Hobby-ful

The first time I met Hugh's fiery Texan grandmother (we'd been dating only a few months), she wasted no time in getting down to business. VinceLee stared at me hard across the table and barked "Do you like to cook?". It wasn't a question really. It was more a statement barely disguised as the sentiment "you better cook dearie". "well...I stammered, I do enjoy cooking when I have the time but I don't really have much time these days". She was just warming up. Next came "Do you have any hobbies?" aka what do you like to do? - again that implication in her voice that I'd better come up with a good list if I wanted to show my face around there again. I started to sweat. And then berate myself for having no actual hobbies other than work.

Couldn't she just smile sweetly and offer me some pecan pie? a long pause....."I like to spend time with friends.....and I run!". There, I had finally found something. But wait, is running really a hobby. I sensed immediately that I had failed her test and failed miserably. It was a sobering conversation not only because I received a less than glowing reception from a clearly important member of Hugh's family but also because I did not like the answers I had for the questions she posed. What were my hobbies and why didn't I have any? I needed hobbies. My life was pissing away with WORK as a HOBBY? it doesn't get sadder than that. VinceLee was brutal but right on and I guess in your nineties you don't worry about the delivery, you just get to tell it like it is all the time.

I think back to that conversation now with smile. My days are filled with hobbies and VinceLee was right. I needed to reprioritize if I wanted to make a life with her grandson and a new family of artists, cardplayers, writers, storytellers, athletes, interior designers and gourmands. My latest hobby is painting. I'm taking a class on Fridays from 3-6pm. My patient painting teacher Ada, is also our landlord and lives two floors below. She's an accomplished artist with more than 30 years of experience and many exhibitions. We started on the basics - mixing primary colors to form the secondary and so on. I am on to inventing landscapes of all warm tones or cool. Once I graduate to canvas, I'll make a call to VinceLee.