Cafe Logic

I don't know what it is, whether my PNW upbringing or college experience or just my categorizing nature, but it never fails that I get more work done in coffee shops than anywhere else. It doesn't really matter how badly something needs to get done, if I sit down to work on it at home--itself a big "if"--I will inevitably be crippled by a wave of procrastination, obstinacy, and not-caring. If, on the other hand, I step out of the house and to the nearest coffee shop, what I have to do suddenly becomes the most important thing in the world to me, and I finish it in no time whatsoever.

Let's take today for example. I woke up lazy. I ate breakfast. I hauled out my computer and stared at it for a while.

Then I had an epiphany. "Wait," I thought, "I have those coupons to Starbucks that Maggie sent me! Let's go try those out!"

I packed my computer, planner, two notebooks, headphones, and a pen into my trusty Thai bag (it never ceases to amaze me how much I need to be productive--or how much that bag will hold), and set off down the street to the local Starbucks. (Yes, I have a local Starbucks. Two within walking distance, actually--what else would I move halfway around the world from Seattle to find?) There, I discovered that, miracle of miracles, the person working there (her name tag said her English name was "Lacey") spoke great English! (Though I've been told that Starbucks employees here are all required to know all the drink names in English, in my experience that's not always the case, and since in Chinese my ability to order drops to about 4 drinks, it's always a pleasure to find someone who can understand me in English.)

So, armed with a (free!!!) tall caramel macchiatto and a (not free) cookie, I found an open table and sat down to work. And work I did! All afternoon, on all the projects which had repulsed me over the past few days whenever I tried to work on them at home. Yet, within just a few hours, they were all either done or mostly done, pending information I'd left at home (or left online, since the Starbucks Internet was not agreeing with my computer).

It's amazing, really. And, for my wallet's sake (once these coupons run out, that is) I wish it weren't true. But it is. My brain runs on cafe logic, and without a cafe, it's useless, adrift without motivation. So, who wants another coffee?