Of Pursuing Hobbies Once Again

Lately I’ve been thinking about taking up a lot of former hobbies once again. Like knitting. I knit when I was in high school, usually when I was watching TV, and it was quite a good de-stresser, actually. I also did cross-stitching, but I am a bit mentally drained from this semester so far so I’m not sure if I’m up to beginning a cross-stitching project, but I’d definitely be down for knitting a scarf or a beanie.

Cooking is another thing I’ve been thinking about more. Specifically, baking. I do cook from time to time when my schedule permits (I work on some week nights, so by the time I get home it’s too late to cook and eat dinner on top of the homework I have to do) but baking is what I don’t do enough of. I missed baking so much when I was in China and without an oven. Now that I do have an oven in my kitchen, I just don’t have the time. Hopefully over winter break and even next semester I’ll have more time to cook and bake. Maybe I’ll even have enough time to start a regular once-a-week type “column” thing on this blog about my pursuits in the kitchen. (But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here.)

Writing is also something I’ve been missing lately. November is the month of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I have a few friends that are participating in the challenge, which is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I wrote novels in high school (back in the days where I actually had that much time to spare) and I got 3/4 of the way through writing one during the summer between freshman and sophomore year in college. I’ve always wanted to revisit that particular work in progress and give it another go. Too bad novel writing is such a timesuck.

I think what I miss most of all is reading, though. Every time I pick up a textbook or handout that I have to read, I always wish I were reading something of my own choice instead. I still haven’t read Sarah Dessen’s WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE, and that’s been out for months. I also want to read THE HUNGER GAMES, as everyone has been raving about this series. Earlier this semester I did manage to read the most recent Thursday Next novel, ONE OF OUR THURSDAYS IS MISSING, which was no small feat – that book’s been out for over a year.