The other day, I went into a coffee shop and ordered, "a caffeinated coffee, please." As though caffeine were an extra ingredient that wouldn't otherwise be included. The barista squinted at me, thinking insults at me probably, but didn't say anything.
I took my caffeinated coffee to the bar by the window, looking out onto Victoria Ave. It had snowed, and warmed up, and cooled down, and snowed again, and warmed up again. The road was full of slush. The cars swerved and slid down the street and I tried to imagine summer. Clear, hot pavement and heat soaking into your back through your t-shirt and feeling the sun in your bones. Inconceivable! My bones were cold and the pavement was cold and even the caffeinated coffee didn't hold its heat for very long.
I got my iPad out, clicked around the internet a little. Tried not to look at the news, because I have a time and a place carved out for that right now, because if you don't have a time and a place carved out for the news right now, you might as well just throw whole weeks into a black hole. There is SO MUCH NEWS. We are going to drown in the news. Has there ever been so much news?
I sent a proposal to a magazine, half-heartedly added 700 words to my novel, and replied to some emails. Two guys came into the shop dressed in business suits. They sat at the table next to me and talked to each other for a few minutes. Then the first guy got out his phone and started watching a video with the volume up. Then the other guy got out his phone and called somebody, had a whole conversation at the top of his lungs, like the person on the other end of the phone had no ears.
And I was like, cool.
And I went home.
And watched the news for four hours.
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