Working

I have a new office.

Well, sort of.

I've decided that the green library room in the local coffee place is my office. It's charming actually. I have a large wooden table, next to a window, with a quaint lamp on it. Looks like a law library study area. From home, the drive is only about ten minutes - close enough to get back to the girls' school quickly if need be.

Wireless is free, and there are people here just waiting to make me delicious beverages and exchange a few minutes of warm chitchat.

At home, I have a terribly hard time concentrating. I feel the weight of all the undone housework pressing around me. Laundry, dusting, vacuuming, tidying are all vying for my attention. Plus if I sit around silently in the kitchen all day, writing, I get sort of grumpy about spending the whole evening there cooking dinner, helping with homework, and watching TV. So I thought a good plan for the coming autumn would be to find a dedicated work space.

It's particularly challenging to concentrate at home with my family all there on vacation. We are eight weeks into someone being at home with me at all times, and two weeks remain before they all go back to school. I'm sure that right now my family room is filled with Disney channel's overly happy chatter and laughter. Not optimal for writing!

Part of me of course wishes I could just be on vacation with my family. But that's not how it is. I still have a workload, and I've done precious little of it over the last two months. I really need to do at least several hours a day even during vacation.

Sounds so easy, huh, but it's so tough not to get sucked into other things.

When school starts, I'm sure I'll be very, very lonely and miss them all. But at least I can try to make that isolated time work for me.

You know, by working.