My Crossword Obsession

I have truly entered the twilight zone.  Aside from my obsession with blog-hopping, I am now obsessed with getting my daily "fix" of the Sydney Morning Herald quick crossword.

In my former and achingly long ago life as a childless, career-minded, exponentially thinner version of myself, nothing gave me more pleasure than doing the crossword over a morning cappucino at the cafe downstairs from my fancy pants work location in the 'city'.

The enjoyment of summoning up the correct answer from the dark recesses of my brain was delightful.  Similarly, the frustration of getting completely stumped was in hindsight a salient lesson in parenting...frustration at not knowing the 'right answer' goes with the territory!!

The reawakening of my crossword geekiness is something quite serendipitous....it was an added bonus of spending an entire week in San Francisco this month hanging out with one of my oldest and bestest girlfriends.  Every day I would endure my own personal hell - going to a gym full of Silicon Valley fitness junkies and then as a reward we would trek off to the Palo Alto Starbucks (okay not great coffee but the company was worth it) and sit and do the crossword....each of us had our own copy and it was a race to see who could finish first.

Now, on the one hand this is truly a sign of me being the WRONG side of 40, but on the other hand I think it ROCKS!!  Kid-free, husband-free, no after-school activities to rush to, no work to stress me out....I had a week of heavenly respite and got to give my brain a kick up the butt as well as my body!

As an avid reader (in spite of and despite young children) and a keen writer, crosswords to me are the intellectual equivalent of diving down into the deep blue water, my senses are completely heightened.  I won't lie though, in the same way that diving down deep in the water with my incredibly buoyant body, delving into the dusty and cobweb infested recesses of my mind is a lesson in those 'realistic expectations' I was mentioning yesterday!!!!

To add to my delight, for the first time yesterday I managed to COMPLETE the crossword!!!  Every clue answered, every box filled...................ah the joy, I had to call Captain Von Trapp to brag :)

Have you rediscovered something that you've let lapse?  I'd love to know!