i want a hobby pony

I have never really had a 'hobby'. I mean, I've managed to watch crap television on a pretty regular basis, but I have never had something continually in my life that makes me a member of some group that subscribes to some magazine and watches some event. If I do have a hobby it seems to be the actual act of finding one. And once I do find one, I progress about as far as being able to have superficial conversation with people who actually engage in that activity. I stop short of mastery, excellence, or depleted bank account.

Case in point: photography. I got a DSLR, I took a class, I bought Lightroom. Done and done. I know (kinda) what all the dials do and I know (kinda) how to fix problematic photos with editing tools. I don't have a Nikon 300 nor do I have Photoshop, but I can converse with people who do have these things.

Cooking seems to be progressing in the same way. I have a few cookbooks, I read a few recipe blogs, and I have some minimal cooking tools (like the food processor and the olive oil spritzer). I try on a weekly basis to make up a recipe and see whether it will make my head explode. I can also converse with my friend who actually does know how to cook about egg substitutes and binding agents in cakes. I also refuse to drop the hundreds of dollars it seems to take to actually be really good at cooking (a thermometer just for muffins? really?).

The only reason I'm blogging about this is because my blog itself seems to be a testimony to this fact. The Flickr badge, the entries on vegan cooking, and the concern for fonts all represent hobbies that I most likely will not keep up with any intense fervor. And I've decided this is a good thing. I'm not lazy, or a dilettante, or too inept to master things. I just really like the initial learning curve. So this blog may sometime soon go the way of skateboarding, knitting, and learning Italian, but at least I can now have conversations at a Bay Area dinner party about my failed vegan blog.

Hmm, I wonder if writers using their form to discuss their form counts as a hobby? Oh wait, it just counts as a played-out trope. Damn.