I just hope some of the more eccentric movies get a chance. We’ll just have to wait and see.