D'vorahDavida
Yetzirah

Hot Flash or Hot Tea, You Decide
Wed Sep 08 2004


Awake again.

It's a quarter till midnight.

How pathetic.

Or pathétique if you are feeling continental.

I'm so tired I can't sleep, and my eyes are burning in protest that they are still open this late at night.

Only one useful idea has been spawned during this midnight madness. I have proposed to myself a certain new strategy for getting some work done on my novel.

I find that staying here in the house, doing my editing on the hard copy is fraught with problems. I get distracted by a million things here. Housework, cooking, phone calls, computer distractions, email, Weblog Reviews begging to be done, garden chores, you name it. They are all clamboring for their little piece of me to the point where I can't shut them up.

So........ I am thinking about heading over to La Bou (a sandwich/coffee shop) just a few miles from our house and ordering a hot tea and have a sit down with my pages.
Not exactly an original idea. I read that JK Rowling did just that in a coffee shop in her neighborhood. I don't know what HER reasons were, but mine are pretty simple. I figure if I try to jump up and do stuff over there, like wiping down counters or weeding their flower beds, I will look pretty darned foolish. So I might just be able to stay put long enough to get some work done.

I realize there will be distractions there, but they will at least be distractions I am not expected to do anything about. Anyhoo, I'm going to give it a try.

Report to follow.

* * * *

Well, well. After Yoga class, I toodled over to La Bou where I hesitated in the parking lot thinking of all the things waiting for me to take care of at home, and there I was dressed in my Yoga clothes, and I could always try my experiment tomorrow, yes maybe tomorrow would be a better day to try this... blah blah blah.... until I spoke sternly to myself that I had just as much right to go in there and get a hot tea as anyone else. So in I went.

I found to my surprise that this hot tea was going to cost me a dollar and 50 cents. Okay, small price for getting some work done. They had a lovely kind of Chamomile with lemon that I was very impressed with. The teabag was huge and had large bits of plant matter in it. The bag was made of nylon mesh. I used it and then wrapped it up to use again here at home. I figure a dollar 50 cent teabag ought to be good for at least two cups!

I settled in and started on my pages. In no time at all, my surroundings faded into the far background. I didn't really hear much of what was going on, as it was not crowded at 10 in the morning. In an hour, I had finished editing the 12 pages I had brought with me and had a nice cup of tea along the way.

It worked surprisingly well.

Now I know that if I find myself procrastinating here at home or getting too distracted, I will haul myself over there and plunk down at a table and get to work.
Who would think that a public place like that would be such a congenial writing spot?

(Though I should have known, our Bookworm does it all the time doesn't she?)

So I guess that was an idea worth staying up until midnight for.

Though I don't think that the hot flash I had at the same time was valuable for a darn thing. . . But we'll just stick with the positive aspects of the situation, shall we?



8 Comments
  • From:
    Pragmatist (Legacy)
    On:
    Tue Sep 07 2004
    I notice people at Borders doing pretty much the same thing.

    My sister and her daughter used to meet at Borders in Tucson, when Trish was teaching. She'd take her papers there to grade, and spend a little time with her mother.

    And homes are distractions, no doubt about it!

    Shalom
  • From:
    RealmOfRachel (Legacy)
    On:
    Tue Sep 07 2004
    Ahh there's that frugal Scots blood showing with the saving of the tea bag. I'm wiping a proud tear away as I type. At least you'll be getting some solid work done. I'm hoping you have a good night's sleep soon,

    Hugs
    Rachel xxx
    All quiet on the eastern front sarge...
  • From:
    Ichandra (Legacy)
    On:
    Tue Sep 07 2004
    ah mon amie i love that pathetique you many not be francaise but because you are a geek you can supply the accent i used to know but have forgotten
    congratulations on your newly found island on the sea of life i have been doing the cafe thing and library thing always instead of working at home i dont even have a home computer i cant imagine being cooped up in my apartment being at home for la musique and television is enough
    i think new surroundings stimulate the imagination perhaps also
    a la prochaine my little reptile no this becomes habit forming i will go back to saying mon petit gateau
    by the way thanks for your idea about the rains coming before the day of atonement i hate using english instead of hebrew script on a serious level that is beautiful poetry on a funny level i would like to say that it would take a hurricane 4 rain to wash away my sins kidding
    a la prochaine
  • From:
    Allimom (Legacy)
    On:
    Wed Sep 08 2004
    I have to do that myself if I want to get any serious homework done. If I'm at home, it just doesn't work... too many distractions!
    Alli
  • From:
    InStitches (Legacy)
    On:
    Wed Sep 08 2004
    Sounds like a good plan to me, but what, only one cup of tea? Me, I would have downed a whole pot in that hour. lol
  • From:
    Angelnut (Legacy)
    On:
    Wed Sep 08 2004
    Didn't J.K. Rowling write the first Harry Potter book sitting in a coffee shop?

    So, I think you are in good company!
  • From:
    Bookworm (Legacy)
    On:
    Wed Sep 08 2004
    Well, so glad you found it a useful way to get to your editing, etc. Thanks for the little plug, too. Hope you don't end up feeling too tired. ;-)
  • From:
    AQuietEvening (Legacy)
    On:
    Wed Sep 08 2004
    I guess I'm too nosy or curious. I tend to get distracted at places like that. Of course, I've decided that it's because I'm not truly a writer. I get there and can't think of a thing to write about.

    ~QE