Winter blues getting you down? Well here's a few ideas for things to do indoors as we transition from fall foliage to winter wonderland, also known as the Soggy Auter (get it?...it’s a mix of autumn and winter)…

1. Retro Gaming Party: So after you finish up watching reruns of The Price is Right (ONLY the Bob Barker version…Drew Carey is killing that show), grab a few bags of Doritos, a couple bottles of the Dew, drop drawers and get comfy, then set down in your house with a good group of friends for some fantastic flash back video gameage. Pull out those dusty discs like Tekken, GTA (the original), Mario Kart…or go to the extreme and pump up some noise with Super Mario Bros., Sonic, and Mortal Kombat (on Super Nintendo obviously). Then settle in for a ruckus of smack talking, caffeine hyping, boxer wearing good times.

2. Trip Out…Legally: Pot makes you lazy, Alcohol works great until you get depressed, but there’s not legal drugs to trip out on…dang…OH WAIT! Try this little concoction (at your OWN RISK of course…don’t go blaming me if you’re heart explodes). Grab the last 2 antihistamines from when you had the cold, and a few cans of Rock Starand toss in the Wizard of Oz. It is an experience you will not soon forget.

3. Indoor Sports / Games: Indoor football was always a fan favorite of some of my old friends. They used to set up 3 guys as guards, while one guy attempted to reach a specific wall in the house holding the football…normally they picked a brick wall…because they learned the hard way what the force of a human body against a sheet rock wall causes. Or play a good old fashioned game of cops and robbers. One guy waits downstairs while everyone else in the house hides in a fortress like setup upstairs with the lights off, everyone armed with nerf and dollar store guns. When the signal is given, the guy downstairs has the mission of taking out all the guys upstairs before they get him…but beware…if you take the orange cap off the end of those dollar store guns…it’s a felony to have it on campus…woopsie :- /

4.Clean Up: Nobody likes it when the floor feels like you are walking on sand paper…so take the time when the weather doesn’t permit going outdoors to sweep and mop up the joint and take down the previous holiday’s decorations. You will be pleasantly pleased with the feeling of a nice clean smooth floor under your footsies for at least…10 minutes…or until the next person comes in without taking their shoes off. Plus…don’t you think its time to take down the Halloween decorations by now?

5. Meet a new “Friend”: Everyone does this. You go on facebook, see that there are people from your school on there, and add them as "friends"…even if you’ve never met them. This is your chance to change that. Find a friend on facebook you’ve never met that is online, and invite them over. Maybe you can enjoy building a gingerbread house together, or eating cookie dough sticks while watching Superbad…either way…making new friends on a rainy day is definitely a way to bust through the blues.

So go forth, enjoy the time inside, and whatever you do…don’t get busted while you are jacked up on antihistamines and caffeine, holding an unsanctioned nerf gun while stalking outside the window of a new facebook friend. It’s always bad news.