Continuing my attempt to alter or extend some personal habits for personal betterment, I tried out my ‘going to the bar to write and read’ experiment again. This time I had decided closer to 10pm which meant Diamonds Coffee Shop was out (their closing time). Every Tuesday night for years I have gone to Psycho Suzi’s to meet with friends and enjoy a few drinks. It’s a great break in the week and the consistency allows it success. When people acquire a family and children it gets a lot trickier being allowed certain outings without a perfect counter-balance of guilt which this ritual alleviates because of it’s established place in our schedules.
My Tuesday beverage consumption isn’t the point of this however. I sat on my celery green couch (which I love very much, not IN love, but definitely love) and stared through the large TV like window to the world placed conveniently above my actual TV. It’s nice to have a reality TV installed above my fantasy one where I can watch the clouds, airplanes, storms, and (my personal favorite) the moon. As I stared into the night sky I pondered a place where I could work without the type of people who would enjoy pointing out how absurd it is that I would make my way to that specific bar and work, showing up and doing just that.
Why not the place where everybody knows my name? The 331 is great, but I’d never sit with a laptop there. Suzi’s new site, however, has a wonderful porch right on the Mississippi. Beautiful! So I went.
I worked on filling in scenes in an episode of our nautical television show project (which I will get around to talking about, but development is too active at the moment). I managed a couple solid hours of writing before I got tired of working, and had some solid funny to show for it. Getting back to writing has also been a recent thing so there is a certain challenge just getting back into that frame of mind when most of what you have done is coding.
After writing I went inside (do to the increasing chill) and ate a delicious Canadian bacon and artichoke pizza while I read. It was nice having familiar faces around to socialize with amidst my working and reading, feeling more myself than I often do at home.
So I mark it as a success! Progress was made without that sickly anxious feeling fluttering around my gut like a bat trapped in a closet.
CONvergence is nigh (an annual sci-fi geek convention) which means extra work on my plate preparing for the shows and panels I’m involved with, but I enjoy it a lot and am excited for the long weekend of awesome friends and a bit of theremin playing under the influence. Until next time.
