Do you ever watch those crime dramas like Criminal Minds and Bones? And you know how they'll discover the secret room or the secret storage locker of the unsub (I love that word). And when they go in they find that this guy has hundreds of photos and newspaper clippings of everyone he has ever killed, or maybe he'll have a collection of baseball caps or wedding rings, or hair brushes of the people he's murdered. 

One thing you have to say about those guys is that they have stick-to-itiveness. They'll spend years pursuing their hobby.  I admire that. I don't admire anything else, but I do wish I had that.

I've never stuck to anything. When I was a kid, my parents bought me this little green book that you kept pennies in. There was a penny slot for every year from the 20s up into the 50s. As soon as I got the book, I knew what my life's hobby would be...coin collecting.  I found the book recently.   I had collected pennies for 1955, 1953, and 1947 and then I guess I just gave up. I figured when I found it a couple months back that maybe now I'd work on it and, I think if I can remember where i put it, I will.

Then there was that year I told my mother I wanted to keep a diary. I think I'd seen the Anne Frank story on TV and was inspired. So, she buys me a little green diary with a lock on it and this tiny key. I was so excited. I think back then I thought I'd be a writer, or that, at the least, if I was killed by the Nazis, I'd become famous.

I waited until the first day of the New Year and started writing. I remember, my first entry was, "Today is January 1. It's snowing."  Exciting stuff, eh?  I kept that Diary faithfully up to, and including January 8th. Then I guess I just lost interest.

I started a TV guide collection once. I found it the other day...all six issues.  I don't know what happened to that idea.

But, you know, now that I re-read this, I'm impressed. I have an old diary. I have a green penny book and I have six TV Guides. I guess my hobby is collecting memorabilia of things I start and never finish.