What do you pack to keep yourself entertained if you know you’re going to be waiting for an unspecified period of time? Personally, I used to tuck a couple of paperback books in my purse. Usually, books that didn’t require much concentration to focus on reading, and books I could abandon in place to lighten my load when I was done with them – and an added bonus of perhaps amusing a fellow wait-er who hadn’t packed enough to keep them busy.

Now? I have a powerful computing device at hand that packs hundreds of books along but fits in my pocket. Being me, I’ll also likely take art supplies in the form of a small pencil case and a notebook not much larger than my hand. I’d pack my full art bag, but it’s… not small and convenient. I’ll also make sure I have spare battery power for my phone/tablet in case this waiting session runs much, much longer than I anticipate. Because that’s what happens with these things, I’ve learned.

I have a tendency to over-pack – I don’t like being bored. I also don’t have the ability to focus well when under stress, and being in a place surrounded by random people is, well, stressful. So in spite of having a keyboard to use on my tablet, I don’t anticipate writing much at all today.

It may be a long fidgety day.


Comments

9 responses to “Waiting”

  1. Waiting time is WASTED unless there is something to read, and you can’t count on the magazines where you are going.
    I had to go away from just pocket-carry when I got my tablet. I refuse to spend money, and my ancient fanny pack had a broken strap, so I found an ancient black leather shaving case & cleaned it up.
    So, inside the main compartment :
    Tablet and phone, for entertainment. and a USB battery which also doubles as a flashlight.
    Wallet.
    Pen, prescription bottle (because pain can hit on long events, and cops get soggy and hard to light if they find I have loose narcotics floating around with the other stuff), pocket knife.
    Small .380 back-up inside interior pocket.
    Outside zip up compartment contains checkbook, list of meds I’m taking, earplugs in case I want to listen to something, and the USB charging cable.
    The kit has a loop, to which I attach my keys when I get out of the truck.

    I daily make sure I’ve got a full charge on the tablet and phone, and infrequently I also plug in the USB battery.

    And I keep an emergency book in the side pocket of the door of my truck. It was ‘Profiles In Courage,’ the first printing of the paperback, but now it’s something one of my daughters put in there.

  2. Aimee Morgan Avatar
    Aimee Morgan

    Short waits – doctor’s office, line at Hardee’s, etc. – are handled by books on my phone. Longer stretches, including waiting for a flight or time spent as a passenger in a car/train/plane, are spent switching between books and working with yarn (knitting or crocheting). When it’s dark, I try to do Audible or sleep.

    My travel bag has space for the latest project, my Kindle, portable charger and cables, headphones, notebook, pen and pencil, and lint.

  3. I take one of my Kindles in my purse if I suspect I’m going to have to wait (like next week when I take Grandma to a Dr. appointment). If it may be a LONG wait, with no place to plug the Kindle in, I’ll make sure all of them are charged and take as many as I think I’ll need. On trips with a lot of sitting around waiting (even just in motel rooms) I take my laptop, and also a graph paper notebook and some pens/pencils.

    1. Oh, yes, I’ve got the older kindle you bought me, the first Kindle Fire that I got a couple of years ago, the new one I got last fall when I thought the older Fire had died on me (it came back to life, LOL!), the bigger tablet with a keyboard, my laptop, and my desktop. Too many computers, really — and to think, even the oldest one has more computing power than the Apple computer we looked at — and couldn’t afford — when you were a baby!

      I don’t have a ‘smart’ phone — plain old flip phone works best out here in the middle of nowhere.

      1. When the Kindle fire dropped to $30 recently I debated getting a back-up tablet. So cheap.

  4. Margaret Ball Avatar
    Margaret Ball

    Kindle and notepad/pencils. (Which seems to be the consensus.) If I anticipate a wait of more than an hour, I’ll also pack the ipad and a wireless keyboard.

  5. I need to get in the habit of going to my Kindle app instead of Safari on my phone. It’s too easy to fiddle away way too much time surfing the Web, and I’ve got a lot of books to read, including several that I’m supposed to be reviewing. Reading while standing in line will be a good way to knock down some of that backlog.

    1. that’s what I do any time I have a short wait. Yesterday’s wait was likely to be up to five hours so I was planning for worst-case. But short reading is a great way to pass the time in lines.

  6. Kindle or print-book, notepad/idea book and pen. If I know it will be a while, and a little quiet, I’ll bring work reading and a larger pad for writing.