Just for fun I looked up a list of possible hobbies to see what I’ve been missing. A lot, apparently. There’s several of them that I find hard to equate with pleasure and personal fulfillment – like hula-hooping, cigar and pipe smoking, cloud watching, ghost hunting, dumpster diving and the lighting of matches. I’ve known enthusiasts in things like garage saleing, scrap-booking, going to movies, watching tv, sleeping, sun tanning and relaxing. Yep, all those made the hobby list and I have to admit I’ve done every single one of them without ever realizing there was a danger of them becoming obsessive habits.
Even though I lean less towards collecting and more towards creative and artistic types of activities, the things I’ve tried that never really caught on or lasted for long are candle making, needlepoint, cross stitching, embroidery, sewing in general, macrame, gardening, cooking, and anything that involves spending a lot of time outdoors being sporty. I used to do a lot of knitting and crocheting but now it makes my shoulders ache – never mind that there’s a lot of weird things all over the place that I made and now don’t know what exactly I should do with them. It seems like such a waste to throw them out after all that misguided effort. I used to do a lot of tole painting, and still enjoy it, but it’s hard to find the time for it.
I like jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, scrabble, computer games, card games, and games like Trivial Pursuit, as long as the people I’m playing with are as stupid and clueless as I am.
And FINALLY, for my top three which you were thinking I’d never get around to, but here they are, anti-climactic as all get out – reading, creative writing and blogging. Blogging being simply another form of creative writing if I’m having a good day, otherwise it’s just a lot of whining and complaining or complete nonsense. Sorry to say, lighting matches came in a distant fourth.
Breathing Space 