Lately I've been thinking about hobbies and what I enjoy doing with my time. I usually struggle with this question because I don't think I spend a lot of time doing activities. We go out to bars, we go out to eat, we have house parties. We go to soccer games but it's not something I'm an active participant in. The only two things I can think of are reading and cooking.
I recently discovered I can read on the bus without getting motion sickness, which suddenly frees up and hour and a half everyday for reading. I've read three books this month- all fiction. I keep hearing I need a Kindle but I'm not sold on them. I like going to the book store and taking an hour to pick out something. I like the smell of the book and feeling how many pages I've read and how many are left.
Cooking is something I've only recently started to consider a hobby. It started out of necessity. We realized we spent too much eating out and needed to start cooking at home more. It's evolved into a Sunday routine in which we plan out our meals and actually make a grocery list. I have a "recipe box" on my computer which is a folder I keep PDFs of recipes I want to make. Some meals are winners- tonight's frittata with edamame, scallions, and cilantro topped with cheese. Others will not be made again- the ridiculously sour lime/herb chicken salad.
Maybe it's because reading and cooking aren't relaxing to me, but they don't feel like hobbies. Cooking feels more like an obligation that I'm making the best of. And I enjoy reading, but it's a difficult balance to stay in the now rather than let myself be absorbed in the book. It ends up being a lot of work to stop myself from just reading straight through a book and participate in what's going on around me. So I need ideas for other things to do. Is there a craft for the artistically challenged?