I started writing on Substack to get better at putting my thoughts on virtual paper. I’ve always loved reading essays, and I wanted to work on letting my humor show in my writing. Plus, who doesn’t want to think of themselves as having a little hobby? Although, in my case, hobbies have a tendency to become projects.

I saw a TikTok the other day where a woman said her main hobby is strategy. It’s the planning for the hobby. Honestly, that is a fair way to describe me.

I personally prefer the planning, buying supplies, and internet research way more than actually doing whatever the hobby is.

Do I have 300 markers and coloring books? Yes. Can I color like those people you see on TikTok? Nope.

Do I have multiple Lego sets in a closet? Yep. Will I ever put them together? Maybe, if I hire someone from Fiverr.

My favorite and longest-standing hobby is buying books. Also, reading books. That is what led to my latest obsession, which somehow made it out of the planning phase and into the real world.

I started a podcast with two very good friends.

I do recommend it, but there are so many things I wish I had known ahead of time.

You may love your friends, but you won’t always agree with them.

Sometimes you can, in fact, spend too much time with people.

There is such a thing as too many texts.

And when you make a podcast about book-to-screen adaptations, it becomes hard to let yourself do anything else. Every book is a possible episode. Every casting announcement is content. Every new adaptation becomes something you should probably research immediately.

Social media is also way more work than I dreamed. Honestly, I had barely thought about social media or content before we started the podcast.

Now my searches are about upcoming adaptations, who Lewis Pullman is, and whether we really need the octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures.

It is definitely more exhausting than I expected.

It is also funny when you have about ten listeners, and you know at least one is your mom and another is your good friend. So when we put together a show, it is for them.

Then we release it into the world and hope eight strangers might enjoy it too.

And that’s why this Sunday is a reflection on hobbies, and how I can enjoy planning them without always needing to do them. I need to stop and smell the virtual paper.

More than anything, I need to enjoy my friends and take a nap.

See you next Sunday.