Hobbies aplenty, but...

I have lots of things I enjoy doing that I consider hobbies but I rarely indulge in all of them. Sometimes it's because of energy level or money or just space. Do any of you have lots of hobbies but only do just a few of them, wishing and wondering why you never do all the stuff you like? Am I the only idiot who has no idea how to spend her free time? Am the only idiot who feels guilty when I don't indulge in ALL my hobbies? Oh, probably!

What weenie excuses I realize, but it is so much easier to curl up in a chair and read a book- reading is certainly a hobby of mine since I average about 10 books a month and I love trying to read new things, often straying from my favorite genre of contemporary female sleuths. I think I read so much, so often because for the last many, many years I've been teaching and much of my spare time involved reading stuff for classes that I was either taking or teaching. So though I HATE being "unemployed" (I don't have a full time professional job so I consider MYSELF unemployed, not anyone else, mind you. Just my own personal status.) I do like having all the time to read. I'm trying out new things, which you can see from my book blog.

I consider blog writing and reading a hobby. I love to write and since I'll probably never have a book published (though here lately I've had a regular reader from Random House hitting my blog- no book deal offered yet!) this is a fun way to get my writing out of my system and indulge my own self with an audience- so thank you to all of you who read and feed my dream of being an author. And I love reading blogs- people are so interesting and I love to see what's up with these "online friends" I've made.

I also love to quilt but that's one of those things that take money and space. I do have lots of material and I could make several quilts without having to spend much actually, so I guess the "bucks" is just a bad excuse. I really like quilting, I really do but seriously, I haven't done it since I moved back here simply because it's something to lug out, spread out and then have to clean it all up. I just don't have a place where I can hook up the sewing machine and leave the fabric spread out all the time. It's just a pain in the ass to haul it out and put it back.

I feel the same way with my scrapbooking stuff. I have tons of that and love to do it, but again, it's a matter of spreading it all out. I even have all the paper, stickers, photos, but no place to just DO it.

I've decided that I consider watching movies a hobby and keep track of what I watch on my movie blog. That can count, right? I've always loved going to the movie theater and I'll spare ya'll and not wax poetic about that again, but I've been watching lots of movies on DVD. I also consider watching the seasons of some favorite TV shows as watching "movies" and a hobby. I don't really watch much TV to just sit and watch, but I have a few shows I enjoy so I like making sure I've watched them all so I rent them on DVD. That might not be so much a hobby as catering to my OCD...

Cooking is another hobby but that's a money issue. I get a few cooking mags and I love reading recipes and marking what I want to cook but that costs money and while Daddy-O is generous with groceries I hate to say "hey let's buy 2 pounds of crab so I can make Italian Bread Crab cakes" or whatever has struck my fancy. I've always loved to cook and I can follow a recipe. The thing that sucks is that Mac is a picky eater so I would rarely get experimental with cooking for him. And it's hard to cook elaborately for 1; ya end up eating the "whatever" for a week.

I do take pictures and enjoy being a VERY amateur photographer but it's nothing I do with consistency. I have an idea for another blog where I would like to photograph interesting people and then briefly highlight something unique about them, their stories. But I'm not sure of that. Part of me wants to do it anonymously but there could be a legal issue with featuring people without their permission. But as for just taking photos, I do so enjoy it.

Should I even go into gardening? Years ago I had a veggie garden and lots of flower beds. Then I became rather nomadic and gave up on gardens and house plants. But I do love veggie gardens and flower gardens. I'm armed with knowledge on how to plant vegetables, herbs and to make an English flower garden if I had the money and space to do such a thing.

Oh hell, maybe I'm just full of excuses as to why I don't do anything other than read, blog and play on the Internet, take pictures, or plop my ass in front of the movies. I do love doing all these things, whether I do them often or not. And since I do just work 2 (sometimes 3) part time jobs you would think I could find TIME to do things. I'm such a bum, a loser, a worthless layabout sometimes! Wouldn't it be marvelous to get paid for having a hobby? I'd be rather flush! So, I supposed I should sign off here and go do... something!

So much fun to do but...,
Maggie