My telephone is here. My computers are here -- both of them. We have moved some furniture around to create a room, with a door that closes, which is now my office. I haven't moved all my things in yet, but I have enough things here that I can get by. I have no more reasons to sleep at my apartment now; the apartment is now just a storage locker.
I think it's official. Georges and I are living ensemble.
Yesterday was Day 1. Usually on a Monday morning, I get up when he does, and we take the train to Odéon together, grab some coffee and apple strudel from this little hole-in-the-wall cafe we know, and then he goes to his office while I head "home" to my apartment. Only this Monday, I already AM "home". So after kissing him goodbye, I rolled over and went back to sleep, thinking I had the house all to myself.
Until about 9:40 am when I heard someone in the house. I knew who it was, of course; the nanny and the neighbors' two little ones. Georges' youngest shares the nanny with these other kids, but he's on holidays this week. However Georges' house ends up being the day-care center most days; the neighbors are photographers and work in their house, and that's not easy with les petits garçons underfoot.
I had planned to just relax and adjust to my new environment quietly, but that clearly wasn't going to be easy with the kids around, so I decided it would be as good a time as any to make a major dent in the packing back at my apartment. It went well and there is now a pile of boxes in the middle of the living room floor. I took the bus home -- to my new home. Checked email. Caught up on blog-reading. Chatted with my mom on the phone. Georges came home from work. We set up my office space so that I can work with some privacy even when there are others in the house. I blogged a bit myself. And that was my first day. All in all, very nice. But I didn't get any work done.
Today -- Day 2 -- I had intentions of working. Knowing the nanny might be coming by with the little ones again (starting tomorrow they are en vacances, too) I got up earlier, got dressed and had breakfast. Once they arrived, I decided to go to the supermarket. I've been there twice before with Georges and thought I knew the way -- but wouldn't you know it, I actually got a little LOST (and I never get lost). In the rain, no less. Eventually I found the store, and found my way around the store, and furthermore found everything on the list except one thing... plastic liner bags for the cat's litter box. Oh well, nobody's perfect. I managed to find my way home without getting lost again. By the time I put everything away, it was lunch time. I ate, and then retreated to the (relative) quiet of my new office, ready to write.
Where I quickly discovered that, even with a dedicated work space -- the first one I've had in over a year -- I find it just as hard to settle down and work when I need to. I used to blame my procrastination on the fact that I had to work in the living room, with the TV and DVD player just in front of me, tempting me to just take "a few minutes" to watch something. Now, I'm in a room with no such distractions, and yet I managed to be distracted anyway. I could hear all the kids playing elsewhere in the house (it's an open loft-style plan) but that wasn't really the problem, because the mental chatter in my own head is often far louder than the sound of three pre-schoolers and a baby.
Clearly, I am going to need to work on my self-discipline and learning to work despite distractions. In the corporate world where I worked as a programmer and systems analyst, I used to work in a cubicle with no full walls or door, in the middle of a room full of ringing telephones and other people who were sometimes very loud. And I was totally productive. I kicked ass in the productivity department in that job, if I may modestly say so. Nothing ever distracted me... well other than that one time one of the directors (a big kid at heart) was wandering the hallways with a Super-Soaker and I suddenly noticed it was raining in my cubicle.
What is it about writing that brings out the procrastinator in me?
