Hemingway Writing Tour

Were you a "silencer" or a "stereo blaster" study-er in high school and college? I was a stereo blaster.  I never could study at the library as well as I could at home with the stereo blasting. For some reason, I like a lot of ambient noise in the background to be able to focus on whatever I'm studying or writing.  I don't know. Maybe it's drowns out the "I need to do this and this and this" voices in my head but whatever the reason, music and noise keep me quiet and centered on the subject in my hands so now my favorite and most productive writing days are those where I go sit in a restaurant or pub with music, the more crowded the better, and write. I lose myself in my story.  Myabe the outside noise is symbolic of the inside noise of my characters. I'm not sure. I just know that it works for me and I refer to it as "the Hemingway Writing Tour" because supposedly Hemingway wrote most of his novels sitting in outdoor cafes in The Keys sipping wine all afternoon. Sounds like a dream day to me.

Today I'm wishing with all my heart I could go on "the writing tour" but it's not in my cards. I'll be going to work tonight, have one day off, and then work another four.  Last night was not my most fun night at work ever so I'm extra tired this morning and not exactly skip-deely-ooo excited, as Ned Flanders would say, about going in tonight but I do have tomorrow off. Too many things to do around the house to go write but it's a little dessert daydream in the back of my head today if I have another night tonight at work like last night where everything I touched seemed to turn to crap in my hands.  I'm whining but not complaining. We all have bad days and we all get through them and I did too. It just wears me out emotionally as much as it does physically, if you know what I mean. 

Soooooooo.....I'm singing Margaritaville in my head while I tromp off to work today but am looking forward to tomorrow so that I can cook a real meal for the first time this week.  Cooking relaxes me and puts my head back in the straight and narrow.

In the meantime, here are a couple of shots from dinner out the other night.  Gene took me to a new-to-us place called Valentine's that we'd heard of but never been to.  Nice place, great food, and the night we went there was a guy playing acoustic (Ithink that's what it's called) guitar. There was one funny moment with the musician.  His song (instrumental only, no voice)  choices were a little bit of everything but I laughed when i realized I'd been singing one of them in my head, asked Gene if he recognized it, which he didn't. It was a song from the church of my youth, I think called "Come Home". I just remember it was usually an altar call song "...calling for you and for me, oh sinner, come home..."  Interesting music choice for a busy Saturday night crowd.  Made me smile.

Gene had an uptown carbonara with smoky mozzarella, parmesan, and grilled chicken:

And I had a wonderful chicken breast coated in crispy parmesan and bread crumbs, along with a loaded baked potato, and perfectly steamed fresh vegetables.  The even better part was I could only eat less than half because the serving was so large so the rest of the potato and veggies made lunch for me and the other half of the chicken breast made a great sandwich for Gene. Nothing like recycling leftover restaurant meals.

Comments

[candy]

i always thought it would be amazing to do the hemingway thing in europe (minus the wars & bullfighting). sit at cute little french cafes, sipping coffee & eating pastries while people watching. i don't think i'd get much writing done tho!

[Lin]

I SO should not read your blog when I'm hungry...Tell me about what you're writing. Fiction? Non? Cooking wears the stuffing out of me. And once I'm done with the meal, I'm so tired I right to bed and clean up early the next AM.

[sher]

The food looks delicious. I admire your self control!!!!

[Tanna]

Yes, I know that song well from my youth. Wonderful dinner.
The make it through attitude is what is needed. Good for you.

[Glenna]

Candy--Yep, you get it. It seems like such a romantic, luxurious life even if you're not living on the high end of the scale.

Lin--assorted magazine articles and my fiction novel. If I remember right. Hell, it feels like it's been so long...

Sher--Thanks! I think we'll be going back. That chicken was wonderful and menu was very extensive.

Tanna--Cool! Someone knows what I'm talking about. The music to it is lovely so it was a great instrumental piece but it did make me laugh.

[Deborah Dowd]

Definitely a blaster! I had three younger brothers who had their own rock band and they were always practicing, then I went back to school with three young children, so I actually can't read or study in the silence!

[Chris]

I was a blaster - but of classical music....weird since I really only listen to Urban music. I think it's a combo of the the "band" girl in me and my (Ex)English teacher self who wished she could write like Charlotte Bronte.

[Glenna]

Deborah--LOL! No kidding. Sounds like there was a generation of us...love that your brothers all had bands. That's very cool!

Chris--LOL! I hear you. That's great. I'm really big into not limiting myself so I think classical and urban and is where it's at and there's still room for everything else too!

[Jill]

Yup, I was a blaster. Difficult, though, when a parent is an educator who insists that kids learn better in silence.

I'm still a blaster! Never lost that need for noise in the background, only now it extends to anything I do at the day job (which is hard in an office that's usually silent, so I put my little pink earbuds on and listen to CDs of seminars so I have someone's voice to ignore), and also to "my" writing time off-the-job.

I compose at the keyboard, so I know where all of the hot spots are in Springfield and Branson with free wi-fi, although I seem to get in trouble when free wi-fi is available because I catch myself playing online when I should be writing.

Wow, Valentine's food looks amazing. Haven't tried it yet.

[Glenna]

Jill--I know about the online playing. I think that's part of the reason I ahve trouble writing at home. I end up emailing and catching up on checking web sites instead of writing. The Hemingway Writing Tour seems more "pure" to me, and it has alcohol. Also a plus. :-)