FGF
new 2026 hobbies edition
Happy FGF / Bad Bunny weekend for those who celebrate!
My meniscus surgery has officially been scheduled for next month. I shall soon be confined to my home, my couch, and, worst of all, my own thoughts for lord knows how long. Some call this period of rest “recovery.” I’m choosing to call it a forced personality expansion.
In order to survive my Non-Weight-Bearing Era™, I’ve decided I’m going to take up several new hobbies. Weigh in (haha, get it) on other new hobbies, wrong answers only, below.
1. Becoming aggressively into crosswords
Not casual crosswords like The Mini in the NYT games app. I’m talking like serious crosswords. Books and books of them. I shall also rediscover and develop an odd obsession over pencils during this time. (Narrator: She would, in fact, not buy books and books of them and doesn’t own a pencil.)
I already know that I’ll complain that the Monday puzzle is “too easy,” only to spend 50 minutes staring at a single Sunday clue like it personally attacked me. Time well spent???
2. Watching one docu and making it my whole personality
I will watch exactly one Serious Documentary—probably about a scam, a cult, or a woman who faked being European—and immediately become an expert.
I will say things like: “Did you know…” “Actually, that’s not what happened” “It’s so much deeper than people think”
I will not watch a second Serious Documentary.
3. Starting a craft I will abandon halfway through
This could include but is not limited to: knitting, (re-learning how to) crochet, embroidery, puzzling-even-though-I-don’t-have-a-table-to-do-that-on, beading, and/or something involving resin (dangerous).
I will buy supplies, watch one YouTube tutorial, and then leave the project half-finished in bed where Ozzy will then judge me as he proceeds to chew on it.
4. Writing long, unhinged notes app entries
I will open my Notes app and black out.
Topics may include: a text I should not send, a Substack idea I will never finish, a 12-point list of people who have wronged me since 2008. These notes are not for sharing. They are for processing.
5. Becoming a person who “does Pilates” and arm weights (from bed)
My physical therapist will give me three gentle exercises. I’ll proceed to do them once, talk about them nonstop and refer to myself as “very disciplined.” If anyone asks how my recovery is going, I will say, “Honestly? It’s a lot of work. But at least my arms are ripped.”
6. Online shopping like it’s my job
Recovery requires: a knee pillow, a better knee pillow, a cuter knee pillow. I’ll justify every purchase by saying, “It’s for healing,” even when it is clearly a cardigan.
7. Reorganizing my life instead of my house
I won’t organize a single drawer (that would require standing, silly), but I will: reevaluate friendships, consider a 17th career pivot and/or decide I need to move off the grid. All from the bed. With ice on my knee. I’m going to be productive AF. I might even write the next great American novel. Just you wait and see. (Narrator: She in fact, would not write the next great American novel.)
8. Becoming weirdly spiritual about time
I will say things like: “This season is teaching me patience” “Rest is a form of resistance” “My body is asking me to slow down” Meanwhile I’ll refresh my phone every three minutes.
9. Watching trash tv like it’s medical treatment
I will rewatch the same three Bravo shows and insist it’s for my own emotional regulation. If you suggest something new, I will say, “I’m not in the headspace for that.”
10. Rating every person who visits me
I will mentally rank visitors based on: snack quality, willingness to refill my water, whether they ask me to get up for anything. And to help further alleviate my boredom? There will be a leaderboard.
So yeah, in summary, recovery is about growth. And by growth, I mean becoming slightly more unhinged but extremely well-rested.
Have a great weekend all.
THE SHALLOW STUFF
Ready to laugh?
Ready to smile?
Ready for your pump up song for the weekend?
Ugh. It’s old at this point but is stuck in my head as of late.
THE DEEP STUFF
Ready to cry?
Ready to be inspired?
After low winter temperatures battered multiple regions of the country with snow, heroes in Washington, DC, stood up to be accounted for.
With major thoroughfares taking priority for District plows and employees, the ‘DC Snow Heroes’ hit the blocks, shovels in hand, to clear sidewalks for the elderly, the young, the disabled, or the overwhelmed.
Organized by the mayor’s office, Serve DC is a volunteer program that includes a special segment whose mission it is to shovel snow and clear ice—both of which had accumulated at the start of the week.
“As a community, we have to stick together, we have to do what we can do for one another, and it’s a lot of people that [are] unable to do things, so that’s where we come in,” David Ford, one of the Snow Heroes, told DC News Now.
“Service is the gateway to all success,” remarked another volunteer when asked why he volunteers his time shoveling snow.
Organized by the mayor’s office of Muriel Bowser, anyone living in the area looking to be a hero, as David Bowie said, just for one day, can go to the Serve DC website here.
“It is outstanding… This is really neighbors helping your neighbors showing the kind of community and love that the mayor thrives off that we are building, and making sure that we sustain a district,” said Lamont Carey, Director of Community Affairs for the Mayor’s Office.
Ready for your good deed of the week?
If you’re going to click on any video in here, click on this one. Then go here and write one.
THREE THINGS I’M LOVING THIS WEEK
DOCU: Miracle: The Boys of ‘80 on Netflix
I’m from Buffalo where hockey, like football, (and often to our detriment) is a religion, so that combo plus having visited the site where it happened in Lake Placid makes the underdog story of Miracle one of my favorite movies of all time. I had no idea this docu was coming out and I was so delighted to see that it dropped this week ahead of the winter olympics.
PODCAST: Networth and Chill
I’m a new listener and there’s some good stuff here.
https://www.yourrichbff.com/podcast
DOCU: Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! on HBO Max
Really great two part docu.
