If you're a regular reader, you've noticed my blogging has become a little erratic. Since I use my posts as a warm-up exercise before settling down to write for the day, it definitely reflects my work habits right now.
It's weird living in a new (old) place. I'm not quite comfortable in the new apartment because...boxes. Boxes everywhere still even though we've unpacked three or four dozen of the essentials. I'm having a problem ignoring them because yes, I am that anal when it comes to my living space. Not to mention the incredible need to find my razor blades because my legs are hairier than the husband and teen son's legs put together.
Back in Houston, if something bugged me at home, I would grab my computer bag and head out to a coffee shop. But as I told a friend last night, most of my usual haunts are gone in this town. (It has been nearly twenty years since DH and I moved to Houston after all.) So it comes down to finding an appropriate new place.
The closest Starbucks is in Bowling Green, which is twenty miles away. The place with the best coffee here in town is the Caribou kiosk in the middle of Great Scot grocery. A little noisy and one table.Tim Horton's coffee is okay, but the doughnuts are too much temptation. Bob Evans and Denny's have a terrific staff, but there's no slow period to stake out a table.
Seriously, I swear half the population in this town is over seventy! They spend hours at the diners gossiping. Not to mention, they all know my in-laws. I can't write with half the town looking over my shoulder. Especially not the erotica!
Coffee Amici has decent coffee and is pretty slow during the day, but downtown parking is limited, as in two hours max before you get ticketed by the friendly local constabulary. (Nighttime parking is a different matter, but you'll want to go in for Coffee Amici's live music.)
Which leaves the local Panera's. I haven't checked them out yet, but DH says they have the same, um, clientele issue that Bob Evans and Denny's have.
If I only had the money for my own private Starbucks...
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I live in the land of the very old myself, and there's two Starbucks (in grocery stores) across the street from each other about a mile away. . . I guess I should count my blessings.
ReplyDeleteAt one point, we had five stand alone Starbucks within a couple mile radius of our neighborhood. I had the schedules of the two closest memorized, especially their slowest times so I could sit in there for two or three hours without being disturbed. The staff knew me well enough that my drink would be ready at the counter when they saw my convertible pull into the parking lot. They definitely spoiled me!
DeleteWell, that sucks. :/ Is there a big bookstore near you? One with a coffee shop inside would be cool -- I used to meet a friend at the coffee shop in the nearby B&N and we'd sit there in silence writing on our laptops for an hour or two -- but even a smaller bookstore with places to sit, where you could plop with your laptop might work. No coffee, but still, quiet place to write?
ReplyDeleteAngie
Book store? Here? ROFLMAO
Delete*wipes tears* In Findlay, there's the Christian bookstore and the Book Nook, which is half comic book shop and half used romance paperbacks. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the Book Nook, but it's a tiny little store and definitely no place to sit.
The closest big box store with a café is B&N in Toledo which is an hour away. (Goddess, I really don't know how I made the drive to the University of Toledo Law School every night after working a full day.) DH suggested the George House, which is a café across the street from the University of Findlay. That won't be bad while the kids at UF are out for winter break.
I just need to suck it up and figure something out.
No real bookstores closer than an hour away? You... moved there deliberately? :P
DeleteBest of luck figuring something out. [crosses fingers for you]
Angie
I told you I was moving to West Bumfuck, Ohio. Thank the gods for Amazon!
DeleteThank the gods for Amazon!
DeleteSeriously. Even with the B&N a... less than 10 minute walk away if I'm feeling good (far side of a large shopping center across the street) I've probably bought... three, maybe four? books there in the almost five years we've lived here. Even when I went over to write, I hardly ever bought a book, although I got a mocha or something. They just don't have the selection I'm used to. And I'm also used to having immediate access to my to-buy lists, on both Amazon (mainly for paper books) and ARe (for romances, mostly e-book) before I buy something. Otherwise I'm often left standing in front of the bookshelf thinking, "Wait, do I have this...?" or "I've heard of this, but did I hear good or bad about it...?" :P
It was kind of fun going over there to write, though, before the friend I met through NaNo fell off the map. :/ I don't go over by myself.
Angie
Is 20 miles too far for you?
ReplyDeleteWhy waste an hour of good writing time driving all the way to BG?
DeleteYou're asking the wrong person, I don't mind a 20 mile drive, even a 35. Heck, we used to drive one hour to get to one place before they closed down.
DeleteTo me, it's not a waste at all. But if it feels like that to you, then that's understandable.
Cheers and boogie boogie.
This is my business. I'm not going to add unnecessary overhead in regards to both time and money. That's the difference.
DeleteWhen I freelanced and wrote for pay, I still traveled all over to write in different cafes.
DeleteThat was my job, I got paid to write. But the REAL difference, is the travel didn't bother me and I never saw it as unnecessary.
To each their own thang ...
There's a huge difference between working for someone else and running your own business. A friend who did travel articles for magazines negotiated a mileage and food stipend on top of her article rate. If she hadn't, any travel expenses would have cut into her bottom line. At the time, magazine articles was how she paid for her daughter's college tuition. Every little bit counted.
ReplyDeleteWe had our own blanket business for 5 to 6 years and yes, working for ourselves is different in some ways, than working for others. But I flippin' I loved those differences.
ReplyDeleteHowever, regarding the issue of 20 miles being too far to go, I'm agreeing to disagree.
Cheers, boogie boogie and much luck getting your butt back to writing.
But your ego insists on getting the last word in, doesn't it? LOL
Delete