I’m dead serious when I ask this question.  This weekend I had a deep intellectual conversation with my friend Susan, in which we talked about how we spend our time.  We compared how we spent our hours and talked about what our husbands do for fun.

Men have fun.  They have hobbies, like golf and poker.  They play games and team sports.  When they are away from the house, having fun, they aren’t thinking about what they should make for dinner or when they’ll find time to clean the bathroom.

We came to the conclusion that we don’t have a lot of fun. 

It’s not that I hate every minute of every day.  I just don’t have anything I do for fun.  When I had this conversation with my husband, his response was, “You go to the gym.”

Going to the gym is not pure fun.  Yes, I feel better after I go.  I am also required to go if I don’t want my pants to become the size of a double wide.  I am not naturally skinny and I like food. 

Going to the gym is also required from a mental standpoint.  As Susan put it, going to the gym is a normalizer – it brings your sanity up to a normal level and keeps you from losing it, but doesn’t qualify as fun.

I’ll confess that I’m a hobby wh0re.  I’ve tried all the WOMANLY hobbies like scrapbooking and sewing and soapmaking, and have participated just long enough to invest hundreds of dollars in supplies before abandoning it altogether. 

I still have what I like to call the hobby graveyard – where fabric remnants and photo-safe paper lie abandoned, in the hopes that one day Alex and I will find that we already have exactly what we need for a brilliant art project thus giving me a return on investment that will ease the guilt of sunk costs.

It has also occured to me that unlike most MAN hobbies, WOMAN hobbies produce something.  Like knitting.  How many scarves or booties or sweaters does one person need?  Eventually you run out of people to give things to, and then your hobby dies a slow death, smothered under it’s excess output.

I despise team sports.  Camping to me is staying at a Holiday Inn.  I don’t think shopping counts as a hobby.  Writing, maybe.  Reading blogs?  Iffy.  Getting massages?  Doesn’t seem right.  I learned in my workshop this weekend that brain waves used while watching TV are equivalent to the brain waves of someone in a coma.  So I guess TV watching is out.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to shoot, but that’s probably an unsafe activity when you’re four months pregnant, right up there with water skiing and horseback riding.  Cooking is too much like a chore especially when you have to clean up the kitchen to make counter space first.  Napping?  Making lists?  Pathetic.

So what else is there that’s cheap or free, safe for a pregnant woman, and entertaining enough for someone who can’t NOT do two things at once?  Help me have fun before I explode.

I forgot however, that working full time and also having a child that requires things like baths and dinner and stories cuts into the free time I have to undertake hobbies. Like sewing.

Total cutting and sewing time required to make the sack: less than 1 hour.

Total time to complete the sack from start to finish: before Thanksgiving to yesterday.

Behold my sewing prowess…

I have to say though, for Baby 2.0 I am intrigued by the idea of the Sleep Sack Swaddle since I never fully got the hang of the perfect baby burrito. Looking at it, I think it’s just a regular sack, but with wings and velcro. I may have to buy one just so I can talk about how overpriced it is and how easy it was to make my own.

No no no, of course Alex taking his first step is WAAAY more important. However, seeing as how he’s been standing since he was 9 months, and walking with assistance since around that same time, we had given up on trying to make him take steps on his own. (Headstrong that one is, already throwing tantrums like he was 2.) So far, we haven’t been able to capture the walk on video. Because when the camera goes on, he goes limp noodle on us and refuses to even stand, let alone weeble across the room toward the camera. When he does do it though, he totters a few feet into my arms and ends by throwing his arms around our necks and giving the best baby hug ever. All of which makes me happier than I ever thought possible.

However. Winning makes me happy too. For the past 7 years, Brett has signed me up to be in a football pool. Some years I did OK, some years – like last year, I didn’t even care so pregnant and miserable I was. Each year the pool has grown so that now it has a ridiculous number of people in it. And with the Steelers somewhat pathetic win over the Dolphins on Monday, I eked out a victory over the 10 people I was tied with because I picked the least number of points. Wahaha! WAHAHAHAH!!

Take that all of you who spend hours watching SportsCenter and studying the injury list and stats and whatever you do if you try to be educated when you make your picks. The only thing I know is that I almost always pick the Steelers and that the Jets and Dolphins are not good.

Between the baby hugs and the pool money, this is a happy-filled week.