Monday, September 24, 2012

Musing Monday...Color Me Capricious

Let's check out this weeks Musing Monday question, as always, from the desk of MizB at Should Be Reading...
This week’s musing –courtesy of http://carabosseslibrary.blogspot.com– asks… Do you have any hobbies outside of reading? Or do you collect anything?

Let me answer the second question first. No, I do not collect anything. I have seen too many episodes of "Hoarders" and it strikes fear in my heart.

Now the subject of hobbies is a different matter.
In my lifetimes I have had a number of hobbies most of which that have come and gone.
And I blame the good sisters at East Orange Catholic High School, where I received my secondary education.
They had a good idea. See, at the end of every semester, exams would be given and then there were one or two additional weeks of scheduled attendance. What to do? So they offered the chance to teachers and administrators to give a little mini-class in any subject that interested them and we students could sign up for a couple. I remember I took a class in making stained glass, my first chance to use a soldering iron! And I remember another in card games. The tiny, little old nun that taught it loved Bridge and tried, pretty unsuccessfully, to pass that on to us. But Gin Rummy...and Canasta...oh, we were fans and I and several of my pals spent many hours of our free time in the following years snapping them cards.

And yet today, I never play cards. Maybe because Canasta, especially the best kind with four players, is a rather long and complicated game full of rules that no one is ever willing to learn.
But it is also that I am a fickle and capricious hobbyist. For awhile I am very interest in something...and then I lose interest.
Perhaps it is like my feeling about TV shows. I can watch a show every week, love that show..and yet after a few seasons, I have usually just had enough. It may still be a good show but I have moved on.
In the world of hobbies, I have a similar history and hobbies, there have been a few. I remember a short interest in crocheting. I had a few zig-zag afghans and pillows to show for it. No idea what happen to them! There is that very big...and I must say, very well done...dollhouse in my basement. Wood siding, cedar shake roof, all to perfect scale. But after a couple of years, my interest in miniatures waned. Even vegetable gardening, something I did for years, just does not grab me like it once did. As my sad tomato plants this year were witnesses to that.

These days I guess this wee blog is my hobby. It certainly takes enough time to be a hobby.
Will this one last longer than others have?
Actually, it has already
And then there is the fact that it ties into reading, the one hobby that has lasted my entire lifetime, more than half a century now. And it has peaked two other interests, cooking, with the Weekend Cooking meme that I take part in, and photography with Wordless Wednesday. Maybe I need the pressure to come up with something weekly to keep me on track.
Or maybe one week I will just pack it all in.

On the bad side, I recently read an article (or part of an article..to quote that funny commercial) online that listed the top 10 most expensive hobbies. What was number one? Photography. Leave it to me!
The good news is that if I ever loose interest, there is actually a market to sell my new camera and lenses online.
Oddly, there is not one for my old crochet hooks.

17 comments:

  1. if you ever find a resale place for hobby supplies, let me know. Unfinished projects too :-)

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  2. Don't feel bad, I bet golf is right up there near the top too, and that is one that I've stuck with longer than blogging! Mind you, I SUCK, but I enjoy it. Like you though, many of my "hobbies" are not long-term. Often it is just a time issue, or an attention span issue. We aren't big TV people but the ones we have watched do lose their luster after a few seasons.

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  3. Reading has also been the longest hobby that I have done in my life. Some went by the wayside like you. Have a great week!!

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  4. Sometimes it's hard to tell when a hobby becomes something more. Something you can actually earn money from...

    As for collecting (or hoarding), my daughter called me a hoarder once (although now she denies it and said she was kidding). But that mudslinging (lol) prompted me to watch the show (and I concluded that, no, I'm not!). But then I read about six books, fiction and nonfiction, on the topic. I must have been worried, huh?"

    Here's MY MUSING MONDAYS POST

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  5. Yeah, I've been through my share of hobbies too, but have read for as long as I can remember.

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  6. I don't look at reading as a "hobby" - to me it's just as natural as breathing. I can hardly remember a time when I didn't read. I hear you about TV shows - after awhile all the episodes in a series seem to be the same old, same old and we lose interest. I don't actively collect anything anymore as I have enough to do dusting the crap, um, fine collectibles that I already have. How our kids are going to clean out this house is beyond me.

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  7. I'm just like you with the tv shows. There are very few I've watched all the seasons.

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  8. oh but there is a place to see your old crochet hooks and any other old items you no longer want .. its called eBay ...

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    1. I really need to think about that, getting rid of stuff...

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  9. Thinking back over my many years I have had a few hobbies, one that comes to mind was flower arrangements. But that along with photography can become very expensive, I tried doing it with silk flowers, but it's just not the same as the real thing. And as far a TV I don't really watch any series, I started to watch Castle the first two seasons but lost interest.

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  10. I don't usually think of blogging as a hobby but I suppose it can be. Now my photography, yes, that's my hobby. And an expensive one too! If I bought the lenses I want I'd be broke.

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  11. Love you answer. Thanks for visiting.

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  12. Photography is a hobby of mine as well, and it can definitely get expensive! I love it, though. I can also understand about losing interest in things quickly. It is one reason I don't really play many games. Here is my musing: http://whatsontheshelf.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/musing-mondays-20/

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  13. I love the idea your high school had of allowing the teachers a few weeks to share their passions and hobbies with the students! I am a soon-to-be special ed teacher and I wish teachers these days had more freedom to do that! Now they focus on using every spare second to cram reading and math down kids' throats, even cutting out art and music! Hobbies are very important, though. I think kids who have the chance to be introduced to a hobby or other form of recreation that they love will be less likely to spend their time getting into trouble or doing negative things!

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  14. I never even thought of blogging as a hobby, but it certainly is. I must admit, I'm a bit of a hoarder but I'm trying to be better! LOL, that's what they all say :)

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  15. The only hobby I've ever really stuck with is blogging. : )

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