Hobbies

The Fat Cyclist, besides being one of two people to keep me motivated in my half marathon training (the other being a real life friend and commentor, Amanda), posed an interesting question today.

The Setup

Most of us spend the bulk of our time working.  That is life, ah me, that is life, and it is good.  OK.  So you have little time left over after working and keeping house and family and all of it.  Not a ton, but a little.  Your job throws a bit of extra dough your way, so you’ve got a few bucks to lay down on fun stuff after the bills are paid.  Most people have one, maybe two things that they throw these bucks at.  Maybe it’s golf.  Maybe it’s opera.  Maybe it’s fishing.  For all the guys at work here, it’s hunting – no joke, one day someone brought in a bloody deer’s head in the back of his truck to share.  There were many oohs and aahs and wows, and one ick, which came from me.

The Coincidence

At a scary Charlotte mall on tax free weekend, the Professor and I were browsing the Bass Pro Shop looking for some sort of VERY BELATED father’s day gift for my father, who is not a sportsman, he’s a computer geek, but who can afford that fancy computer crap?  Anyway.  We turned a corner in this store that is the size of Disneyland, and saw a veritable forest of fishing poles.  I’m talking, like, ten million bazillion poles, all sprouting upright out of little plastic cases.  It looked like a sea of prairie grass.  We stared at each other, wide-eyed, and then at the dozens of boats, thousands of lures, and hundreds of tackle boxes, and thought – Whoa.  This is a whole new world of hobby that I never dreamed existed.

This elicited a discussion about hobbies, and how in order to allocate one’s finite time and resources, one must choose at most two hobbies to be passionate about if one wants to be remotely good at either of them.  A passing glance at some price tags in the fishing pole forest told us we wouldn’t be taking up fishing any time soon.  We then puzzled over which two we would each choose.  We’re currently trying out several, including Dishwashing, Ridding the Bathroom Of Hair, and Scrubbing Dog Pee Out Of The Carpet.  Kidding.

The Question

The Fat Cyclist’s timely question today was – which new hobby would you take up?  Presuming that, if you read his blog, your first hobby is obviously cycling.  An incorrect presumption, in my case, but OK.  I think it’s a valid question, and one that the Professor and I were just discussing.  I think the Fat Cyclist, and I, are both right.  You can’t have a whole bunch of passions.  This is why I’m not good at anything.  Because I like to try everything, so I never have time to be really good at one thing, just fairly bad at a whole lot of things.  The Professor, and the Fat Cyclist in a roundabout way, are trying to help me focus.  It may work.

The Choices

This is my list.  If I was independently wealthy and had all 16 hours in a day (besides the 8 for sleeping) to do whatever I chose, no cost or time limit, these are what I would do.  As I am not and do not – I need to pick two in which to focus.  Any suggestions?

Here are the things that I do and would like to do better:

1. Sew. I’ve got a whole Rubbermaid container full of quilt pieces begging to be put together.  I’ve been schlepping it around for years.

2. Play piano. I do it well enough for a casual player, but I’d love to be better.

3. Run. Faster, longer, tougher.

4. Kayak. Would do it every weekend if I, you know, had a kayak. Ahem, husband.

5. Hike. More backpacking, more camping, more walking outdoors.

6. Act, design, support theatre.

7. Write.  Shorter blog posts.

8. Garden.

9. Learn foreign languages.

10. Rock climb.

11. Ride/care for horses.  Haven’t had access in years, but I used to love working in a horse barn.

12. Travel.

13. Cook lavish meals and entertain friends.

Here are things I haven’t been able to do but would love to take up:

1. Mountain bike.

2. Join a local band.

3. Learn the violin. The cello. The banjo. I think I could tackle the entire strings section.

4. Learn to make mosaics

5. Sing several sessions in a recording studio with a live big band. Make a record.

6. Take literature courses now and then.

7. Travel by train.

8. DIY Home improvements.

9. Sing in a top top top of the best of the top a capella choir, perhaps going on grand world tours of old cathedrals and guild halls in Europe once every other year.

10. Be a Girl Scout leader (or similar children’s group).

How could any one person with a full time job and a family possibly do all of these?  I must learn to let go of certain cherished ideas about what I will someday be, someday do.  Someday is now.  It’s time to pick.  Sigh.