What? People Do Things Other than Read?

It’s Tuesday, and you know what that means! Time for another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Today we’re supposed to talk about non-bookish hobbies (does writing count? LOL). So I’m left with a conundrum because I spend most of my free time reading. I don’t really consider making dinner or teaching my boy algebra a hobby. Today I see this as maybe a wish list of things I’d do if I had unlimited time and (perhaps) money.

Photography. This is something I actually have time for sometimes. I take some of my photographs and turn them into Zazzle products (like this squirrel postcard). My phone case is of a dolphin photo I took several years ago; I actually bought two phone cases with the same design, because I love it so much. Probably when it comes time to replace my iPhone XR, I’ll get the same dolphin case. Unless I take another photo I like better.

And this is pretty much exactly what my current phone case looks like.

Seeing New Places. This is one of those “yeah, I know I want to do this, but do I really do this?” sort of hobbies. I really want to get better at this one though. For Columbus Day/Indiginous People’s Day, my dh and I took a drive to see all the beautiful leaves, and we went to this place about three hours away and tried to walk alongside the river. We didn’t exactly get there because the land along the river was too muddy. And of course, I took pictures.

We drove to Kansas that Saturday, because I’ve never been. I decided I was going to try to see one new place one Saturday every month. My dh wants to come with me. When I mentioned I wanted to go to the Denver Art Museum in November (there’s an exhibit I’d like to see that’s there until December 7th), he wasn’t too thrilled about that. So I’ll go two places this month: one that I’ll go to by myself, and one we can enjoy together. Without making the conscious effort to go, I’ll stay home and read books all afternoon.

Exercise. Another thing I don’t do nearly enough, but I try. We had to let our gym membership lapse last month. I loved being able to go swimming two or three times a week. The river to the right (the picture is of my dd (with the orange hair) and her friend) is fed by glacier water. I was hypothermic when I got out of that water. My doctor upped my thyroid medicine by 50% once I got back from this camping trip, so that might have been why. I like to go hiking when I get the chance, but usually I only find time to walk to the Pokéstop at our local park. I try to do that every day though.

Genealogy. This is a “hobby” I haven’t touched in at least six years. But I do like it. I like history, and think it’s interesting to learn about all my ancestors. I’ve been able to trace my ancestors to Ivar the Boneless, which was pretty cool. I was fiddling around in Ancestry and found an ancestor that lived in Jamestown, but I didn’t document it right. Perhaps I’ll get the chance to track that ancestor down again someday.

Scrapbooking. Another hobby I haven’t touched in years. I just never think to do so. Plus then I have to get out all the supplies, which are buried under about 20 books. Someday I’ll probably work on this more, when I’m not spending half the day teaching my boy.

Transcription. This is actually something I’ve done in the last year, but I don’t do it as often as I’d like. I occasionally volunteer as a transcriber for the Smithsonian Institution. I think it’s kind of awesome how I’m helping researchers make historical discoveries. Last time I did this I transcribed some of the Freedmen’s Bureau papers during Black History Month. While most of the time I’m not transcribing any juicy historical tidbits, I know that my contribution, added with others, makes a difference. I have also worked on Project Gutenberg, but much less recently.

Needle Crafts. This is something I tend to do about one week a year. I’ve been working on this one cross-stitch project for probably at least 10 years. I have some projects that I’ve lost, so then I go buy new ones. I always go for these mega-large projects too. I have no interest in little squares that say “God bless this house” or whatever. My current project has dolphins.

Languages. Me and Duo are buds. I have… 24 flags after my name in my Duolingo account. I don’t know them all well (my best languages are Spanish, German, and Russian), but I dabble in several languages. I have a 2,039 day streak on Duolingo, which amounts to a little over 5 1/2 years. I have had to use streak freezes during that time, I admit. I also paid to get my streak back once or twice. So I guess I can say this is one hobby I engage in almost daily.

Learning. Now, you may say this is a bookish hobby and I’m cheating, but that’s not necessarily true. There are video courses I take. Then I often listen to audiobook classes when I go for a walk or cook dinner. What better motivation to make one go for a walk, than to know you have something to listen to? Sometimes I listen to audiobooks on my walks, but that’s a bookish hobby; we’ll just ignore that. I guess I do this hobby almost every day too.

Puzzles. I don’t usually do many jigsaw puzzles, but I do like to do other kinds of puzzles and brain games. I’ve been making a little bit of money playing timed crossword puzzles, but not very much.

So that’s a list of several hobbies that I don’t usually make time for. I just started playing Animal Crossing with my kids about a week ago, but since I haven’t been playing that long, I didn’t really count it. Maybe if Top Ten Tuesday does this again at some point in the future.

What are your non-bookish hobbies? Are you like me, saying “what’s that?” Or are you a normal person where books is only a small–er–medium part of your life? Next week, it’s back to books, with “Book Titles that Will Make Great Song Titles.” See you then!