procrastination technique #4.

going for coffee.

There's very little that's more decadent to me than walking down the hill, turning left on Sherbrooke, heading down into the rows of boutiques along the strip and sitting at a café - outdoors, in the sun, with a ridiculously named beverage in the middle of the afternoon with a friend. [I see 'going for coffee' alone as an entirely different animal, as I generally spend the entire time reading or writing or marking when that's the case].

This week, grad school avenger IM'd me just past noon, and I found myself pleading aloud to the text box on my screen to ask me for coffee. I was up early that day, had put in some respectable time with some decent results, and could go for an icy cold caffinated drink on a hot, sunny weekday - the first day, he informed me, that the city had a humidex rating - and I could do so guilt free!

Mind you, sometimes the guilt-factor is a prime motivator. It usually pushes me to work late on into the night and to produce something substantial (or at least tangible) for the time I "wasted" during the day. But sometimes it's just the luxuriousness of it all - like being a rich "lady who lunches" - that makes it so wonderful.

The luxury certainly is multiple: there are many cafés to choose from on the strip: Second Cup, Starbucks, Java U, the bagel place, and another - just found - at the end of the blocks on the south side. No matter which one we choose, a 'fancy' drink - especially if it's iced - is going to cost no less than 5 bucks (and spending five dollars I don't really have to spend totally adds to the decadence!). Recently introduced to Second Cup's blended chai, I think I'm in love.

And sometimes it's even considered "working" - meeting with a colleague or collaborator to touch base, to discuss a current project, to imagine or flush out new ones, to back-and-forth on ideas, theories, stuff we've read - "productive" time spent butting heads and thinking big thoughts while also getting a tan.

Sweet, sweet goodness.