cafe doodle, 2010I have become so accustomed to spending hours in a coffee shop, using it as an extension of my home office (well, if you count the kitchen table as a pseudo office space) or studio. I buy a coffee, and somehow this purchase warrants my seating space for the next four hours. Sometimes I people watch (depending on cafe's location), doodle (depending on how scattered my brain is that day), or surf the web on my laptop; but most of the time I read. And this is because I've almost forgotten how to read "serious" books at home! (serious book: a non-fiction book based entirely on facts that leaves little to the imagination but requires cerebral prowess and memorization skills for maximum mental digestion--which I have very little of).
It's as if I need to have all around me the cling clanger of dishes, the chit chatting of people, and the shhhhhhhhhhhh of the cappuccino steamer machine thingy, to keep my concentration in check. Silence is far more deafening to my ears and therefore hinders full engagement with books that require more than 1% of my brain power to process. This only leaves me with my novels to read at home. But sometimes even novels require the presence of the coffee machine and public restrooms with door codes or keys attached to a massive spatula. It's a funny world.
But I like it, and find myself rotating among my five favorite coffee shops in the city on an almost daily basis. I get a hell of a lot of work done in these houses of the coffee enterprise. I'm a real sucker for the table right by the window and I don't care if it's meant for a group of five. At least I don't have a mac that takes up the table's entire surface area. And if I'm feeling courageous enough, I always get myself a second cuppa--though this runs the risk of overstimulating my nerves which are incredibly sensitive to coffee number two of the day. I tend to move into the tea zone soon after my one cup coffee quota.
As someone who no longer has a full-time job, I'd say the coffee house has become my new "cubicle" with none of its negative associations, i.e. claustrophobia, containment, boredom, box, depression. I get to enjoy the day, come across new and interesting characters (in a city like San Francisco this makes for an intriguing pastime) , and work in my own pace--well, that is until the manager starts to notice the cold empty cup that's been sitting by my laptop for well over five hours.
It's as if I need to have all around me the cling clanger of dishes, the chit chatting of people, and the shhhhhhhhhhhh of the cappuccino steamer machine thingy, to keep my concentration in check. Silence is far more deafening to my ears and therefore hinders full engagement with books that require more than 1% of my brain power to process. This only leaves me with my novels to read at home. But sometimes even novels require the presence of the coffee machine and public restrooms with door codes or keys attached to a massive spatula. It's a funny world.
But I like it, and find myself rotating among my five favorite coffee shops in the city on an almost daily basis. I get a hell of a lot of work done in these houses of the coffee enterprise. I'm a real sucker for the table right by the window and I don't care if it's meant for a group of five. At least I don't have a mac that takes up the table's entire surface area. And if I'm feeling courageous enough, I always get myself a second cuppa--though this runs the risk of overstimulating my nerves which are incredibly sensitive to coffee number two of the day. I tend to move into the tea zone soon after my one cup coffee quota.
As someone who no longer has a full-time job, I'd say the coffee house has become my new "cubicle" with none of its negative associations, i.e. claustrophobia, containment, boredom, box, depression. I get to enjoy the day, come across new and interesting characters (in a city like San Francisco this makes for an intriguing pastime) , and work in my own pace--well, that is until the manager starts to notice the cold empty cup that's been sitting by my laptop for well over five hours.
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