Ah, to sort and to categorize. What fun. Seriously, give me anything, any mess, and I will organize it for you. I love to sort things. I love grouping like with like. I should own a label maker, but I don’t. Documents, pictures, clothes, things, you name it.
If I could, I would organize my whole life in neat categories. Why not? It brings clarity to chaos. So, let’s do that, at least a little bit. Let’s categorize my hobbies together. It’s fun (for me) and you get to know me a little bit better. ☺️
I’ll pre-face this by saying – most of these emerged during my years off social media. I needed a way to keep busy and I’m quite proud of my little repertoire, if I do say so myself. I don’t think there’s anything on here that I would classify as a “waste of time”. Time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted, anyways.
Don’t mind me if I come off a little pretentious – indulge me here, besties! 🙋
My main hobbies (aka the hobbies you might mention at a work retreat or something)
Reading: I was never a big reader growing up – I’m not ashamed of that. In fact, I think more power to everyone who starts late like I did. The moment I got my Kindle, it was over. I became a reader, and reading became me. The cost of reading went waaaaaay down and I could finally sift through books I didn’t like, until I found something I did. And I learned that I like many things: for one, I really like the classics. I love the moody ambiance and how much the characters overthink (and overexplain) love. I’m a sucker for talking through your feelings. I also love a good thriller / horror, although those are a bit more difficult to find. Lately, I’ve also wanted to get into science fiction but it’s not going that well. Got any recommendations? Let me know (and follow me on Goodreads).
Reality TV: You best believe, I *LOVE* reality TV. I love it. No questions. Specificially, anything dating related. I’ve never seen the Bachelor, but I’m sure I would love it. Instead, I’m a big Big Brother VIP Kosova fan, and I know all Love is Blind seasons like the back of my hand (Japan, UK and the US season with Cole and Zanab were my favorites).
YouTube: Is YouTube a hobby? I don’t know. In any case, I love it. I’m subscribed to a wide range of content creators and – especially in the absence of other social media platforms – these people kept me connected to the world during my offline era. My guilty pleasure was @bestdressed but she got bullied off the platform, unfortunately.
Hobbies that get me through a boring (work)day* (for legal reasons, this is a joke)
Daily Killer Sudoku: I don’t remember how I got into Killer Sudoku, but there are weeks where I log on the website every single day. I used to be obsessed with this. Not so much anymore. I love the Greater-Than Killer Sudoku puzzles on the site, even though I rarely finish. It’s about the journey, not the destination, right? Regular Sudoku bores me to death now.
Bonus hobby: Speaking of fun Sudoku, I discovered this YouTube channel that solves so-called novelty Sudoku puzzles, called Cracking the Cryptic. It’s very fun, and you’d be surprised how much better you get at the puzzles, just by watching the videos.
New York Times Crossword: I don’t have a subscription anymore, but for the longest time I did, and it was quite nice. I’ve been playing the New York Time Crossword on and off for about seven years now. The crossword is fun, but it’s also very difficult for people not raised in North America (because of the obscure references it contains). I could only ever do up to a Wednesday’s difficulty level, as they get progressively harder from Monday to Saturday. All the internet culture, YouTube drama references I know proved to be pretty useless here as they were never used as clues. I stopped my subscription when I read something in Amusing Ourselves to Death that said we have turned trivial knowledge into a commodity – and crosswords are the absurd consequence of that: we are expected to keep track of useless information for amusement. Unsubscribed in a heartbeat. But sometimes I miss it so.
Hobbies I picked up and dropped right away
Knitting: Ugh, I so wanted to be this girl. I wanted to be a knitter. I tried crocheting, followed a bunch of YouTube videos, and even started a few projects: a scarf long ago, and a little hat for my baby when I was still pregnant. My thinking was, I could knit and watch Big Brother. Wrong! Knitting takes a lot of counting (you need to count the stitches), and I apparently cannot count and keep up with the latest happenings on TV. So, unfortunately, the hobby died down, and I haven’t picked it up in over two years. Too bad, I really wish I would’ve stuck with it.
Hobbies that aren’t just hobbies, but are a way of life at this point
Coffee: I’m sorry, what authoritative (probably male) authority decided that drinking coffee isn’t a serious hobby? I say it is. I invest good time and money in this hobby, it’s one of my favorite pastimes and it brings me great joy. I love going out to have a good coffee, preferably somewhere out in the sun, even if its colder out. I’m a sucker for Kimbo in Prishtina, but it’s not that easy to find and I love to pair my coffee-hobby with my cake-eating-hobby as well. This hobby is so powerful, it in fact serves as a vessel for my other hobbies as well: I’ll often bring my Kindle with my coffee, and my dream coffee date would be one where I can talk all things reality TV.
That’s it. Those are my hobbies at the moment, neatly sorted in made-up categories that carry little meaning to anyone but myself.
Thanks for reading, mwah! 💋
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