I've been trying to find a hobby. That sounds like I started the other day and I am still going strong, though the truth is that I have been searching for years! Google tells me that a hobby is "an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure." I have never had a true hobby in the long-term. I was in band, I played the piano, I was on the golf team my senior year of high school and then again my senior year of college, never really did any of those things on the weekend, though I do still enjoy music and golf. In Japan (the first time) I did crossstitch to bide my time in classes I didn't understand and when I was supposed to be doing homework I couldn't read and tried my hand at naginata. In college I had a part-time job and studied languages (maybe that is the closest thing I've had to a hobby?). Post-college I started beading, failed at knitting (except for "easy knitting" which is amazingly fun and easy!), and had spurts where I swam, did yoga, biked to work, etc.
The kids are slightly older and now I have a few minutes each day where I can spend time on myself or a hobby! So the other day I renewed my search by googling "how to pick a hobby." There are A LOT of ideas out there, many of which I had heard or seen, but never really considered. Did I mention I'm pretty conservative spender, so that ruled out starting an acrylic ring making business by suspending nature in clear resin (for eternity?). Buying a Stand-Up-Paddle board or a kayak seem great, but they start at a few hundred dollars!
[SIDE NOTE: I'm sitting outside in Dar and I just killed a mosquito on my leg as she was mid-suck. :-(]
I still have hundreds beads upstairs, I spent a lot of money on them, but I never was a passionate beader. My neighbor has offered to buy them all from me once I decide on a price = start-up costs for new hobby, check! I'm not sure why I hesitate to sell them, I haven't done it for years, why I am so worried I will pick it up again? In addition, I still have some yarn left from my 6 months of knitting (but I'll keep that to use with the looms). Theoretically I could make money off both these as hobbies, with high quality and high output, but with a full-time job and full-time kids, that doesn't seem likely.
Now, back to the first word of title of this post, "Books." Reading is a timeless hobby that has withstood the test of time (until my generation and our electronics addiction), why couldn't it work for me? I never particularly enjoyed reading as a kid, but I wished I had been a voracious reader. My dad blamed my mother for only letting us read library books, but truthfully I'm not sure why I never got into it until now. There are only a handful of books which have stuck with me, Black Rain Einstein's Dreams, Anne of Green Gables, The Five People you Meet in Heaven, and others. I'm excited for my 12 months of KindleUnlimited and simultaneously filling up my book wish list. Is there a way to flag the books on my list for Amazon sales?
Wish me luck on my new hobby! Maybe I'll even post some book reviews here?
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