Hobbies

One of my sisters called me the other day and said, "Guess what. I have a hobby.... reading." Good! It is a little joke in our family that this particular sister doesn't have any hobbies, because whenever someone asks her what she likes to do, she is at a loss. Poor kid. Wait until you get to the job hunt in another 4 or so years... Because you'll get that question in your interview.

It is, in fact, my least favorite interview question. "What do you like to do in your spare time?" These are the things that I actually like to do in my spare time:

• Watch TV. Watch TV until my eyes melt out of their sockets.
• Read.
• Surf the internet aka go on perezhilton.com, cnn.com, time.com, people.com, facebook.com, and youtube.com. I don't actually know how to surf the internet.
• Think about how I would decorate my apartment if I was rich.
• Think about being rich.
• Knit - seriously.
• Go through the car wash.
• Pretend I'm not lactose intolerant and eat all of the ice cream that I can find.
• Talk to my dad on the phone.
• Talk to my mom on the phone.
• Talk to ANYONE on the phone. Except bad phone talkers.
• Watch movies for the millionth time.
• Talk in a singing voice (Peter LOVES this one... HA)
• Text.
• Play Lego Indiana Jones on Playstation.
• Eat candy.

These are the things that I feel like I should be saying that I like to do:

• Playing with little puppies at the pound, because they don't have families to love them, so I am loving them with every fiber of my being.
• Donating all of the extra pennies that I can muster to the starving children in Africa. And Asia, and the Middle East, and South America AND North America. And Europe too.
• Keeping up on all of the political disasters that engulf our world today.
• Playing the violin and other string instruments.
• Reading the Wall Street Journal on Sunday mornings.
• Watching the 10:00 news every night.
• Brushing up on my Chinese.
• Drinking tea and eating crumpets.
• Brainstorming how to single-handedly save the world.

One of my friends, we'll call him T, called me after an interview that he had a few weeks ago.

T: You're never going to believe what I said for the 'what I like to do in my spare time' question.

Sara: Oh GOD, what did you come up with this time??

T: Well, after I started sweating, I said, 'My roommate and I like to go to the diner downtown to get milkshakes. Our friend works there, so we go there a lot.' ... Because apparently I live in the year 1950. You know, my roommate wore her poodle skirt and I had my suspenders on while we skipped down to the diner.

Best. Answer. Ever.

I'd rather have the strengths and/or weaknesses question. The other night at dinner, Peter and I were conversing, and I don't even know HOW we got on this, but Peter started listing things that he was good at:

• Figuring out computer stuff
• Proof-reading
• Telling stories
• Being efficient
• Indian accents

Indian accents came out of nowhere for me too. Except recently, he's been on this accent binge? Where, if he hears an accent, he uses it all the time? And half the time I can't understand what he's saying... So maybe he IS good at accents.

Anyways, I'm sure that Peter listed all of these strengths when he had job interviews, and that's probably how he got hired.

I'm going to do you the favor and not even LIST my strengths. I don't want anyone to get jealous of the fact that I'm really good at making cupcakes.

And straightening my hair.