Last spring I was sitting around watching  Pimp My Ride and reading US magazine when I started to think it might be time to take up a new hobby.  I didn’t have to go far to come up with hobby ideas.  I had plenty. 

Through a  “bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish” process of elimination, I picked fly-fishing.  I read about it, went to a workshop, then traveled to Troutville, Colorado where I pursued the bad boys lying in wait, rising for flies, and taunting me. I learned it’s not the quantity of casts; it’s the quality. I learned that trying to untie a knot, a really bad knot, is hard but possible even if you do it through tears.  I learned the peace and serenity of wading up a stream, surrounded by meadows and flanked by snowcapped mountains. 

With the freeze in October,  I left fly fishing behind until spring, but I knew there were other hobbies I could try and several I could dust off and re-try.  Did I mention I have also tried aerobics, beading, biking, bird watching, bowling, clog dancing, cooking, cross country skiing, darts, dog obedience, downhill skiing, flute, golf, hardanger, oboe, piano, pool, racquetball, reading, sewing, snow shoeing, swimming, tennis, wine tasting, woodworking, and an armchair study of art and music to name a few.  I’ve tried them all, enjoyed them all, perfected none.

O.K. I’ll admit it.  I have ADHD (attention deficit hobby disorder).  I can’t focus on most hobbies longer than it takes me to learn the basics.  The longest-lived hobby has been yoga, the shortest was flight school (I dropped during the weather unit, right after cumulus but right before nimbus) although I do love weather and wouldn’t mind picking up the hobby of tornado chasing with the Twister Sisters for a season or two.

As a generalist rather than a specialist, I guess I could say my hobby is trying out hobbies. I have learned a little about a lot and am usually able to insert at least one interesting fact into almost any conversation about almost any hobby, or at least I could until I lost my memory when I turned forty, but that is another story. 

So I’ve had a lot of hobbies, but the main thing I’ve learned through these years of hobby sampling is to accept the intensity of my focus, the flurry of the pace, and the fleeting interest. That’s just the way I do it.  In fact, the other day, right in the middle of watching Dog, the Bounty Hunter and reading People, I realized I’m a hobby dabbler, and I’m O.K. with that.