Cynthia Kuhn

Tiny Hobbies for Social Distancing

source: pixabay

Social distancing mode may continue for awhile–and while it’s admittedly difficult, it may be the perfect time to develop some new hobbies. For those of us working from home (especially with added homeschooling duties) who may find ourselves with far less time than we had before, these are decidedly not the kinds of wonderful projects that others may have time to engage in, like planting victory gardens or reading all day long or organizing their entire house. The following are just some tiny things you can squeeze in during your already overwhelming day.

  • Identify familiar shapes—not in the clouds but in the red, cracked patches of skin on your hands that have been created by excessive washing.
  • Sit near your significant other during their video business meetings and pass notes like “The cat on their bookshelf doesn’t seem to approve of the group’s decision.”
  • Try to remember how many days the mail, groceries, and packages have been sitting in the garage for un-germing, then replace that confusion with utter uncertainty about what to do with them once the timeframe has passed. Pace back and forth until deciding to deal with it tomorrow. Repeat as often as needed.
  • Pull out the assortment of hair-styling products that you bought, believing the hype, then used only once since the hype was a huge freakin’ lie but never threw away because you paid for them so there’s a lingering guilt associated with seeing them every time you open the cabinet. Go ahead and use them all up—no one will be able to see the potential frizzorama (unless you have a video meeting scheduled, but who cares because if someone gets judge-y, that’s on them).
  • Pepper others with thoughtful questions, like “How many times do I have to remind you not to touch your face and okay, yes, I did just touch mine while saying that but I’m a human, not a robot?”
  • Unearth every piece of clothing that you’ve had in your closet for more than a few years and haven’t worn. Wear them all, mismatching accessories with glee. Major bonus points for wearing your fanciest stuff to your next video meeting without explaining why you’re sitting there in your bridesmaid dress/tuxedo/ball gown with bright purple eyeshadow and banana earrings.
  • Award yourself stickers for regularly wiping down counters, handles, and floors, then realize you don’t have any sort of board on which to display your sticker awards because you can’t go to the store right now, and the whole project sounds exhausting anyway, so never mind. Just remember how much you rock, Sterilizer Warrior!

Sending best wishes and properly distanced hugs to all—and to keep us laughing instead of crying, please tell us…what are your new tiny hobbies?

🌟 The winners of Edith Maxwell’s book giveaways are Margo Sue and Experienced Bad Mom. Congratulations! You can reach Edith to share your addresses at edith@edithmaxwell.com.

 

73 thoughts on “Tiny Hobbies for Social Distancing”

  1. Cynthia, Cynthia, Cynthia.
    Such wacky ideas coming from the Dean Martin of the group!

    I am finding pictures where I’m hugging someone else, and posting it. Realizing I don’t have too many, and I might have to resort to getting photoshop software.

    Trying to find things to write in my planner, since almost everything I write in there is cancelled at the moment. I wrote yesterday reminders of the new Sunday night mysteries on the Hallmark Channel.

    Rearranging my tiny pantry and freezer constantly, because when my husband goes to the grocery store, he buys the stuff that people are hoarding too! “It’s only 99 cents for the generic bread.” “But we already got two loaves in the bread box and two in the freezer!” “Stop, we already have 3 jars of peanut butter!” And heaven help me, I think he wants to order from Omaha steaks this week!

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    1. I am also adding interesting items in my planner. Not that I don’t have plenty of work to do—it’s just fun! Btw, Omaha Steaks offers surprisingly decent Twice Baked Potatoes and hot dogs. They send everything in a cute little styrofoam cooler.

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  2. Because liquor stores are deemed essential services (God bless you, Gov Polis!), I have decided to become a self-taught (homeschooled, if you will) sommelier, focusing on the cardboardeaux varietals. What was only a hobby thus far, I’m thinking I could take all the way to the professional levels at some point, if I really set my mind to it and believe in myself.

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  3. I’m playing a rousing game of “guess the natural hair color” as everone in my video meetings slowly descends to thier natural state. We’re also playing grocery store bingo as only a third of what we want is on the shelf.

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    1. Our grocery stores are mostly intact again, but you reminded me of another hobby I’ve been enjoying … seeing the houses of the news anchors as they report from their rec rooms. They get extra points when their pets or children wander through the shot.

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    2. Both of those are wonderful (I mean, the shelves situation is definitely sobering but to think of it as bingo is wonderful), Libby! 🙂

      And Becky, YES. Sometimes the background decoration or visitors are the best part of the report!

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  4. That post made me so happy Cynthia–thank you.

    I’ve been enjoying games called “does this need to get done?” and “one more chapter…”

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  5. Cynthia, loved this! I’ve been channeling my inner Peg Bracken (anyone remember her?) by digging out old cookbooks jammed with faded, grimy magazine recipe clippings promising Cheap, Easy Dinners Your Family Will Love. They won’t love them, but that’s all the old canned stuff we have in the pantry, #dammit. Leslie, heeeelp!!

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  6. “The cat on their bookshelf doesn’t seem to approve of the group’s decision.” Love it.

    I also like Libby’s ideas of “guess the natural hair color” (although we’ve been told to only use video in meetings if it’s essential) and “grocery store bingo.” I’m still trying to fill the toilet paper square.

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  8. Thanks for my Monday morning laugh as I settling in for another work from home day. I certainly don’t get these people who are talking about all the extra time they have. I’m working from home, so finding I’ve got just about as much time as I always did. And somehow, my weekends seem shorter, probably because I am doing all my shopping for the week on Saturday instead of over several nights during the week.

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      1. Excellent point about the shopping and weekends…

        Wouldn’t it be great if there were a whole group of people sitting just off-camera during business meetings all across the world, trying to make someone laugh? 🙂

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    2. Mark, my husband worked Saturday and Sunday afternoon. He said he should charge for those hours. I said, “I would.” His phone rings at dinnertime, at the crack of dawn…all sorts of weird times. It’s like his co-workers and boss think just because they are all working from home, it’s okay to call/text any time they want. 😦

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      1. Liz, that is just rude to call all different times. Unless they are doing that at work in “normal” hours. (If they called my house at crack of dawn, they would probably get a loud whistle on my end!

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  9. Fun post, Cynthia! We’re winning at grocery store bingo thanks to my warrior shopper husband. So much so we were able to gift some toilet paper to a neighbor who was less fortunate in the store wars!
    For your next video conference put a fun background behind you. (Hubs has been fooling around with this tech.)

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      1. Yes, Becky, I would rather play any other kind of game but guessing if this is flu, allergies, coronavirus, or a combination of all or none of the above?

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    3. Oh, that is my very favorite game! Woke up coughing the other day @4 am, terrified, and then my hubby informed me the cat had been snuggled up on the pillow next to my head.

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  11. Very fun! If I ever get caught up on the work I have to do, I’ll go for some of these. I don’t have the excuse of home schooling kids, I just have a lot of writing work piled up! If this goes on and on, I’ll refer back to this. Love the post.

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  12. You’ve inspired me… to build a fort using all my empty beer cans on the front porch and peer out suspiciously at the parade of neighbors walking by… Thanks Cynthia, this was a PERFECT read today. Keep the fun takes coming. 🙂

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    2. I agree! Pictures and descriptions of any expressions formed because they realize what you are doing being the aluminum. Or what the pervert mind thinks you are doing!

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    3. Amy, how many beer cans you think we can use? (My Cajun hubby is Bud champion so we have plenty of cans to build!

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  13. I’ve already document the battle I won against my hoards of mismatched plastic containers. I’ve also cleaned out two drawers. I’m playing the How Long Can I Stand My Gray Roots game and News Voyeur as I peek into the homes of reporters reporting from “home” – some of those have GOT to be fake, although I loved the Vickie Wen segment on NBC last night that was obviously shot in her NY apartment, which did NOT look big enough for a family of four and had a stack of kids’ toys in the corner. Oh, and I’m putting together my first Facebook Live for 4/17! God knows how I’ll pull it off but I needed to do something new – and, God willing, fun.

    Great post!

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    1. Your plastic container battle was a thing of beauty! I was so inspired that I actually walked over to my container shelf and opened the door. Stared at them for a good 30 seconds before closing that door and running away…

      Good luck with your Facebook Live!

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  14. My favorite new hobby is playing “What Was This?” when pulling old items from the freezer, which is often accompanied by my husband’s new pastime, “(insert food item) Can’t Go Bad If It’s Been Frozen.”

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      1. I won’t cook anything that I can’t identify once thawed (um, ew), or if it was from an era when a) I was a redhead, b) my kids were in their previous schools or c) I could get off the floor without groaning.

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      2. I finally learned–after many years of “what the hell is THIS?”–to write on the container in felt tip pen the date and what it is. And this month I’ve actually thawed and eaten a whole slew of ’em! Space in the freezer? Imagine that!

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    2. My husband and I play this same game. He has frozen (ie freezer-burned) tupperware containers of homemade turkey soup marked by Thanksgiving years. Just say no.

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  15. What a fun post! Thank you, Cynthia! I’m playing the how many gray hairs do I really have game. Quite a few more than I remember, let me tell you! Today, the husband played the wash my car by letting it sit for a bit in the pouring rain game, followed by the pull it in the garage and wipe it off game.

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    1. Yay! I don’t know about you but I suspect new grays are coming in daily over here prompted by the circumstances. Kind of hope that gray will become the new blonde (or any color)…rocking ALL of the catwalks…when we go back to having catwalks.

      That is a fabulous carwash idea too, Sybil!

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  16. I’ve been playing the grab-something-different-every-ten-minutes-and-see-if-you-can-smell-it game, ever since reading that loss of smell can be a symptom of COVID-19. Did you know that Jack Daniels smells like banana extract? And yep, probably time to change the ratty T-shirt I’ve been wearing for far too many days…

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  17. I am debating how to change my “How to hide my gray hairs” strategy. The temperatures are slowly climbing from the 20s/30s into the 50s and my thin wool cap is too warm. And I only have summer hats which are inappropriate to wear now.

    Another game I am reluctantly playing is the TBR shuffle. I have lost my reading mojo and have several books that I started but stopped reading. I normally can read 1-2 books per day if I am home all day but have not found the right book to get me out of my reading funk. I have plenty of ARCs and LCC2020 books as well as thousands of books on my TBR bookcase or on my Kindle app but I hate playing this game.

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    1. The TBR Shuffle…I know what you mean. Have to find just that right vibe. I have been leaning almost exclusively toward humorous to balance out the pressing scary thoughts lately. (Though should admit to the occasional dark humor binge too, like Ozark.)

      And one way we can address our gray hair is to FULL ON embrace it.
      And let’s think of our new grays as sparkles…
      It’s so much more fun to say My Sparkles Are Coming In!!!

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      1. I wish my gray hairs could be considered sparkles but right now I look like a SKUNK (white stripe on black hair)!

        I normally am very methodical on reading ARCs to ensure my reviews are posted before the release date but since I have not finished a book in almost 3 weeks(!), I have missed some deadlines for sure. I guess I have to find what I WANT to read instead of what I HAVE to read.

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  18. Genius, Cynthia! I have on to offer. Try to find a place in your house where your cat won’t follow so you get some work done without someone demanding to get up on your lap, be scratched, or be fed. I’m still looking! 😅

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    1. HA! Excellent.

      I hope that some strategies emerge…but the Pet Power of Cuteness is so potent! Our dog seems to believe that she has finally convinced us to stop going places without her, judging from her victorious expression. 😉

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      1. Ha! Try going to the bathroom without three (yes, all three) furbabies coming in with you and each waiting, staring at you! (I think they think, since I go outside with them to do their thing, they need to be with me while I do mine!)

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  19. Cynthia, thank you for a great laugh while reading your posting and all the great (and funny) comments. Since we are retired we don’t visit anybody anyway anymore. Until very recently, I was the one who is the gopher for my Cajun hubby’s many projects, (I swear, he works more now that when he was getting paid to work and he worked a lot then!) I was joked with at Home Depot asking if I had made an application since I was there every day, sometimes several times! I told them they needed to put a cot on one of the back aisles so I could take a nap now and then after I have been from one side of the store to the other getting “needed” supplies!

    I have been playing a game of how many times a day does a dog need to go outside? The weather has not been super nice (mostly cloudy) but the temperature hasn’t been too rough (made it to 71℉ today; normally it is in the 80’s by this time of the year!) I think the sounds, weather, and my stress level has the poor furbabies confused.

    Grace, I can relate to the reading mojo. I, finally, got mine back yesterday so I am back to what I started to read a month ago, Eggs in Purgatory by Laura Childs. Got to chapter 11 last night and got to 20 today (so far.)

    Thanks, y’all, for helping me feel more alive. As the saying goes: “Laughter is the Best Medicine!”

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    1. Thanks so much for stopping by, Teddi! And it sounds like you’re making the best of the situation–hope you enjoy your reading.

      I hear you about the furbabies! Ours has taken to asking us to let her out, then when we do so, coming immediately back and planting herself in the doorway so that we have to leave the door open…she’s wily, that one. 🙂

      Take care!

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