I've been thinking about your post a lot today trish, and I think you answered a lot of your own questions. People from my generation, and yours too, looked at free time as buzz time. We have to learn a new way to be.
We learned to be that way partly because of social pressure and because that was what was going on with the people around us. In sobriety, I've picked up a few new interests. Never thought I would be interested in embroidery, but that's one of my new things.