Working on a research paper, writing and general internet trawlings this weekend got me thinking about something. Well, other than I spend too much time behind my damn computer. I know I do, that’s the problem with attending online classes, writing on a computer and having a 40 hour a week job that I have to be on a computer for. Sometimes I appreciate just having outside noise in the background. Not like outside outside, I’m talking about just the general rambling that goes on around you as you sit somewhere.

It has to be noise that I can tune out though. I’ve been known to be sitting at the dining room table and either my hubs is watching television or the kiddo is playing a video game and get frustrated by it enough to pack Ye Olde Laptop up and cart myself down to the nearest Starbucks. What’s the difference? There’s just as much noise there, if not sometimes more, as there is at my house. One of the differences I’ve found is that, at the coffee house, I don’t know anyone. I can grab a cup of coffee (usual stand by is Skinny Carmel Macchiato but loving the Pumpkin Spice Lattes out for the season right now), pop open Ye Olde Laptop and start pounding away at the keys like I couldn’t do at the house while tuning out all of the activity around me because, frankly, I don’t care about anyone. At home, I’m apt to talk to the hubs about something going on in daily life, give the kiddo tips on the video game she’s playing or too easily hear the call of the couch. In other words – there’s just too many damn distractions at home.

What’s really bad is that I have a really beautiful, roll-top secretarial desk in my office upstairs that I don’t use all that much. Ye Olde Laptop usually gets dropped onto the dining room table, which sits in the family room so I can fool myself into thinking that I’m spending all this time writing/going to school and still spending time with my family.

Sometimes, traipsing off to the coffeehouse isn’t feasible. There’s where my salvation came in this weekend. Frankly, I didn’t feel like going anywhere and I was working on a research paper that I would have had to lug a stack of books with me. For me, the coffeehouse trip is all about taking only what you need, which is usually the bare bones (Ye Olde Laptop, slim case for ID & cash, keys and BlackBerry). So, this weekend I sat at the dining room table, stack of books on research topic on one side of me and my salvation firmly about my ears. BTW, my salvation is also my salvation on overly long airplane rides so unknown seatmates who share the seat with me at the Exit Row won’t feel the need to strike up a conversation while I’m trying to work my way through the latest book in my hand.

For those that haven’t figured it out, I sat around my house this weekend wearing noise canceling headphone. Yeah, so I looked like an idiotic fool, what of it? I was jammin’.

All of this rambling brings me to my point – I realized that I have “soundtracks” for my life. Just like movies have soundtracks and, even yeah, my stories have soundtracks, so do I. A lot of times this soundtrack is really just the “random” button on iTunes. There are other times when I put on one of the mixes I have assembled on my iTunes list, usually having to do with mood. Point is, that soundtrack works just as well as heading off to the coffee house – though it’s not substitute for the lovely coffee.

For those following along, they know I’ve got a book coming out here eventually and yes, it does have a soundtrack that I listened to while I wrote it. Nearly every story that I’ve ever written does, but I usually get to keep it all to myself. I haven’t listened to it lately, since I finished, but it’ll probably get selected in the iTunes folder whenever edits come.

As things get closer, I’ll post it up here on the blog. Ya’ll just have to promise not to point and laugh at my musical taste – too much.

Anyone else do this? That is, listen to music while they write or use it for “background noise” while trying to concentrate, not laugh at my musical tastes.