Last year I juggled a career, freelance work and college. Needless to say, I didn't have much time for anything else. Now that I'm done with school, I'm finding myself with scads of free time. I've been trying to figure out what to do with my spare time. Most people fill that time with hobbies, but I've come to the conclusion I'm hobby-less.

Writing used to be my main hobby, but now that it's my job, I need a replacement. For the past couple of months I've been trying to figure out what my interests are. In doing so, I have quickly realized that my interests and talents don't match. I have plenty of interests, but not so much talent.

Friday night I decided to take my hobby search to the kitchen. My ideal kitchen activity would be shagging the shit out of Anthony Bourdain. But since that isn't happening I took my kitchen quest to a vegetarian cooking class at Harmons.

I have always been interested in learning to cook, but found it too intimidating in the past. Most recipes have spices I've never even heard of. And cutting vegetables? Well let's just say I'm better at cutting fingers.

I was eager to learn how to prepare more than my usual meal of cold cereal. I even did my homework before the class. I looked at the Harmons Culinary Education Center Web site and found out which recipes I would be able to eat, and which ones I couldn't. I was thrilled to see that most of the recipes were going to be vegan. I found the apron my grandmother made me, and even found aprons for the girlfriends I talked into attending the class with me.

I was so ready for this thing ... at least I thought I was.

Somehow, in all my preparation, I didn't notice the class wasn't a class at all. It was a demonstration. Thankfully, I figured this out before I put the apron on.

The demonstration ended up being more fun than cooking, and way less stressful. I didn't burn the building, the food or myself. Instead someone else made me an amazing meal and all I had to do was watch. Though having a personal chef isn't a hobby, it's an expensive lifestyle.

If I can't have a chef, I should make a second attempt at learning to cook. The next day I checked into a real cooking class through Harmons. I found a couple that sounded interesting, but I kept going back to the other demonstrations. What? I like other people to make my food.

If I had a better metabolism, I'd make eating my new hobby. Because it's not, I'm still on the hobby hunt, which is starting to feel a lot like dating. I'm hoping like hell I find a good match. I dread the drama of a bad match.

Sarah Nielson can be reached at snielson@inthisweek.com. Follow her daily on Twitter (twitter.com/sarahbellum) or read her blog (sarahnielson.com).