And the hobby is. . .
It's kind of up in the air.
I have decided to make my new hobby—drum roll, please—juggling. I know that it is not one of the hobbies that I have discussed with you guys, nor is it one of the many fine hobbies that y’all have suggested over the past few weeks. And there are those of you that might say that juggling is not so much a hobby as it is a skill to develop. And I would agree with you.
I suppose if I became very serious about juggling and joined a juggling club and put on juggling shows, and threw juggling themed Zoom parties it would then become a hobby, but I don’t want to be that serious about anything that isn’t a paying job. That said, I am going to learn to juggle. Supposedly, it can be learned in a matter of days, so in my case it will be a matter of a few years, but that’s fine. I bought a starter juggling kit with three balls. They look like this:
I will watch some YouTube videos and then I will practice for an hour (timed—my own“hours” are rather truncated) daily until I can successfully juggle uninterrupted for thirty seconds.
On camera.
The main reason that I want to learn juggling is that I feel like I owe it to my readers to learn something on this dang ol’ blog. I set out 122 weeks ago to learn ten skills in a year. And I have learned zero of those skills. I’m not wringing my hands about it, life happens, but I do feel like I need to re-orient the blog back to the roots every now and then. So, I will learn to juggle. I will let you know how it goes. I get my pink balls on Sunday.
NEW HOBBY REVEAL:
I have decided to learn how to needlepoint. I bought a very cute kit for children ages 7-13. The kit will let me stitch a 6” X 6” portrait of a grey tabby cat named Lola. This cat:
I am actually really excited to start this hobby. I need a hobby that isn’t just dicking around on my phone. I cannot dick around on my phone if my hands are full of my amazing needlepoint project. I plan to do this kitty picture to see if I enjoy it and then move on to more advanced projects. I am also curious to see if my hands can take the repetitive motion required. I feel confident that the time that it keeps me from holding my phone will offset any irritation from the stitching, but fingers crossed.
SOME GOOD NEWS
Maa is out of the hospital, and recovering well at home. She sounds better than she has in ages. She has been without a BiPap for several months because hers broke and there are none to be found after the massive recall by Philips Respironics last year. The demand from Covid is also making a bottleneck. Supply chain issues and other late capitalism woes have exacerbated the supply problem even more. Big surprise.
Her hospitalist made sure that she had a ventilator that can be used as a BiPap in her house before he released her to home. He’s a good doctor who has cared for Mom before.
So, she’s sleeping well and I think that she’s going to be getting stronger now that she’s getting good sleep. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, but please keep her firmly in your thoughts and prayers—she’s recuperating from pneumonia, which is never a picnic.
UTTERLY SHAMELESS BEGGING
If you are on TikTok, please follow me and watch my Depression Diary series. I’m in the middle of a strong depressive episode, and I have decided to just talk about it a little bit every day. It’s kind of a check-in with myself made public. If it’s not your cup of tea, I understand, but it would mean a lot to me if y’all would check it out. My TikTok is: @germynickels
Thank you, as always, for reading.
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Juggling is exactly the suggestion I was going to make, but didn’t because the squirrels distracted me. Circus arts for me lead down an entire rabbit hole of mini-skills that 8 years later now makes up a full hobby. I still can’t juggle for 30 seconds, but I can juggle for 10 seconds, cyr wheel, handstand, clown, and a bunch of other silly things!
Awesome picks! I’m rooting for you.
In case it helps, I’ll say that I’ve been juggling a few times a week for a couple years now, I can do some fancy tricks, and I don’t think I could juggle for anywhere even close to an hour a day. it can be pretty physically strenuous! Honestly, even 5 or 10 minutes a day, consistently, will take you far.
You’ve probably already heard this, but I HIGHLY recommend TaylorTries on YouTube, she’s the best, and her tutorials are super thorough and clear.
Good luck! You can do it.