Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Exhaust Fumes From the Word Mines

Author's note: My deepest apologies to my gentle readers for the appalling lack of quality in this post. As a peace offering, I have offered you several links to good things to read. You may just want to click on those and ignore all of the rest.



I had a writing breakthrough today. I will share my secret. I moved my laptop two feet. Kelly at Southern Fried Children posted about the state of her desk the other day. I can honestly say that I had not thought about my writing space until then.

We have a coffee table that lives in a corner up against the back of the couch. We moved it back there when the Hooligan was still the age that goes careening into sharp edges leading with his head and we never moved it back for one reason or another. The laptop lives on the coffee table there so when I write, I usually just sit on the floor in the corner and use the coffee table for a desk.

Last week I was complaining that my neck really hurt and the Chief Lou suggested that it might be from hunching on the floor to write and perhaps I should consider moving this new-fangled laptop invention to another locale where it might be more comfortable to sit and write. It took me a week to do it. But today I threw caution to the wind and picked up the laptop and moved it two feet to the dining table behind me so I could sit in an actual chair at an actual table. Brilliant, I know. The difference was amazing. Not only did I get a considerable amount of work done, I also managed to send a rather lengthy email to a blog friend of mine commenting on her thought-provoking post rather than just responding in the comments section like a good blogger, and I also managed to offend two of my friends' husbands on Facebook. How's that for productive? Look out world, I've got a chair and I can feel both of my legs now. Nothing's going to stop me now.

I had a long discussion with a complete stranger about the nature of introversion, parenting styles, and whales today while the Hooligan got to show a small girl the wonders of climbing through a tube and hooting. I don't go out of my way to talk to people, usually. If you may recall, I'm a little bit challenged in this regard. I'm proud to report that I didn't blurt a single inappropriate or embarrassing thing while I chatted with this woman for an hour. I really think that moving the laptop has helped me not only work better, but to grow as a person.

I had a long, meandering chat with my real estate agent today, too. She is a fellow blurter, I've discovered. I knew I liked her for a reason. So today she called to tell me that the house she looked at for us seemed fine if we wanted to come take a look, but that it gave her the creeps. She also informed me that she attended yoga class this morning, that she has no fax machine at home, and that she was still in her pajamas. I trust this woman implicitly to help us find a house. She probably uses her laptop at the table. She's a professional.

I had a heady post to write today about the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Really I did. I'll write it soon. But for now, I suggest you go and check out Michelle at Buttered Toast Rocks because she forgot to shave her legs today, and then read the comments because it appears that Larissa from Papa is a Preacher also forgot to shave hers. And then I remembered that time I forgot to shave my legs for six months. And then you should swing by Tara's place: Faith In Ambiguity. She's got a fantastic discussion going about how we are all being strangled by our children, or about how the French made up for being surrender monkeys by being better parents, or wait. That doesn't sound right. It's about how we can all be better women if we would just move our laptops to the table.

22 comments:

  1. I'm pretending my comment on Michelle's blog totally influenced the monkey comment. Also, I would trust that real estate agent too.

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    1. Oh it did, Larissa. It did. What does shaving your legs have to do with the dentist, though? Do you have teeth on your knees?

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    2. I forgot to mention I was wearing a skirt. And everything seems to be more apparent in white places.

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    3. Ah yes. There is a simple solution to this. Just go six months without shaving your legs. Then when you wear a skirt people don't think "Ew, she forgot to shave" they think "Wow, she's really progressive and she just doesn't shave."
      At least that's what I tell myself.

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    4. I just have to say I'm spectacularly progessive. It's an event when I DO shave my legs.

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  2. Oh, if momentarily coming out of a blogging-fast is always this rewarding, I don't even know what to do. Maybe it was just the "fumes" but...this was awesome.

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    1. Hey! It's not May 22nd yet! Thanks for using your moments on this nonsense. Hope your work is going well. I suspect you can appreciate the "fumes" that come from using up all of your good words on something dear and then having only the random things left over...

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  3. Shit. If this is what you consider inferior quality then I shutter to think what goes on when you read my pithy offerings..... but that's my problem.
    My laptop lives on a coffee table too - and my neck hurts all the time. SO much so that now I have a prescription for 8 physical therapy sessions. Hmmmmmmmm

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    1. Seriously, move the laptop. I'm a whole new woman. I almost guarantee the neck pain will at least reduce.

      What goes on when I read your blog? I'm thinking "Wow, she's said that so well. I never would have thought to word it that way." and sometimes they are so raw and powerful that I cry a little. So there.

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  4. Thanks for the shout out, I am honored! My Mom wants to know why my kids have lap tops but I'm stuck with this old dinosaur of a computer, and I was quick to reply that the kids like to sit on the couch and type. I like sitting in a real chair at a real table!

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    1. This is why you are able to be such a good blogger AND have ready solutions for skirt rippage. It's because you sit in a chair. I really think that hunching in a corner has been cutting off the circulation to my brain.

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  5. Damn. I need a laptop. And I'm with Graciewilde. Your "inferior" posts would be my all-star list.

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    1. Pshaw. Thank you. I think all you people are far too nice to me.

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  6. I complain about my hip pain and my husband (gently) reminds me that sitting cross-legged on my bed using my laptop is probably to blame. How funny, that I'm reading your post today sitting at my kitchen table. Maybe I'll be inspired.
    (Gah! Admitting I have hip pain makes me feel so old.)

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    1. I have bursitis in my right hip. Now do you feel a little bit younger? I have to take an old lady cocktail of glucosamine and ibuprofen almost every night. It is ridiculous how moving the laptop helped me concentrate better. Absolutely ridiculous. Of course now I'm sitting in a tiny toddler chair back at the coffee table because... why? I don't know. Because it's there.

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    2. At least you made it to a toddler chair and not the floor!! She says, laptop balanced on one knee slouched on the sofa ;-)

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  7. Lol I so understand the laptop dilemma. Unfortunately my issue is clearing a space at a real table for me to work, since I am incapable of working at my desk.

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    1. This is problematic. I just throw the Legos on the floor and then later accuse the Hooligan of making a huge mess.

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  8. Sitting on a poorly padded futon in our little "bungalow" (it's a trailer) in Rome, my cheeks and tailbone are falling asleep and I'm wondering if the power cord will reach to the table so I can write something interesting other than fashion tips.

    Hm.

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  9. I swear on a stack of old issues of Writer's Digest that I am one day going to have a T-shirt wardrobe that consists entirely of one-liners gleaned from your blog: "Look out world, I've got a chair and I can feel both of my legs now. Nothing's going to stop me now."

    Sure, no one will get it but me (and your other adoring but geographically distant fans), but "no one will get it but me" already describes pretty much of all of my current wardrobe so no loss there. ;)

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    1. Believe it or not, I am working on a way to make this a reality for you, Masked Mom!

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