coffinity

working in a coffee shop when you're tackling a thesis becomes particularly tricky as you reach the pivotal stage where your writing and research have you boomeranging (*boing boing*) between not only your computer screen (where you're making "historic" observations…er…) and the extra monitor you've set up (to simultaneously view excel spreadsheets you pretend to have mastered) but also a wide range of books and journals and human sources that -- when you were peanutbuttering your toast this morning -- you had no idea you were going to need to consult this afternoon. at this point in your process, you've also reached your 75-book limit at the university library (aaah!), which means that, in order to take out that new book you (so desperately) need, you're first going to have to return one of the texts that's spent so many months on your desk you've practically come to regard it as an integral member of your family. (which reminds you: you really should call home again one day.)


in short, this is the moment when it dawns on you: in spite of your truly inspired pipe-dream of hauling all nearly fourscore books around town with you in a trusty granny-grocery-cart (which you've seriously considered purchasing from the dollar store with some of your scholarship funds), you simply cannot tote every one of your "what if i need to consult you today?" books to the coffee shop. and you're nothing without those books. no-thing! so, much to your own chagrin, and after trying to stave off reality, you find yourself beshackled to your "real" office. the one that never hosts first dates for eavesdropping on; the one that only occasionally welcomes a visit from Professor FLQ; the one that, most prominently, features a desk piling high with some books you now refer to as "bibles" and others you wink at on the regular, as if to say: don't you worry, Little Guy, i will read you one day! (um, this just in: no, you won't.)

worst of all, Real Office features a perpetual, head-on attack by that rat bastard named Silence. bang. bang. bang. under these conditions, how can you possibly concentrate on the pure genius stirring about in your brain! grrr. you decidedly miss the coffee shop. but what can you do?!

enter the bee's knees! (which, incidentally, is the name of a coffee shop near calgary.)

yes, in this age of "there's an app for everything," you can still satisfy your affinity with cafés and nourish your coffeeshop creativity -- thanks to coffitivity! more than sharing your philosophy on ambient noise, it's a timely answer to your prayers. aaaand you won't smell like java when you head home. point! *sigh of relief*

and NOW back to translating…