Hello out there

Kay Thompson, Editorialist

June 28, 2008 10:19 pm

— I like staying home. It’s lucky I work as a writer. I can lounge around my apartment, all snug and happy, while I work. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I don’t even have to leave home to deliver my columns to the editor. I just e-mail them. This is ideal for me.
I don’t even have to go outside to make friends. I have several very close friends, knowing some of them for over a decade, whom I have never met in person. We talk on the phone sometimes, but the distance between us doesn’t mean we’re not good friends. One of these friends died awhile back. I’d never seen her, but it broke my heart when she passed away and I missed her dreadfully. I still do.
There’s really no good reason to want to stay home all the time. Or is there? The weather comes to mind. It’s rarely temperate in Oklahoma. Either it’s cold, or wet, or the sun is blazing down making my car as hot as a house on fire. I had some of those shades you put up on the windshield so the front of the car, like the steering wheel, doesn’t melt into a pool of plastic lava and flow out the door. That’s if I can get the car door open without my hand fusing to the door handle. But when I tried to open the shades, they had melted together. It was my fault. I left them in the car.
And speaking of the car, unless I just want stand around and admire it, I have to turn it on, which uses gas. I don’t have to remind you that gas costs money. It costs a ridiculous amount of money to use a car these days. Another good reason to stay home.
But is it healthy to stay home so much? I need to see people, to mingle with them, even if it’s just at the grocery store. If this is true, then it’s good I’m in charge of the shopping.
We don’t have grocery delivery service, that I know of, in our fair city, so I can’t be a total recluse.
But, still, I like to stay home. It’s cozy and I can relax here. I’ve been known to stay in my nightgown some weekends until the afternoon, though that’s not a common occurrence. But who cares? There is a good reason I don’t have a camera on my computer.
I’m not sure I want to reveal just exactly how casual I tend to be when I’m at home, especially if I’m trying to impress some guy in chat.
One thing I don’t want to have to do is to get dressed up in order to sit at my computer. I often forget to brush my hair and it stands up on my head like a meercat on the lookout for trouble. Not a good impression to make.
I guess I’ll keep staying home as much as possible. I’m not antisocial. Far from it. I love it when people come up and talk to me while I’m out and about, even though I’m a little shy. So don’t stop doing that or stop sending me e-mail. I love to hear from you. But I also love to stay home, so home is where I’ll be as much as possible. See you sooner or later, probably later.
E-mail Kay W. Thompson at kaywt@suddenlink.net.