Yeah..?
You read that right.
I work from home. I have children living with me at home, they bug me. I have extra children at home, they also bug me. I have a spouse, she also likes to bug me. I have used “I have” an awful lot in this sentence.
Because of Covid, I work out of our guest room. My wife works out of our bedroom. In the guest room, it’s not a true hideaway but it’s close to one as I can close the door behind me. Yes, I’m in here now. The children still barge in for every and all conceivable reasons.
As I’ve stated before, when it’s Dave writing time, it can take about 10-15 minutes to get back into the right mind-space after an interruption. I almost never get that time between each interruption, hence I tend to get very little writing done at home.
My solution? I grab my little laptop and head out into the world to find a place to be left alone. It’s easier to not get bothered when nobody knows where you are. I often find myself frequenting a local Starbucks, McDonalds’, or even one of the local grocery stores that have a little cafe in them. I even have a portable desk that fits around my car’s steering wheel for when I’m waiting for this or that.
That isn’t me in the picture 😉
So… getting back on track here. I happened to be at a McDonalds and had my headphones in, laptop open, and was tapping away like…
Like that…
Some guy comes up and plants himself in the booth next to me. I barely notice and keep slapping my face against the keys.
Kinda like this…
Trust me, once I finish the book I’m currently working on, that image above will make a lot more sense.
Anywho…
The guy tries striking up a conversation. I pause my keystrokes facestrokes and remove one side of my headphones so I can hear him and say, “Hello?”
He starts talking about something that I’ve already forgotten about as it wasn’t life-threatening or immediate in nature. I then interrupt him by saying, “I’m sorry but I’m working on something here and kind of need to focus on it.”
He seems to take the hint, at least at first. I work on finding my focus again. Not a full minute later he’s talking to me again. I reach up to remove one of my headphones again to hear him. Again it’s nothing that needs immediate action on my part so interrupt his interruption and say, “Hey, I’m working on something here and am trying to focus.”
Now you might think that was the end of it.
NOPE!
There was a third and a fourth interruption. At this point, I was starting to shut my programs down and pack things up when another makes his way over. This new person knows my interrupter and those two begin talking.
I glance towards the heavens. Thank you for this small gift and for making my favorite sports team score that point or win that game, you can go back to turning that blind eye to all the real injustices of the world.
Those two keep talking, I find my groove again and keep going for another hour or so before I reach the end of the chapter I was working on. At that point, my mind satiated with the feelings of my accomplishment, I really start packing my things up.
Jump ahead three weeks.
I’m back in that same store, in the same exact booth. Guess who walks in.
Yep, him.
He plops himself down into the next booth again and once more tries engaging with me. I remove one side of my headphones and he says with an anxious look in his eye. “Hey, you remember me?”
I pause time for the shortest of moments right then to weigh my two options. I chose to go with the lesser of two evils in regards to getting more of my facestrokes in. “Sorry, I don’t. Hey, I’m working on something here-”
“You don’t remember me?”
“No sorry.”
“We were both here talking about BLAH BLAH.”
(I honestly don’t recall what BLAH BLAH was anymore.)
I give him a placating smile. “Sorry man” as my nose takes a dive for my screen again.
“You should remember me.”
Reaching up to put my headphone back over my ear again. “No offense, I’m not that good with people.”
He shakes his head in a mixture of disgust and irritation. “When I’m famous you’ll wish you knew me-”
My headphone slapped in place over my ear.
Yeah…
That was as real of a story as I can recall.
The guy was lonely and I feel for him. But it is also not my responsibility to be his means of entertainment.
I’m thinking I need to avoid that location for the next six months or so.
SIDE THOUGHT – Is this what women feel like with creepy guys hitting on them?
Ha! I loved that show. I would have liked to have found a Dan Fielding one from Night Court but didn’t want to waste more than the five minutes it already took me.
Okay that’s it.
Tootles all
😛
