subscribe09.09.09
Wednesday September 9, 2009
And I’ve been pulled out of the aether by a date.
I have to post today, if for no other reason than to electronically shout, “September 9, 2009 — 09/09/09!?” and giggle. When the year 2000 came upon me, it was something of an amusing idea that the next twelve years would be filled with one day a year of “02/02/02″ and other such dates of default awesome. Once we have 12/12/12, though, that’s it for a century. I used to think that meant I was living in special, auspicious times. Perhaps numerically, that’s still true.
Today was another significant day around the neighborhood, though it mostly passed me by. Dozens of school children were on the neighborhood streets today. It was the first day today for most of them, which always makes me feel old now a days. I get nostalgic, too; I actually glanced at kids’ sneakers and backpacks today and yes, they were all brilliantly un-scuffed and hardly worn. As a kid, that was always my favorite aspect of going back to school — the new stuff. New clothes, new shoes. For years I’d had to get a new pair of school sneakers (had to have them for gym class) every year and retire the old ones, which always struck me as both a fun rite of passage but also something of a sad one. I have fond memories of some of those shoes. One pair I’d worn mostly to pieces; years later I found sand and grit still embedded in the blue canvas fiber, leftover from all the times I’d gone sloshing in summer mud with them.
In other update-type news, I’ve been busy. I’ve been rereading some stuff and writing — writing a lot and often — which has been both successful and marvelous, but I do admit, part of me wishes I had both the time and the inclination to read as many new books as I did months ago. In 2007 and 2008, for instance, I devoured book after book on a weekly, if not occasionally daily, basis. But I think my college-starved voracity has stabilized.
(I didn’t read for pleasure in college — at all — until some time during my senior year, which left me feeling quite vaguely bereft until I got my New York Public Library card and its attendant addictive benefits. Studying abroad was probably what ignited the passion for reading once more; turns out when you don’t have a TV in your dorm room in a country where the TV is also not in your native language, but you discover their bookstores carry English language books… well. The rest is chronicled in back entries of this blog.)
I’ve actually been buying books lately, too. For a writer, I don’t really own as many books as I’ve read, which has always struck me as practical (I love my library and my library card!) but also a bit strange. I actually started acquiring new additions to my permanent collection for the simple reason that I wanted to reread them and well, that’s usually my only criteria for a bookstore run. If I’m going to read a book more than once, I will own it, otherwise it’s wasted shelf space. I suppose this means my permanent collection is very well-distilled, by default — only what I consider “good” or those books I’ve gotten as gifts usually end up there. The bookshelf it’s currently piled on (a Billy bookshelf from IKEA, a classic) has shelves stacked two rows deep. We should probably invest in a second bookshelf — well, technically the collection has spilled onto other shelves, but I’m not going to count those — but meh. I know where all of my books are, even if the 800+ page ones are stuffed in the back behind the 300 page ones. (Spine-reading efficiency, you understand; my entire bookshelf is categorized by sizes and shapes, then author and genre. Aesthetics come first on the bookshelf.)
September is probably my month of nostalgia. I do feel it, a little, in May and December (May for school, December for holidays and the new year), but in September that feeling is compounded by my love of learning. I do miss school, the regimented feel of it, the focus and definition it gave me, though strangely I really have no particular desire to go back there now. I just miss the first day of eighth grade. The first day of second grade. Those first days when the binders were too new to have broken rings, when you could make promises to yourself you’d end up breaking (“I’ll do my homework this year the moment I get home. I won’t procrastinate.”) and you could at least try to reinvent yourself. I have no desire for any of those things now a days, not really, but there’s no real “first day” for me anymore, not in the same way. January 1st is just cold. I think I’m finally starting to understand why parents make such a big deal out of the first day of school for their kids. Maybe the importance of the ritual, the time of year, the newness and excitement of it all isn’t just for their kids.
I essentially pay rent to Starbucks.
Thursday February 5, 2009
I had this realization today.
For two to six hours on any given weekday I will hole up with fingerless gloves (oh the inconsistent heating) and sweater/fleece and write at Starbucks. I rent a table and power outlet for the price of a “venti hot earl grey tea” (or a “grande nonfat toffee nut latte”; “grande coffee with a shot of toffee nut”; “tall white hot chocolate”) and the occasional pastry. (Pray tell me, Starbucks, what happened to the rice crispy treats—the, er, ‘marshmallow rice bar’ or what have you? Have you discontinued them in Manhattan?? They have disappeared and no I do not like cupcakes. (Or. Chocolate.) I protest your cupcakes!)
I’m not the only one to use Starbucks as an office. At the Starbucks I go to — 1st Avenue at 90th Street in Manhattan — there are several people with laptops I’ve seen more than once. Sometimes they’re there before I am, sometimes they stay later than I do, or both. One man walks around making business calls the entire time, pacing the considerable length of the store while his table — fully spread with stacks of papers, finance documents, and the Wall Street Journal — sits unoccupied. Another man I’ve seen a few times comes equipped with a whole set of computer accessories (mouse, USB devices, headphones). I’ve seen more than one person sitting with laptop and books with titles like “How to Write Effective Resumes” at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. It makes me wonder if they’re unemployed. Another woman one time was very clearly writing a novel, sitting next to me. Any time my eyes would stray in her direction I would catch the indentations and quotations of rapid dialogue. It was funny to watch her write, actually, because she had all the movements, fits, and different cues I have; I could practically see the scene unfolding in her head as she wrote. The people who come here to write generally make me curious. I’m a big-time people watcher, it’s a guilty pleasure and a bad habit.
This isn’t the only place to which I have traveled to find a writing environment outside of the studio. There are about 10 different coffee shops in a 10 block radius, most of which have power outlets. (I have developed a seventh or eighth sense — how many do I have now? — for finding power outlets at coffee shops.) Only one has free internet. There are different costs and benefits to each place. (The one with the free internet only has 4 outlets but a deliciously squishy booth running along the wall, against half the tables. Unless I fight for the outlets, though, they’re usually taken. Plus that place only accepts cash and running to the ATM beforehand is usually something I’ll forget.)
One independent coffee place (I love the independent places, generally) charges for the use of their outlets and their internet, meaning I can’t even go there and write in a Word document without paying utilities. I understand that there are costs and lots of people hogging electricity over the cost of a month when you’re paying rent/utilities in Manhattan can really add up but… sigh. I don’t go there and pay the fee; enough people already do so I would still probably fight for the outlets. (Their coffee and tea products are legitimately delicious; they even have alcohol for the adventurous types.) A few of the different Starbucks are more or less storefronts with a bar area or one or two seats, hardly able to fit me and the laptop. Some are in locations (like near the subway) that ensure they get so much casual coffee-drinking traffic going through that my chances of finding a seat — near an outlet, no less — are nil.
Then there are the two public libraries in my area, the Yorkville and Webster branches of the New York Public Library. Both have computers and tables, and the Yorkville even has an area specifically for laptop users with free outlets. The only problem with both of those are that I have to battle retirees for the tables in the middle of the day. Lots of elderly neighborhood residents (some of them very elderly) go to the library and sit at the tables. Some just sit—don’t read, don’t write, don’t use the computers. They stare out vacantly into space. Those individuals make for very awkward people to sit next to when I am trying to avoid distraction. The Yorkville’s laptop area can be filled—especially once the local schools get out in the afternoon—which means I’d have to get there at 10am or 12pm, whenever the library opens that day, to possibly snag a seat. The elbow room is also pretty terrible, especially when people have the mammoth 17” laptops and happen to also be 6’5” with elbows. I am also one of those people who doesn’t like it when others glance over at my screen; lack of elbow space usually translates into the ability for my neighbor to read my document. Making the document zoom miniscule isn’t worth the eye strain it causes me. So the libraries, while both free and designed to be accommodating, end up not being very much so for me. I get particular, what can I say?
I do wish for more variety in this pseudo-office, though. I miss the Panera Breads at which I used to write in Pittsburgh, the one in Squirrel Hill especially. Get a Fuji Apple Chicken Salad and go to town on a novel or my school work, those were good times. (Yes I immensely enjoyed quite a lot of my school work, thank you.) The summer I spent living in Pittsburgh alone in 2005 was really helpful for letting me get to know all of the coffee shops and internet/laptop friendly locations within two miles of our apartment. I had a system worked out while I was at Carnegie Mellon for the different types of work I had to do — fiction writing for class versus for me sometimes required different locations, as did writing research papers. There were points during my senior year while writing my thesis that I would walk around all day with a backpack filled with the heavily tabbed & highlighted copies of my primary source materials. I also enjoyed writing in the school’s clusters. Oh, the Mac clusters. Yes, this PC user is a closet Mac fanatic… who is marrying a dedicated PC fanatic. Oh, off-topic rambles.
I like the Starbucks I frequent, though. The high school around the corner gets out in the two o’clock hour, a school bus with young kids stops outside in the 3pm hour, both of which make it necessary for me to get there well before 2pm if I intend to get a good seat. But I have a system and considering my productivity while I’m there, said system seems to be working out for me. If it isn’t broken… though really, I dream happily of the day when I have a home office. With either an espresso machine or a terrific tea collection. Both, possibly… See? I’m dreaming…
But still. 5,000 words for $6. That’s pretty darned skippy. (Yes, I had two drinks. /splurge)
FYI, Breaking Dawn will be huge. In case you were as out-of-the-loop as I was.
Wednesday July 2, 2008
I was thinking today that a whole bunch of series I’ve been reading have new installments coming out (isn’t that always the case) and I have been trying to keep track so I know roughly when to put in a request with the library. Usually the library doesn’t get a copy of the book until just before or just after the book is released. That’s not the case with books with serious hype surrounding them. Apparently — this I just learned, casual fan, me — Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer, which comes out on August 2nd, is the fourth and final installment in the Twilight Saga. Final. So. Bella makes the big choice, I suppose. (Spoiler: I’m 100% Edward, but that’s me; and I usually go for Weres>Vamps, too. Honestly, it’s Edward>Jacob, character-wise. I’m just an Edward fan. ANYWAY.)
So as I was thinking this — also encouraged by the signs in the Barnes and Noble storefronts saying, “PRE-ORDER STEPHANIE MEYER’S BREAKING DAWN TODAY!” — I decided to check up on the NYPL website, to see if they had it listed as request-able yet. I’d checked a while ago and nada, and after all, I am a month early. So I went and looked. Wham! Request-able! Yay! So I requested it. Here’s what came up after I put through the request:
| BREAKING DAWN | |
| by MEYER, STEPHENIE | |
| LITTLE BROWN & CO | |
| Reservable Copies: 142 Number of Holds: 338 | |
| Date Placed: 07/02/2008 | |
Can I get a, “OMIGOD RIDICULOUS!” please? I suppose this is like, the new Harry Potter for teenage girls… I mean, they’re good books, don’t get me wrong but… wow. I’m a little surprised. I mean, this exact thing happened with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I was already buying that so I don’t remember quite how many hundreds of requests there were. At least twice as many as there are copies. Is this Harry Potter fervor, displaced onto a new source? The books are good but — like Harry Potter — much better fantasy exists in the world… though admittedly it’s not all geared at teenagers. (I smell a tangent; I’ll stop now.)
And there’s still a month left for people to get on the requesting bandwagon before the books actually ship out from the library. I wonder if any will actually touch the shelves?
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