What day is it? It’s Friday? Jan. 2? Is it next year already?

Keely Richter here, stumbling around with a tenuous link to anything resembling a calendar, a clock or a schedule. 

I love this time—between and around the holidays. I love a good reset. Having given up on cross-country holiday air travel years ago, I no longer visit my dad in Northern New Hampshire in the dead of winter. Instead, my time off surrounding the holidays has become gentler, with a quiet turn inward. A regular holiday routine of mine includes going to Yosemite National Park and getting a heated tent cabin in Curry Village to spend a few days in awe. 

This year, with the harsh winter weather around California, I opted for my second favorite way to spend the holidays: in my house with books and art. 

Yes, I am inspired by my friends and colleagues who regale me with stories of adventure—backpacking, skiing, bar hopping, dancing, mountain biking, festival-going, and doing it with often large groups of people. But this one’s for the introverts. This one’s for my comrades who’d like to be invited but who politely decline, who find joy in and recharge during long stretches of quiet time alone. 

I took a short inventory of the things I accomplished over the course of some holiday time out of office for you.

An introvert’s holiday by the numbers:

• 3 novels finished: Whalefall by Daniel Kraus, which finally made it to the top of the pile after having read my colleague Agata Popęda's piece on it two years ago, Run River by Joan Didion and The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

• 2 paintings worked on: a sunset scene over Twain Harte Lake from a summer vacation and a Salinas ag field

• 3 soups made: vegetable barley, potato leek and tomato bisque

• 2 coloring books worked on

• 5 hats knitted

• 1 daily walk around the neighborhood

• 1 Die Hard screening

• 8,635 (approx.) naps with my cat

It makes me wonder what other ways my fellow introverts around the county spend their recharge time. I obviously tend toward the books and the handicrafts, but I’d love to hear from you–you woodworkers, mushroom hunters, project mechanics, gardeners, metal workers, ceramicists, etc. I can’t wait to learn of entirely new hobbies I don’t even know to list here.

We have another weekend here and then we’re back to regularly scheduled programming. We’ll have to put back on our watches, reacquaint ourselves with our schedules and get to the tasks at hand for 2026. But in the meantime, I really do want to hear about your introvert hobbies so drop a line if you think you’ve got a good one for me.