The One With The Challenge: A Hobby Of Mine

This one was a bit of a stumper.

I have always wondered about what exactly having a hobby means. So I went to Wikipedia, the all-knowing website, to find an answer.

A hobby is an activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation, typically done during one's leisure time.

An activity or interest. One done for pleasure or relaxation. Well, I guess reading or blogging would count under that definition. But those are boring answers and things I have talked about before.

So what else would I consider a hobby?

Would collections count? Because I happen to collect two things. One I started years ago and the other only recently.

When I was in high school I received my first shot glass. A friend had gone away on vacation and picked one up for me as a souvenir. I knew what they were for but I never used them for that purpose. I just thought shot glasses were cool and the fact that you could find a shot glass with any type of design/advertisement on it was amazing. Pretty soon I was finding shot glasses almost everywhere I went and my collection was born. I like picking up one when I go to a new place or event. It's a commemoration of a memory I have. However, the downside to having a collection like this is that everyone else thinks it's okay to get you random shot glasses from everywhere. And I only like having pieces that mean something to me, or of places I have actually been to. Also, it's breakable and heavy and hard to display, as evidence of the Great Shot Glass Crash of '10. I lost a lot of good memories that day.

My second collection is of Cat's Meow. Cat's Meow is a product made in my father's hometown of Wooster, Ohio. My grandmother and mother have several pieces and I always said when I got old enough I wanted to start my own collection. Cat's Meow are little wooden buildings, designed to look like historic or local landmarks. Towns can have miniatures made of their buildings. The signature for a Cat's Meow piece is the little black cat silhouette, Casper, on each design. I love the fact that you can have small replicas of important places as keepsakes. I have my hometown library, post office, local inn and other Boston landmarks as well. Everywhere I go I see if there is a retailer that sells Cat's Meow. I have pieces from San Francisco and Paris and Las Vegas. I also visited the Cat's Meow Village in Wooster and picked up several pieces there. And made my very own personalized Cat's Meow. I love them and have since run out of shelf space to display them. However, I still look for the next piece I can manage to find. Because they are not commonly found they are like a scavenger hunt. I feel a secret joy every time I find one.

I even like to receive them as gifts. So if you are a friend of mine, there is a link to my Cat's Meow Wish List on my Facebook page.

You know, just as a suggestion.