The Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly challenge post previously hosted by The Broke and Bookish and now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. You can follow along for each weekly post here. This week’s topic is all about the things you do when you’re NOT reading, which, for me, is a lot lately because I’ve barely been reading anything LOL. But honestly, it did take awhile for me to get new hobbies for sure! Reading is my number one hobby but I promise, I do like to do other things!

Writing

I feel like this one is kind of cheating in two ways. One, its still bookish because, hello, I write books. But its not READING books so I am including. Two, I don’t necessarily think of it as a hobby anymore though. I more think of it as a job, a career, even though I definitely don’t make a lot of money off of it. But I spend a huge chunk of my life working on my stories so its a hobby.

Running

I will never get over the fact that this is a hobby now! I love to run and I’m SO excited for the weather to finally cool down so I can go running more. I love the way it makes me feel, even when I’m cursing every step during. I love that it helps with my mental health. And I love the feeling of accomplishment every time I finish a run.

Collecting Tiki Mugs

My friend Logan took me to my very first tiki bar, Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar, at the Disneyland Hotel about seven or eight years ago. She bought me my first mug – the second edition Shrunken Zombie Head mug and I’ve been hooked ever since. I mostly collect the Disney mugs BUT I’ve been trying to get a mug or glass from each new tiki bar that I visit because I love the culture, the drinks, the food and being inside a tiki bar, especially Sam’s, makes me the happiest. I even have a tiki mug tattoo, which you will see a little bit later…

Baseball…Just Baseball

I mean, if you follow me anywhere on the internet, you know baseball is the love of my life. I love watching it, my team, the Angels, means the WORLD to me and obviously I love it because I keep writing stories centered around baseball. It’s the best sport in the world to me – don’t even try to convince me otherwise – and I feel like I would have a lot of time on my hands if it didn’t exist. I’m already counting down the days until spring time…

Binging TV Shows and Watching Movies

I am quite good at plopping myself onto the couch in front of our TV and pulling up a TV show or movie to watch. I love to experience stories in every possible so watching tv shows and watching movies is one of my favorite things to do. I love to watch something once and then watch it again. I also love watching documentaries, especially true crime ones, because, let’s face it, it’s like research for writers – its the best!

Going to Concerts/BROADWAY MUSICALS

Obviously I’m not doing much of this during covid 19 but it is something that I super loved to do before then. I actually had tickets to see Simple Plan and New Found Glory back in June and then I was supposed to see My Chemical Romance in October. I HAVE been enjoying virtual concerts and I have a few coming up this month that I’m excited for. I absolutely LOVE live music. I love music in general – there is not a day that goes by that I don’t listen to music and I love to go see my favorite bands play because it fills me with SO much happiness. I also am addicted to musicals and like going to see them on stage as well, as large as the Broadway theater we have in Los Angeles or as small as the local community theater!

Going to Comic Conventions

One of the saddest things about Covid hitting in March is that its canceled all of my favorite conventions for the year – most notably, WonderCon in Anaheim and, yes, SDCC as well. I LOVE going to cons. I don’t even go for the craziness of it. I hardly ever do signings and stuff. I just love to be there in the atmosphere with so many likeminded people and I love spending waaaaaay too much money in artist alley. I love big conventions and small conventions, I love them all. I miss them so much and am hoping we’ll get out shit together so we can have WonderCon next year…

Being a Cat Mom

I never knew how much I could love kitties until I got two of my own. They are my babies, my children, and I pretty much do anything and everything for them. I spoil them rotten for sure and my life has definitely gotten caught up in being a cat mom. Like, if I see something with a cat on it or cat print or something, I immediately want it. I own a shirt that says cat mom and I love that shirt. Being a cat mom, now that I think about it, isn’t even a hobby anymore – its a lifestyle.

Getting Tattoos

This is definitely my most expensive hobby for sure. I’m up to 23 tattoos and I love them all. I just want to cover my body in artwork. If I had more money, I would already be covered but its definitely something that is expensive. And while I don’t believe every single tattoo on your body needs to have some deep, emotional meaning, I do try to give each of my tattoos THOUGHT before I stick it on my body forever. But its definitely become a hobby and passion of mine and I can’t wait to get a new one…even though I just got one in May…

Going to Disneyland

This is another thing I miss during pandemic times – going to Disneyland! I have lived within short driving distance of Disneyland my entire life, grew up with the fireworks going off at 9:32 pm every night. I’ve been an annual passholder consistently since I was a senior in high school, fifteen years ago. Disneyland is my happy place and, when its open, you can find me there at least once a week. I miss it being open and though I know its the safest route to keep it closed, I am hoping we can get back to it soon!

Singing

Okay, now, don’t get me wrong. I can’t ACTUALLY sing. I mean, I can maybe carry a very basic tune but I mostly sing to myself in the car or in the shower or around my boyfriend because he’s the only one who will put up with. I absolutely LOVE to sing and wish that I could sing well so I could do it more often. I still do it though – I even love to do karaoke, though I do need a few drinks in me. I’m of the belief that you don’t need to be good at something in order for it to be your hobby and singing is definitely that.

Dungeons and Dragons

I feel kind of weird considering this a hobby because I don’t play THAT much but I do love to play. I also am considering running my own game soon soooo I feel like it can be considered a hobby now. My boyfriend is a huge DnD fan, he spends a lot of time hosting games and I’ve played in 3 or 4 of his games at this point. It’s a lot of fun and it really helps me to get the creative spirit going when I’m struggling to write. One time, after a session, I wrote like 5K words on my fantasy project because I was so inspired. Its such a fun thing to do and I seriously love that more and more people are playing.