Personally, I started doing home improvement projects for my parents, then later for myself.
Started working out again, played more golf.
I like the topic, we usually have a lot more time and energy once sober so I think it is important to fill the time with AA meetings and activity as well as other activities that we always wanted to do but drinking was more important.
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Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
It amazes me how many hobbies I started, but never finished. When I was still drinking I bought an accoustic guitar which sat in my buddy's garage and warped, a bass which I never played, a fishing pole which only caught dust bunnyfish in the closet, and about a dozen other things. Alcohol is a lethal motivation killer. Nowadays I keep busy working 6 days a week as a specimen courier for a medical laboratory (that's why I chose the biohazard avatar) and trying to get quality time in with my family. Unfortunately, the quality as of late has been horrific. My marriage is hanging by a thread, and should it end in separation and divorce, I'm definitely going to need a hobby and sober friends to do things with. Being single again has got to be my worst fear right now. Not because I'll be lonely, but because I know that the loneliness will more than likely lead me straight back out.
-- Edited by jrzboy on Tuesday 10th of November 2009 02:56:40 AM
-- Edited by jrzboy on Tuesday 10th of November 2009 02:58:07 AM
jrzboy, I was in a failing marriage at the beginning of my sobriety. Trying to stay in it cost my two years of not being able to get more than 2 months sober despite attending meetings fairly regularly. I also feared lonliness and having to date again at *gasp* 30 lol. I figured that life at I knew it would be over. I was right. I replaced my x-wife with 3 sober room mates via an ad on an AA clubs bulletin board and had more fun that year then the last 10 combined.
Hobbies in early days - mt hobby in early days was staying sober! Going to meetings, lot's of them. Then as things settled out and being separated, I found I had time on my hands - even working the programme! So i became an obsessive angler. That's calmed down now.
Then i bought guitars and played the same riff on all of 'em. down to 2 guitars, 4 harps and a button accordion now, most of the time they gather dust, but every now and then I'll pick one or other up and stumble through some riffs.
bird watching and wildlife watching - now that's a passion - no kit needed but eyes and patience and the ability to be still. I can combine that with walking.
Bit of gardening, but I don't really like it unless I get the power tools out.
motorbikes have been a part of my life since I was 20 - still got a bike (OK 3 of 'em) - so riding, fixing, re building, washing, polishing, travelling and camping all fill the time.
I travel a lot for work most times, so the fly tackle is always with me when I travel, plus the walking gear and the binos and the cameras. Plus the Where to Find for when I'm overnighting.
Separation - well it get's easier, been nearly 4 years now. No romantic interest in my life and none wanted. Me and the wife are on good terms. don't know if we'll get back together again. We go on holidays together sometimes. Not managed more than a week at a time though.
man alive, there's so much going on i wonder I ever had time to drink!
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
Hey jrzboy - welcome! New Jersey, eh? What exit? (okay, crappy old joke)
The thread that my marriage was hanging on by has strengthened into a big thick rope with sobriety. My marital problems were due mostly to my immaturity, selfishness and other defects of character that lived in symbiosis with my alcoholism. I pray for whatever God wants from your marriage.
Hobbies? I wouldn't say so much new ones, as rekindled interest in old ones and paying a lot more attention to my kids as well as working harder at my job and finding more art in it.
Hobbies? Fishing, archery and writing. Since getting sober I've also become a bit of a clothes-horse. Now that I don't look like I'm coming off a 3-day bender every day, I care more about how I look. I just wish I had the $$ to feed my tastes.
Great topic, jrzboy. I'm still thinking about whether I need a hobby. Like you, pre-sobriety I tried a a whole bunch of hobbies and failed to follow through on any of them. The only ones that I stuck were those that involved things to do with the pub.
But yes, a good idea, something to take up the slack time, and to re-engage with "normal" people.
