American Road-Trip, Part 3: Hobbies

So, my brother-in-law has a new hobby: Making perfect ice.

I have not seen the results of this hobby, because we didn't visit their house, just met up at my mom's. I guess it is ice that is perfectly clear, with no streaks inside from bubbles rising to the surface? There's a specific way to do this. Apparently.

He's an engineer. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I do think it speaks to a mindset that appreciates technical challenges. So... perfect ice.

When he takes on A Hobby, it is one hobby for a duration. For a while, he brewed beer. Then he was making mead. I know he also enjoys researching the best ways to cook certain things. Like I say, technical, detail-based, precision tasks.

Someone else we visited works in the gun industry. I believe he tests new models of guns coming to market. He loves his work, and enjoys talking about it. I didn't understand a lot of what he said. He showed Brett some of his personal guns. So it's a job and a hobby!

One fun aspect of this trip was finding out about hobbies that developed during the pandemic. Good friends have developed their gardening in ways specific to their abilities. A self-proclaimed NON green thumb, she created a cactus garden. He grows strawberries. They planted a grape vine to grow over the arbor they built (it's not grown that high yet) and they added a decorative sculpture garden in one corner of their property.

Another friend has also been working on his garden, but in his case the big draw is a fire ring that will have raked, flag stone seating around it when complete. 

A good friend of mine who found herself gaining weight during lockdown has jumped on the fitness bandwagon, walking with friends, and throwing down an exercise mat at home to get exercise in inclement weather.

These are not the things we talk about during the occasional long-distance phone calls. Or if so, the topics don't bear the weight of the hobby. "What did you do today?" "Oh, I took a walk / worked in the garden / made ice." Then the conversation rolls on. That's why it was so great to actually visit with all these people. We can talk all the time, but seeing a person's life is a different level of communication.

It's the little things that make a person whole.

How Hard is it to Have a Hobby?

I seem to have misplaced my hobbies. 
Or rather, they have gradually left me, as neglected friends will do. Maybe they're off partying with my missing goals.

I used to have easily defined hobbies, starting with reading. That was my number one hobby for decades. I've been diligently courting that hobby and it has been returning to me during this year. (Thank you GoodReads for helping me track my reading diligently.)

Music, another persistent hobby. 

When I moved to the Delaware shore in October of 19-ahem, by December I had purchased a second-hand piano to help me while away the hours, living at a beach-y, resort-y area during the dead winter season. I'm not a great piano player, but I started learning when I was 5, so I can play complicated classical pieces full of mistakes... for my own fun. Anyway, it was a great purchase and stayed with me all of my 12 years in Delaware. For the last 6 years, in apartments in Indianapolis, Beijing, and now in a house in Vietnam, I continue to tell myself I will get an electronic piano (easier for transportation), but that has yet to happen.

I would sing along in the car on every drive to and from work, to and from the store, anytime I was alone in the car. Now I walk everywhere, and I only occasionally sing in the shower. 

The Theatre. Hobby and avocation.

For 20 years, I was in about 2 plays a year, plus helping out with other plays in other ways backstage. TWENTY YEARS. Then I moved to Indianapolis, and got a job that meant working late some days, and it would have been mean to commit to a play when I couldn't guarantee to make the rehearsals. 

In China, my theatre bug was somewhat mollified by doing children's drama camps. I really enjoyed working on scripts for those, but the camps themselves were... well, the Chinese idea of live theatre is different from the western idea.

With no music and no theatre, I suddenly realized yesterday that my hobbies are now...

Brace yourselves ...

Planning and Tracking.

I've always enjoyed planning things - trips, meetings, packing, cleaning, everything there is to ever do can be planned. I'm a great planner. (It's genetic. When we asked my mom to use their house for our wedding, she immediately grabbed a pen and started making a list of things to buy and things to do in the house. Any time any guest ever comes, she does this.)

For decades I kept track of my activities in a Franklin Planner. Until I moved overseas and had less to track. Now I still use a planner, but also my smart phone - so many apps! So many things to track! I have my fitness tracker, a habit tracker, GoodReads for books, and a private notepad that I use to track my own lists of things, PLUS my paper planner.

So now I get to quietly slide into some kind of Type A Psycho who plans the heck out of every day and every activity, and then tracks it to death online. Old age is gonna be FUN!

How have your habits changed over time? Have they? Does "planning" even count as a hobby?