Parting is such sweet sorrow…especially when parted from your favorite show for as long as us Sherlockians have been. The last episode of BBC’s Sherlock season 2 aired in January of last year, leaving fans in suspense and tears for what has to be a record of a hiatus. Sure, the show’s lead stars, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, are off being awesome filming The Hobbit (which they are both in), and Star Trek: Into Darkness (featuring Benedict as the villain), but is that really an excuse to keep us waiting for so long? Production of season 3 is said to start filming in March of this year, with a release date sometime in late 2013 or early 2014.

How exactly do they expect us to wait for so long? Fear not, the Evil Geeks have your back. Below are 30 ways to survive the worst hiatus known to mankind. Be warned, this list includes spoilers for seasons 1 and 2.

Come back to me, 221b.

Things to do during the Sherlock hiatus:

1. Read ‘The Adventure of the Empty House,’ and cry
2. Create elaborate theories on how Sherlock survived the fall (it somehow involved a rubber ball, a dummy, and a garbage truck!)
3. Marathon seasons 1 and 2 (it’s only 9 hours)
4. Watch all the episodes again, with the commentary!
5. Scour imdb pages for the perfect Sebastian Moran (my money’s on Mark Sheppard, who has publicly said he wants the Moran gig)
6. Buy Sherlock themed tea
7. Watch the Granada Sherlock Holmes series on Netflix
8. Open a consulting detective business in your neighborhood
9. Start a blog about your friend’s consulting detective business
10. Solve crimes and forget your pants
11. Donate to the Undershaw Preservation Trust
12. Write an AU crossover fanfiction in which John is a hobbit and Sherlock is a dragon and they form an unlikely friendship
13. Watch all of Martin Freeman’s movies and the UK Office
14. Watch all of Benedict Cumberbatch’s movies
15. Listen to the audiobook of Casanova, narrated by Benedict (yes, it’s smut)
16. Listen to Florence and the Machine and relate the lyrics to Sherlock (and cry)
17. Text the object of your affections over and over with messages like “I’m not hungry, let’s have dinner.”
18. Send your friends orange pips
19. Figure out how to make your younger sibling’s rabbit glow in the dark
20. Download Sherlock fanfiction onto your ereader (the Evil Geeks are not responsible for what you may find in there…)
21. Learn to play the violin
22. Compose heartbreaking music about Sherlock’s “death”
23. Write a detailed analysis of 243 different types of tobacco ash
24. Go looking for hound footprints in the nearest moor
25. Buy a deerstalker hat
26. Invest in a riding crop (just be sure not to leave it laying around in a mortuary)
27. Change the lock screen on your phone to read “I am Sherlocked”
28. Take a trip to London, eat lunch at Speedy’s
29. Troll Mark Gatiss on Twitter
30. Whenever someone tells you to do something not Sherlock related, tell them it’s not your division

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