I’ve been searching for a home office-away-from-home.

When we moved last October, we gave up our home office. We couldn’t afford a house with the extra space, and, anyway, I preferred working on the kitchen table, or at my favorite coffee houses. The coffee houses offered the informal company of other people working on projects just like me, with a little music in the background, a warm cup of tea or a bagel on my desk. I mean, table.

But it turned out that I lost the office just in time to need a sparse, quiet place to hide. I tried spending time in a favorite haunt but it suddenly seemed too loud, too busy, too bright. I tried a new place and it was even louder.

So I began a new search. Other than having the house to myself at night when I should be sleeping like everyone else, I needed a place to go. It needed to open early, not be too crowded, have wi-fi, something to nibble on, and at least one big table to work on.

One of my possible work spaces: Randalls, the grocery store. It opened early, had wi-fi, food, of course, and a big table in their Starbucks. It was even relatively quiet, for a Starbucks. Conventional, no, but it was worth trying.

Date: Oct 1, 2007 2:41 PM
Subject: I’m at Randalls!
To: “Matt”
But I’m leaving now! But I did it! Not making god sense on keyboard, but
better writing (why?). Wentover smoe lists and whatnot; going to rest and make
dinner after nap.

The space was a little too distracting for me to do anything creative or too thought-intensive, and it didn’t exactly encourage my best spelling, but I was proud to have withstood the environment for that long. Next time I need to try to actually accomplish something.