A long time ago, I read the book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean (you may know it as the book they are trying to make into a movie in Adaptation). A passage that stood out for me was the author finding herself jealous of the compulsive orchid people, because they always know what they will do with their time, what they will spend their money on, and what to bring back from vacation. I was really moved by this passage because of the knowledge that I didn't have that "thing". Also, I was a little irritated with the author, because come on, she was writing fiction for The New Yorker and working on a novel. So, I remembered this passage and this feeling the other day when I was reading the other Melissa's beautiful blog post about pursuing her passion, photography. I don't think that I have a hobby, much less a passion. I am increasinly thinking that my life would be more pleasurable if I had one of these.
So I am going to set out to find some thing that will be all mine, apart from the things I do on a daily basis for my family. Obviously, I have my kids, but where will that leave me in eighteen years? Or even in 8 when they are closing their doors and listening to their ipods? In the Project Happiness book, Gretchen sets out to figure out how best to "be Gretchen", and she begins by remembering what she liked to do as a child and how she would spend a free day left to her own devices. As a child, I liked to read and my downtime now is spent cleaning. I am looking for something a little more exciting than cleaning, and perhaps a little more social or active than reading.
I plan to try out some newthings, and see how they make me feel. The challenge is going to be carving out the time, and also figuring out things that I can explore on a limited budget. I plan to post some ideas in the coming weeks.
On an entirely different note, we are back from an amazing trip to Great Wolf Lodge (thanks to the other Melissa!). As she mentioned, we were there celebrating my very awesome nephew's birthday. The kids had a great time, Chris loved guiding the kids through a giant hotel wandering game, and Melissa and I were thanking our lucky stars that someone had the brilliant idea of putting a Starbucks in the lobby. It was NONSTOP fun (and by nonstop, I would like to mention here that to play the Magiquest game, you run up and down five flights of stairs repeatedly for several hours).
Chris also surprised me with a spontaneous trip to Olympia, the state capitol, on the way there. It was beautiful and amazing, and we walked down to the riverfront and around the capitol building. Melissa took some really lovely photographs that I am sure she will be sharing here soon. It makes me feel so loved when he plans surprises like that.
I need to get dinner all situated and go read to my kids, so I can report some sort of success here with my weekly resolution update.
Melissa #2
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