Like most of you, I've tried so many new things in this last pandemic year. I've been quarantining since last December with one trip out in February, but yeah, I've been home for a long time. That means I've had SO much time to work on other things besides Unearthly Magic.
Knitting: My dear friend Teresa taught me how to knit back when I lived in LA six years ago. I loved meeting up with her at Starbucks to chat and knit for a few hours a week. When I moved to Florida, however, my knitting supplies got lost in the move. The boredom got to me, so I picked it up again. I had to watch video after video of knitting for beginners to get started. My stitches are still uneven. My rows don't match. I don't know how I managed to make my dog a scarf that he will obviously never use here in Florida. My goal is to make a pair of fingerless gloves and a beanie for the few times I travel north every year.
Diamond Painting: Teresa, yet again, got me into another soothing hobby. Diamond painting is essentially like sticking rhinestones on a canvas, only it's little pieces of plastic called drills that give off a shine. It's actually really cute. I spend hours picking up the drills with a little tool and sticking them on my Lilo and Stitch canvas. It's relaxing, and I got to buy a lot of fun accessories, and shopping always makes my day. My husband even got involved and bought his own diamond painting set. It makes for good times of lo-fi guitar in the background while we chat and stick.
Playing the Bass: My husband has been playing guitar since college and he loves playing. He bought me a bass so many years ago that I can't remember. I am musically-challenged. I can't read music and I can't hear individual notes and chords. In a desperate attempt to teach me, he set up Rocksmith and got me to play along. I can now read tablet notes and play along with the game pretty decently. I play sporadically, so I lose most of my muscle memory in between sessions. Once my deadline is past, I'm going to pick it up again.
Working Out: I have a love/hate relationship with fitness training. Many, many years ago, I worked out with a personal trainer. I didn't lose any weight, but I was the strongest and fittest I'd ever been. I also loved it, the grunting and the pain, the progress, and the weights, all of it. For lots of reasons, I wasn't able to continue training, and then I moved to Florida. Last year, I decided it was time to get fit, not thin, so I put together this whole plan. It was going to be fabulous. Then I broke my ankle. It took five months to heal, and just when I started working out again, I fractured the same ankle, just a different bone. I'm now three weeks out of my cast, and I want to build up slowly.
What hobbies have you taken up?