Friday nights a go-go

A couple of years ago I started attending a regular social function each Friday evening during semester. It was organised by the club that pretty much all my friends at uni were involved in. And back then it was good. Each week, I'd go along and have a good time and hang around for hours. The people were good, the activites were good, the food was good, and all was right with the world.

As the years have gone by, the people whose comapny I enjoyed have gone. Some have gone away to do further studies, some have found other activities to do on a Friday night, and so I find myself a remnant of a former age. The newcomers have sort of been tacked to the group, and while the original group was there, joined in and took part and it was ok. But now the entire group is newcomers, and the scene has changed.

It's interesting to look back and see how over time the group has changed. Perhaps part of it is simply my changing perspective and increased insight into how people relate, but the group has changed from one group of friends who got on well, to several smaller groups who tolerate each other and bitch about each other. The quality of conversation has declined, the quality of the organisation of the events has declined, and so forth.

A few months ago at one of these evenings, I walked in, looked around at the people there, and thought to myself "What the fuck am I doing here?" Since then I've started doing other things with my Friday nights, which has reduced the amount of time I spend thinking about how fucked up things have become with this group. For the past few weeks I've been going to some live shows, two comedy shows and a play. These were good and I quite enjoyed myself. But unfortunately these cost money and are new shows aren't on each week for me to go to.

And so this evening, with nothing better to do I once again returned to the group meeting. It was a poetry night. The combination of a lack of enthusiasm and effort on the organisers behalf and apathy from the crowd (I confess, I am guilty of this also) led to the arrival of the pizza after an hour to be the most celebrated event of the night. This was followed by some lackluster conversation, and I left at an early 6:30. In previous years these events could last until 10 at the university, or move onto another location until much later.

I'm not quite sure what the point of this is. Perhaps that nothing lasts for ever. Everything changes. I do know that I'm not going to go to another one of these. Sitting at home playing computer games is surely better than sitting around with a bunch of people I don't like and getting bitter and depressed because of it.

I think part of the reason why I'm not enjoying them is because I am comparing them to what it was like back when I first started turning up. The people who only started turning up this year enjoy them much more than I do.

I hereby resolve to no longer attend Error Bars (the name of the event) and to find something more enjoyable and constructive to do with my Friday evenings.