Saturday, January 28, 2012

Another Night at the Hotel

No, no, Hubby and I aren't on the outs. Rather, I've checked into a local hotel in order to get some work done on the dissertation. Some of you may remember previous hotel jaunts that I blogged about here, here, and here. Well, here I am again. I've had to check into a different hotel, however, because my favorite hotel (which is so beautiful and right on the bay and has a great bar and is where Hubby and I got married) is being renovated (which is kind of a drag because now their prices will go up).

But this new hotel is good, too. It's not as beautiful outside and the room is VERY flowery, but if I had a hankering to walk around the little town, it's much closer than my favorite hotel. But, since I'm here to work, I won't be walking around town, and I do have to listen to street noise. That said, I do have a little balcony, and I can hear the fog horn (or buoy noise or whatever it is out there in the bay). And let me tell you, the fact that I have to settle in and work for the next 20 hours (with some sleep in the middle) is a bit tough to take.

I'm not complaining. I love hotels no matter what I'm doing, but let me roll out the specs: I am two blocks from the bay. I am three blocks from an awesome, local, single screen movie theater, which is showing The Descendants. I am close to many restaurants and several coffee shops. I mentioned the balcony. I have a king-sized bed, cable TV, a GIANT tub, a fireplace, and a sofa. At 5:30, there is a wine-tasting hour downstairs*. I haven't checked yet to see if I have HGTV. but I also have a hardback novel, two magazines, and my Kindle. I also have a bottle of Bombay Saffire, a bottle of tonic water, and 1.5 limes. I have Snyder's pretzels and some Organic Peach White Honest Tea. And I have my iPad and a wifi connection. Check out is at noon tomorrow.

Am I doomed? Oh, it would be so nice to just settle into a pleasure reading / cable TV watching / movie going / wine tasting extravaganza. Wouldn't it? ZOMG. I'm dying just thinking about it. But, and pardon my French, I gotta get some shit done, so I'm gonna be strong.

I'll give you an update later to let you know how it's going.

*I've got scruples, but come on. You know I gotta go down for the wine.

Update #1: Yes. I have HGTV. *twitches*

Update #2: Just went down for the wine tasting. No cheese! So I got my glass of chardonnay and came on back up stairs. I'd probably be better off just drinking a weak G & T (less sleepiness), but damn if I didn't forget a knife for cutting the lime. As for progressing, I'm gaining some good clarity on methodology, but also finding that I need to read a lot more in the area and sub-areas of that methodology. Bah.

Update #3: How is it that I've been writing for over an hour yet have the same number of pages as when I began?

Update #4: Just turned on the fireplace. So awesome. I want one for my house SO MUCH.

Update #5: Shouldn't have had the wine. It made my rosacea flare, and now the heat of my face is distracting.

Update #6: I'm going out for a burrito. Wishing I'd brought shoes other than flip-flops.

Udpate #7: Less than 30 minutes later. I've eaten a burrito the size of my head and washed it down with a Mandarin Jarritos. After a chilly walk back to the hotel, I'm hoping that I won't promptly fall asleep. And, in order to get more pages finished, I've decided to stop fretting about the philosophical underpinnings that I don't understand and start writing about the literature, itself, that I do understand. So there.

Update #8: Woke up to a full power outage at the hotel. Fortunately, my laptop is full charged, so I can still work rather than just reading leisurely on the balcony. But I don't have access to hot tea, so I having to settle for semi-cold Honest Tea, along with cold Continental breakfast items: Frosted Flakes and mini-muffins.

5 comments:

M. Paule said...

On a scale of one to awesome, this is incredible.

Have a great (and productive!) time!

Good Enough Woman said...

Thanks, Harker! My time is up and it's been great. Wish I had one more day to keep the momentum going. I got a lot done, but I also see clearly much of what I still need to do. The clarity is good, but the time to do it is limited. But that's better than being unclear AND having no time, I suppose! I hope your dissertation is developing nicely.

M. Paule said...

Clarity is excellent! And yes, far better than no clarity and no time.

My own dissertation is going alright, surprisingly! It helps that I'm only teaching one class per term and have no other human beings depending on me for their welfare and moral education.

It's hard though. Motivation is in short supply with the job market looking as grim as it is. But I like what I'm writing, and I like my wife and advisor not being mad at me for not submitting anything, so writing it is!

The Thirty-Something Bride said...

I would like a burrito the size of my head.

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

Hotel work retreats with wine tasting: awesome.

Power outages: not so much.

I hope the power came back on before your laptop ran out of juice!