Blood on the Mac and Cheese

I went to the dentist this morning and had two cavities filled. I try to avoid Novocaine, but my dentist felt it was necessary.

I'd skipped breakfast, so I went for some lunch afterwards. Soft food was called for. I got some mac and cheese - something I rarely eat - at a neighborhood Panera Bread Company.

And it wasn't long before I noticed blood in my mac and cheese.

This is why I don't like to get Novocaine: I usually manage to bite my lips or the inside of my cheek without noticing. This time it was my lower lip.

Well, at least I got a story title out of it: Blood on the Mac and Cheese. Now, is that a title for a Young Adult book, or a soft-boiled detective novel? You tell me.

Why I Write in Starbucks

I'm writing in a Starbucks today. Yesterday I wrote in a Panera Bread Company. I haven't worked in a library in over a week.

Why? The truth: it's not the coffee, it's not the food.

It's the bathrooms.

I often work in public libraries. In fact, I prefer it: they're a lot quieter than commercial establishments, and they have books for research.

But, when I work in a library, the bathrooms are usually far away. At my favorite library, the distance from the work tables to the bathrooms has to be the equivalent of a full city block! So, when I go to the bathroom in the library, I leave my laptop unattended for a much longer time.

This battered MacBook of mine would cost about $1,200 to replace. I get nervous leaving it unattended for any span of time.

At the Starbucks where I'm at, the bathroom is just five steps away. I'm in and out of the bathroom so fast, the screen saver doesn't have time to come up! (Yes, I wash my hands.)

When my business writing partner is back in town, I'll be back at a library. She can't work in commercial spaces, with their distractions and piped-in music. But until then, I'll be at a Starbucks or Panera.

Another coffee, please!

Sometimes Things Actually Get Better

It's too nice out to spend all day in my home office...so I took my laptop to the library. (I like to live dangerously.) I was still inside, but at least I had a nice window, and thousands of books near at hand.

Unfortunately, what the library doesn't have is food. So, when I got hungry, I decamped to a nearby Panera Bread, which offers free wi-fi. And I still have a window, although this one opens out onto a parking lot.

This Panera Bread is in an old shopping center that was upgraded a few years ago. When I was a kid, this parking lot was a barren, potholed, trash-strewn wasteland. My High School Ecology Club inherited a recycling center in this parking lot, so I spent some time here, separating recyclables. Eventually, with people dumping non-recyclable trash here, the site grew beyond what High School kids could handle, and the owner just carted everything away.

But, since the renovation, there are flowers here. There are shrubs and plantings in the medial strips. There aren't any potholes, and the trash is picked up. There's no need for a recycling center, because the local townships all have recycling programs. Sometimes things actually do get better....