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I have my library back.

Some time ago, we acquired a new cat, Chubby Huggs. Chubby lived in the library in order to give our first cat, PK, time to get used to his presence. Moving Chubby out of the library took longer than we’d thought, but finally, last weekend, we did it, and I cleaned the desk off so that I could start writing in here.

Chubby Huggs in the library, November 2006

Some writers must have silence and solitude to write, but I’m not one of them. I can write nearly anywhere–coffee shops, the living room love seat (where I’ve been writing for years), the bus, wherever. It’s easy for me to tune out my surroundings* and focus on what I need to work on. But I never knew how nice it is to be able to skip that step.

Now I walk into the library, open the windows for some fresh air, and I’m ready to go. I’ve made a lot more progress on polishing SHE than I thought I would, and even my Sunday morning goal setting session was smoother than usual.

There are a few things I need to change. My desk faces the window overlooking the neighbor’s house instead of Sweetie’s beautiful courtyard garden of tropical plants. Not only is the view less than optimal, but the morning sun reflects off the neighbor’s window right into my eyes.

The current view from my desk

The view I could have (shot through window screen, sorry)

So I need to rotate the desk to face the courtyard window. I also need to finish cleaning. The room is terribly cluttered: I have a lot of books and games that need to be sold, given away, or donated. And we need to paint. The walls were gray when we bought the house, and we never got around to changing that because we didn’t spend much time in here and… well, did you miss the part about a cat living in here for a while?

None of those tasks keeps me from writing, though, and I’m thrilled to have the space.

Desk buddies. Note ugly gray walls.

* Sweetie will tell you that this is my default state. I’m getting better.