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 — 1^st Avenue at 90^th 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)