Going out for coffee...

So Lost on Wednesday night was just crazy. So many questions were running through my head as the episode ended – Claire used to be goth? Sawyer AND Eric are both reading Ayn Rand right now? Claire’s mom is in a coma? The Others have some kind of weird supersonic security system? Jack is playing football with the Others?? Claire and Jack are BROTHER AND SISTER??? Actually, I wasn’t totally surprised by that realization – I mean, the writers have already pretty firmly established the fact that everyone on this island is connected to at least one or two other people on the island. But doesn’t it make you wonder if anyone else is related? Hmmm… maybe there’s a reason Desmond calls everyone “brother”…

Well, I completely lost my train of thought on whatever I was writing about when I started this (ha! I LOST my train of thought! Funny? No? Okay…) because I started it some time around noon, and now it’s about 9:30. My Proofreading Liaison called me a little after noon and said she had a report for me, so I drove down to the bank. When I got there, I found out that she was very much hoping I could read it and return it this afternoon – deadlines are looming, people are impatient, etc. And I’m sure I don’t have to remind anyone of the mathematical calculations running through my head when I’m faced with an ASAP annual report and the prospect of Friday afternoon rush hour traffic. And yet I agreed to have the report back before 5 o’clock…

But as I was walking out to my car, I starting thinking, why should I drive all the way home? Every time I’m in a Starbucks, I see people scattered about reading books or tapping away on laptop keyboards – obviously other people work in coffee shops, so why shouldn’t I? My only obstacle was a red pen – or rather, the lack thereof – the one and only absolutely necessary tool for a proofreader. I hadn’t even pulled out of the bank parking lot when I’d decided I would drive up to the Barnes and Noble bookstore about fifteen minutes away. Then I could simply BUY a red pen, and settle in at the Starbucks in the bookstore. Would it look weird to buy nothing but a red pen? Ah, well, who cares? But what if I already HAD a red pen and just didn’t know it? I searched through my bag at a red light, but all I found was a black pen and three tubes of lip balm in varying shades of pink (I can make it work! I can make it work! I can- oh forget it… I’ll buy a pen…). But then I thought that MAYBE if I searched through the center storage console in the car, I’d get lucky and find a long-lost red pen. I wasn’t very optimistic, but at the next red light, I popped it open and rummaged around. And to my surprise, there was a red pen tucked into the bottom corner. This made my Starbucks decision easier, as I could now visit any of a number of the abundant coffee shops between the bank and my house. So I made a left turn at the next light, and pulled into a shop that was only ten minutes from the bank.

And I was surprised by how easy it was to breeze through my work in the Starbucks. I set up shop at a table in a corner – as far away as possible from the caffeine-fueled traffic buzzing through the establishment – and I realized, as I placed my triple grande caramel macchiato on the table, that there was absolutely NOTHING I had to do in this shop except proofread. I didn’t have to answer the phone when it rang, I didn’t have to do anyone’s laundry, there was no dog to let out and no cat to distractingly sleep on pages, there were no emails to read or answer – the only thing I had to do was proofread the report and take an occasional sip of coffee. I was able to make it through the whole report in two hours. And this was even after a mother with three kids decided to hang out in my quiet corner (I swear I chose the most remote part of the whole Starbucks – but apparently parents with restless kids are looking for remote areas, as well), and, a short while later, a couple engineers held a brainstorming meeting in the armchairs next to me (at least I think they were engineers… they kept talking about “design” and different kinds of wires… one of them had a Russian accent… like I said, I THINK they were engineers…). But I was able to pretty much tune out the distractions in the coffee shop, because I knew they had absolutely nothing to do with me – I didn’t HAVE to pay attention to any of it, so I didn’t.

So I was once again hailed as a hero when I returned to the bank with the report (there’s nothing like a well-proofed annual report to make you feel important…), but of course it wasn’t going to be THAT easy. There was another report waiting for me when I handed over the first one. Fortunately that one doesn’t need to be back until Monday, but my very helpful mom is going to have to return it for me, as the Williamson County legal system will be holding me captive on Monday. Stupid Williamson County legal system…

But at least now I know that whenever I have a pressing deadline, I have a perfectly legitimate excuse to run out for coffee…