Just Make it to the Kitchen...

This would be the time that I would start considering going to bed, but because of tea (see previous post), I'm still awake. I could have had decaffeinated, but noooo, I had to try my new vanilla flavored black tea. However, it was delicious and helped me study, so I have no regrets.

Speaking of studying, anyone who has been around me in studying environment might know that I'm not the kind of guy to just sit at a desk and read my notes. At best I take up the entire desk with my notes and diagrams and references. It can get to be a bit of a hazard if I'm sharing a table with someone else.

But I really don't like sitting at a desk all that much, be it when I'm studying or otherwise. Last year, when I still had my metal IKEA loft bed, I would use about a dozen magnets to literally surround myself with my papers so I could get a piece f information at a glance when writing a paper. With my lack of a metal box to use as a research cage, I've had to resort to sitting in my omelette chair (one of those circular folding chair thingies, like a butterfly chair but more nest-like. Just try and picture it and you'll see why I call it an omelette chair) and lining the inside of the chair's walls with papers. Absurd, but comfy.

However, if ideal conditions present themselves, I'm most fond of just taking up space on the floor and having my work laid out in front of me in a semicircle. Some unsuspecting people have come across these arrangements in the middle of floors like scholarly crop circles with Chris-shaped holes in the middle if I've gotten up to get something.

Increasingly important as my need for study time has increased is my need for a good location along with my configuration. In my own apartment, I've taken to just setting up shop right in the middle of the living room in the one spot everyone needs to use to get through. I have no idea why I like that spot so much, or why I seem to like that kind of spot in everyone else's apartments too. It's also my retreat when the world is being too stupid for me to want to deal with it. I'll just plop down in the middle of the floor, maybe even lay down and take up as much space as possible until I feel like I've gained the strength to face whatever it was that sent me to that spot in the first place. Maybe it has something to do with some sort of Feng Shui flow of energy in the apartment. I could just be seeking some sort of mini ley line on my floor and not even know it.

I mentioned that I do this in other people's apartments, but I try not to be too in the way in a place that's not my home. But I have been known to just call people up and ask if I could crash their apartment and borrow their floor for a few hours while I study. Most people are initially kind of unsure about my request, but after I'm there for a while they see what my intentions are. Sometimes it even makes them more productive in their work, just having someone around to see if they're slacking or to offer up the occasional comment to keep each other awake.

Oh hey, the caffeine is wearing off. I'm not sure how much that says for how interesting of a read this entry has been, but it's done the job for me.