Are you stuck in Norman for the summer? Bummed that all your friends left you to go on vacations and/or work bougie jobs 100-plus miles away, leaving you with nothing to do but scroll through your phone contacts desperately searching for people not cool enough to have other summer plans like a drowning sea captain searching for a life raft?
I know, a summer in Norman sounds terrible, but let’s walk through some things you can do to combat your boredom. Plus, without the anxiety that comes from knowing you’ll probably see someone you know each time you leave your house, feel free to wear the same shirt three days in a row or actually participate on karaoke night instead of watching longingly from a sad booth, Blue Moon in hand.
I know, a summer in Norman sounds terrible, but let’s walk through some things you can do to combat your boredom. Plus, without the anxiety that comes from knowing you’ll probably see someone you know each time you leave your house, feel free to wear the same shirt three days in a row or actually participate on karaoke night instead of watching longingly from a sad booth, Blue Moon in hand.
Here are nine things to do this summer to distract yourself from the fact that football season starts in two months. (Unless you’re into that, of course.):
1. Go see some local music
Sweat your sorrows away in a stranger’s basement while listening to some cool Oklahoma musicians. I get that it’s 90-plus degrees outside, but you’ll forget that once you find your new favorite Oklahoma artist.
2. Grab drinks at the Library Bar and Grill
10 out of 10 would recommend sitting outside with a book pretending you’re on a beach, but if you have friends in town maybe go with them. This may help divert your attention away from the fact that you’re a block away from known CIA informant David Boren’s house, if only for a fleeting moment.
3. Stop by the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Pair this activity with a small dose of acid and stare at some paintings (the permanent collection located on the second floor is best for this, for what it’s worth). From June 5 to January 17, you can also see the Enter the Matrix: Indigenous Printmakers exhibition, which features a variety of Indigenous artists’ prints. The exhibit description says it uses “paper as a medium for artistic expression manifests paper as a tool for self-determination, fostering dialogue about culture and identity, contributing to cultural survival.” Hell yeah.
4. Get to know your local Pizza Shuttle delivery driver and tip him or her with a carefully curated mixtape, as though you’re in the sixth grade and that new Taking Back Sunday single ‘changed your life’ (mine too, dude).
Please also tip them with actual money, because that mixtape was more for your pleasure than theirs.
5. Walk down Main Street during Second Friday Art Walk
During the last art walk, MAINSITE Contemporary Art had studio1409 photographs and consistently has some of the best contemporary art exhibitions in Norman. The art walk is a welcome counter to the public drinking on game days, but feel free to drink on Main Street even if it’s not Second Friday. My usual art walk goal of getting a regrettable amount of free drinks and asking strangers what they think of contemporary painting may be harder to accomplish on an average day, but I believe in you.
6. Ride your bike around OU’s campus and think about how you’re going to be paying off student loans until you die
Alternatively, make lists of all the people you know in Norman who left for the summer and wonder if they’re having more fun than you.
7. See a show at Dope Chapel
Norman’s collective nonprofit space recently housed Julia Curran’s THE WORLD IS YOURS! exhibition and, more recently, a Safari Collective Showcase, securing its place as one of the most prominent art spaces in Norman.
8. Eat/drink on Campus Corner
Since Campus Corner is basically empty without students, no longer should you feel compelled to avoid the area around Chimy’s like it’s Chimy’s, and can instead take advantage of Campus Corner’s cheap drinks. I recommend going to Blackbird or The Deli before heckling frat guys getting in Ubers, but it’s your call.
9. Spend 24 hours in an IHOP
What if I told you that there is a place in Norman where food never stops? Sure, I can’t eat anything on their menu except hash browns. But valor morghulis, you know? Watch the sunrise and reevaluate the decisions you made that got you to this point.
