Odd Still Life

I’m a wife, a mother and a dieter.  I read and write and mother my child all from the safety of my home. (Did I mention I’m also an agoraphobic?) I dream of being a published writer.  I’ve had many dreams that never came true, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

I really like my computer, video games, and the Internet. I really love my family.

I watch a lot of tv. I don’t cook. I clean as little as possible. (My idea of housework is keeping the child from ripping the carpet up or flooding the house with juice. Otherwise. . .I’ll do it later.)

To sum up I’d have to say I like my life but don’t love it. Who does? Anything and everything could be better. I want to be richer, smarter, prettier and nicer. I don’t want perfection, but I wouldn’t mind questing after it.

Okay. Many, many people have e-mailed me asking me about the title of my site and blog. ‘Why Odd Still Life?’ they ask. ‘That’s just weird,’ they say. Well, where the frak were they when I was making out my registration form for the site address. Anyway, here it is.

1) I’m agoraphobic. That’s an odd way to live. I’m often very still. I don’t like to go outside by myself at all. (I do take my child out to play but then I’m not by myself am I.) So, I basically live ‘an odd still life.’ 2) What actually made me think of the title was something from my youth. When I was a little girl my father operated a grocery store in a small town in Alabama. One of the people who worked for him was a guy who was a real artist. (He was spooky as all get out and I really liked him. I thought he was magic. I was six.)

Well, he painted a picture. A huge still life (aha!) of a cornucopia — you know, one of those big horns filled with fruit and vegetables and flowers and stuff; usually becomes a centerpiece for an autumn table. It was very dark and strange ( perhaps a bit ODD! ) and because of the atmosphere (we used a wood burning heater) it became darker and darker over the years. (It hung over the kitchen table in my home from the time I was six or seven until I was 18, or 19. Hmmm, wonder why I turned out a little warped?)

Thus and therefore; voila: The Odd Still Life, oddstilllife.com, and The Odd Still Blog.

That’s the wherefore and the why, bye-bye.