If you need me, I'll be in my OTHER office
Today being a Wednesday, which means no school for our Little Guy and the neighbor's 5-year-old and 1-year-old, and knowing they would be at home with the nanny a good part of the day since it will probably (finally!) rain later, I decided to beat a hasty retreat in order to hopefully get some much-needed work done.
It's a bit of a hike across town for me to come to my "other office", but I love being at my friend Aimee's tea shop, L'Oisive Thé, on rue de la Butte aux Cailles in the 13th. I come early, during the pre-lunch hour, to have a few minutes to chat with my friend while she and her serveuse are doing the daily preparation for lunch and afternoon tea. Coming early means I score a small table in the corner near a window. Good light, a lovely cool breeze, and plenty of room to work (and to drink tea and have some delicious food as well!)
I've visited a few times since the grand opening at the beginning of April: once Georges and I brought the Little Guy here for Sunday brunch, and then a couple of weeks ago I came by with my computer but had problems with my power adaptor and didn't have enough battery life to work, so I had lunch and tea and then had to leave. I've loved watching the little changes Aimee has made to her shop, making it even more charming than it originally was, with her personal little touches like hand-sewn tablecloths, lots of green plants and flowers, and books and magazines to read as well as teas to buy and drink!
Today, though, I'm planning to hang out for a long time, and I've come prepared to work. I desperately need to get some work done. My guilt is palpable, the guilt of knowing clients are waiting for me to deliver things but that I'm having trouble getting myself in gear to do any actual work. As you can see, my writer's block is somewhat selective; writing my own thoughts on my blog is a breeze. It's writing OTHER people's thoughts that requires so much more of my concentration. But then, that's why they pay me the "big (ha) bucks".
I wonder if I'd be this distracted if I wasn't planning a wedding?
Last night I "confessed" (voluntarily) to Georges that lately, when I am claiming I am working, I'm usually not. He being an excellent procrastinator himself (at times), he knows how easy it is to be lured away from the things we need to do by those other things we prefer to do. And since we've met, he's often had the same problems I've had, forcing myself to work when I'd rather just be in our little bubble o' love. We'd rather keep having fun and not have to deal with work. But we're grown-ups, we two, and we have grown-up responsibilities.
So today, I've got a chapter to research and write for one client, and if I get that done and done well, then I move onto editing a first draft manuscript for a second client. Then there's a third client who is waiting on a book proposal. And after that I'm sure there are other things I've promised someone, somewhere.
And now, I work. If you're in the neighborhood today, drop by and say Bonjour and have some of Aimee's homemade cookies or delicious salads, and cup of tea -- of course!
















I'd been working full-throttle on a client's web site, and
suddenly realized I hadn't eaten lunch and I was hungry, but I wanted
something sweet. Standing in my kitchen, I stared at my food shelf to see what was
available, and realized the answer was "Not much" unless I wanted to try and gag down some rice cakes -- when I suddenly got a brainstorm.



















But with THIS book, the build-up and anticipation of knowing this was to be the Grand Finale was palpable, and it continued as I read the entire thing. I could feel it in my body. I was very fidgety and periodically would have to simply put the book down and walk away from it, sometimes in the middle of a sentence, to break the tension. Ever see the episode of Friends where Joey was reading The Shining, and when he got to the scary parts he'd have to put the book in the freezer? All of a sudden, I can kind of relate. With this book, I would get just so far along, and then would have to slow myself down so I could absorb it, unwind my nerves which were wound up like a spring, and then I'd be ready for another dose.
Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting four real American heroes, right here in Paris: four veterans of WWII who landed on the Normandy Beaches at D-Day (plus the wife of a man who died in the first wave). They were here with a multi-generational group called 




