A friend asked me: “What are you doing for fun these days?”. My first thought was: “Nothing? Because of Covid?” But it is not true, I am doing many things just for fun. Here are some of them:

Learning German.

I am halfway towards checkpoint 5 in Duolingo. The last checkpoint is 8. Once I finish the course, I want to try reading a book in German. I have been watching some German series, with subtitles. I liked Dark, not so much Freud, but I still watched it, and a couple of not so good movies I don’t remember.

Keeping a diary.

I started journaling when reading the book The Artist’s Way. I confess I didn’t go past chapter 2 but journaling sticked. You are supposed to write morning pages and that didn’t work for me. My mornings are busy preparing lunches and getting kids ready to school. I don’t want to get up earlier to write. I write at night and I enjoy it very much. I write using a fountain pen that my husband gave me when we were students. It is a Waterman, not an expensive pen because we were on a student budget. I love it. I useWaterman mysterious blue ink with it.

Exercising.

I run 2-3 times per week. 5km each time. Not super fast and that’s fine with me. I like running alone to clear my mind. Now that is is really cold, I don’t enjoy it and I am waiting for the temperature to go over 0C. I am exercising indoors with free YouTube workouts, 2-3 times a week. A friend recommend me a YouTube channel named ‘Sientete Joven’ (feel young). The name is terrible but the workouts are fun.

Watching stuff on streaming platforms.

A couple of movies I liked recently are ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood‘ and ‘The White Tiger‘. I also liked ‘Arsène Lupin‘ series.

Reading.

I am reading The Journal 1837-1861 from Henry David Thoreau. People are now reading Thoreau because of Covid, isolation, and reconnecting with nature. I am reading this book because this year I want to read journals. After Thoreau I want to read the Diary of Anaïs Nin and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. In between reading Thoreau, I finished a detective novel, not a diary, from Helene Tursten: Detective Inspector Huss. It was ok, entertaining but not enough to read the following books.

Learning ‘computering’ stuff.

I am revising algorithms and data structures. I started with a course from Stanford University . Then I switched to a book that is more fun and approachable: Grokking Algorithms. I switched because I recommended the book to someone, and I didn’t want to recommend something I hadn’t finished. It is a very good book. Now I can go back to the academic course. And I am eternally doing the testing JavaScript course from Kent C. Dods. Eternally because I can’t seem to get into it. In the meantime I write tests and learn on my own. Maybe this course was not for me.

Special drinks.

Mainly wine and the local Wisconsin beers. Sometimes my husband makes mojitos. I make a made-up cocktail of Spanish Vermouth La Cuesta, lime and Gin. All with moderation, of course.

Scrolling on the phone.

I like reading blogs. Some are from random people that I don’t know. Some have a more stablished audience, like Brain Pickings. I also like Instagram. I like seeing pictures from people I know. I also follow artists, museums, musicians and illustrators. Stuart Semple has a fun and engaged account. Feu Chatterton has been presenting their new record. David Lebovitz lives not far from where I used to live in Paris and gives me ideas of things to cook. And I have a subscription to the NYT, even if the news can be not fun to read most of the time.

Painting, cooking, reading and watching movies with the kids.

We have been doing a lot of watercolors. So many possibilities from a tiny box of colors, and they last very long. The paper is expensive though. We have also baked cookies, grilled steaks, made pizzas and ‘bizcochos’ together. I have read books to them. Some are taking very long, like Dune. And we have watched movies that I loved, like Soul and others I liked meh, like some Avengers movies.

So yes, I guess I have been doing many things for fun.