Amidst the Blue

At the moment I am parked at a table in a Panera Bread.  I've been here for some time now.  Its a place I like to come every once in awhile to get away from the office to write and think.  Today's task is writing quiet time guides for camp in two weeks.  Shockingly, they are not done yet.

There are two reasons why Panera is a great place to work.  One, the light roast coffee is spectacular.  It has good body without any acidity or burnt flavor--thus the reason its called light roast.  Its good stuff.  Two, there is an endless amount of coffee to be consumed for under $2 a cup.  It is glorious.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems with the Panera.  One, sometimes Paneras are connected to malls.  The one I'm in currently in is a part of the Lansing Mall.  Thus, every time I come here, the place is crawling with mall walkers.  If you are here way early, they are all sitting around, hovering over their coffee waiting for the mall police to allow them into the climate controlled strolling arena they love.  Or, more importantly, if you come late, they sit around after their aforementioned lapping in the climate controlled strolling arena enjoying bagels and more coffee.   Now, don't get me wrong.  I have nothing against mall walkers.  I think they are noble in wanting to get, be, or stay healthy.  Actually I admire them for their tenacity--a tenacity that I wish I had at the moment.  The problem comes into the need for Panera to cater to them musically.  The background music they play around here is atrocious.  That, combined with "retired" talk about GM, the president, and who knows what else forces me to dawn my earphones and drown it out.

Therein lies the real problem for me.  This morning I ventured into itunes and began drowning out the ambient noise in Panera with a little Mumford and Sons, a band that one of my friends recommended to me.  One would think this is a good thing. . . put on the earphones, turn up the tunes, and get on to what you are here to do which is ironically write quiet time guides.  Unfortunately for me, I have the attention span of a 2 year old.  I quickly found myself looking up lyrics to the songs I was listening to to get a better understanding for what the dudes are singing about.  From there I went back to itunes to look at what else they have recorded to see if there's something I'm missing.  That led me to looking up Seasick Steve.  Luckily, my coffee cup was empty and I needed to extricate myself from my earbuds to get another cup.

When I sat down, I realized I had lost too much time on the internet. . . which lead me to wishing the walkers weren't here so I could have some good background music and get something done. . . and then I had to blog about it.

I know, I should take a break, get off my duff, and go walk with the walkers.  My body probably would appreciate it.  But alas, the quiet time guides awake.  Time to find some better music to listen to . . .