I'm not complaining

My 1 month Hobbies

I enjoy frisbee. I’ve played in organized leagues for the past 7 or 8 years. I enjoy playing xBox, specifically the Call of Duty franchise. However, other than that, my hobbies last about 30 days, and they’re immersive during that time. Here are a few recent ones:

1. BMX Biking
So after taking a trip to RampRiders while babysitting, I thought, “I still have my trick bike in the garage.” $20 later, my tire is fixed and I’m dropping in from a 12’ lip. I maxed out around 3 feet of air over the next 4 weeks and 6 (or so) trips to RampRiders and Plan Nine. I think I did half of an X-Up one time. Epic. I stopped before I hurt myself too badly.

2. Charcoal Drawing
After taking a drawing class in college, when I was on the road, I found an art store and bought myself a few sticks of vine charcoal, a paper pad, and some fixative. I made it a point to find a quiet park one day to draw. I drew a trash can. It looked like a piece of ham. After about 8 pages of “art” that paled in comparison to finger-painting and paint-by-numbers, I retired the pad. It sits about 2 feet from my trick-bike helmet.

3. Fiddle
Nashville for the 4th of July was amazing. Amazing fireworks display, BBQ, Haunted Pub Tours and sweatshirts. The most notable moment for me, though, was listening to The Travis Mann Band at the Full Moon Saloon. Good Nashville country. Dirty. Gritty. Manly. The cherry on top was the fiddle player. Effortless. Inspiring. SO inspiring that I couldn’t want to get back to St. Louis, so I went to Sam Ash in Nashville and bought a violin. After a week of dealing with horse parts, I put it in it’s case to keep the next 3 years of dust off of it.

4. Beer Brewing
Okay, this one took longer than a month, but that’s only because it fermented with my boredom in the basement. Though I actually enjoyed the brewing process and drinking the fruits of my labor, the tedious nature of cleaning reminded me too much of the least favorite parts of earning my biology degree. So in my basement, just one story below a helmet and charcoal, is a clean 6 gallon carboy and about 50 dirty beer bottles.

5. Painting
So I built an easel, stretched some canvas, and mixed some colors. I laid down a drop cloth, got a fresh brush, and then stared at the canvas looking for inspiration. None came. I finally just traced the shadow of my own head that was projected on the canvas. I hung it up and let the extra paint dry out next to the charcoal. 

So now I’m playing disc golf and enjoying it with the full passion that I take on most hobbies. Check back in a month to see if it’s close enough to ultimate to be maintained as a hobby.