At my day job I spend my day staring at a computer in a private office in an office space consisting of mostly male programmers. The office is nice. A cubicle for a writer is difficult, to say the least. And I love the fact that I can work directly with the developers if I need to. But it’s isolating: it’s the nature of the job. You can’t write with people talking to you all the time.
So what do I do at home? Well, I teach bellydance and am a member of a wonderful troupe, a decidedly NOT private endeavor. This is good. I get to be social three times a week at least – no, I HAVE to be social, which is good for this natural hermit. And I make art. I design needlework patterns (by the way, the business license went through last month… we’re getting there!) And I draw and paint.
I love to take the stitching and the blogging and the design-work to the coffee shop by myself. The fact that there are people around me is inspiring. But what I really enjoy is that for the most part, they ignore me. I can feel like I’m a social being and a hermit all at the the same time. And sometimes, just sometimes, someone will catch sight of what I’m drawing and ask me what gallery I’m in. OK, it’s only happened once, but it made me feel very good – like maybe this art thing COULD become more of my life.
