The Dark Side Has Free WiFi...and Pastries

This summer it's been up to me to get things done for school on my own--no classes to be "behind" in, no professors asking for papers, and no advisor expecting regular reports.  In addition, I've been working on a side project editing a book for a man that my dear friend Emily knows.  It's a translation of a novel that an Iranian woman wrote and published in the Persian language.  It's quite a powerful novel and I hope that her cousin, the translator to English, is successful in having his English version published.

So the problem was that around my apartment I wasn't getting much editing done.  It's not a particularly difficult process, but one that requires concentration and is best done in longer efforts--30 minutes of reading/note-taking doesn't let a person get into the story and rolling with notes the way that a few hours do.  At my apartment, my attention span is notoriously short, so I had to find a comfortable, pleasant space to work, and this place had to be one that didn't mind a person sitting and working for hours on end. 

Enter Panera Bread.  I'd recently become a semi-patron, holding student-teacher meetings at a Panera location not too far from my apartment.  It has a Starbucks feel to me--a comfortable place in which a person could linger or not, teased by the delicious smells of pastry, bread, and coffee products.  

I found a Panera a bit closer to my apartment but NOT on campus (an important non-location), and in I went with my book bag and an appetite.  The Bacon Turkey Bravo is a BIG sandwich, but delicious--and I ate the whole thing (hanging head in shame).  But in my defense, that was my meal for the day.  

The best thing?  Free refills.  I started with iced tea, finished my meal, and while I was working on the book, I switched to Dr Pepper.  Ok, maybe free refills aren't the best thing.  The Dr Pepper clinched it for me, up here in the North with people who don't seem to drink it (the grocery store shelves ALWAYS have DP, even when it's on super sale) and put maybe one or two ice cubes in their drinks.  Weird.  Anyway, before I knew it, I'd been there three hours and felt comfortable enough to keep working (and since I'd spent money on a big sandwich, I didn't feel guilty about it) another hour.  That's right: four hours.  And I did the same thing the next day (different location, since I had business on the other side of town), and the next day.  I knocked that book out (I'd made it about a fourth of the way before my Panera visits) in three days.  Good for me.  And good for Panera.  

Did I feel self conscious about sitting there in a booth for two with my editing tools (highlighter, pencil, Post-it strips, Post-it pads, scissors, and MP3 player)?  A little, but mostly from the customers.  The staff is amazingly friendly and it's the perfect place to go and sit for hours, since it's self-service.  There's no waiter waiting for you to leave so that they can clear the table and move the next person in.  The clientèle is not typically the type of people that I spend a lot of time around (I feel VERY country when I'm there) but that just makes for interesting people-watching when I'm taking a little brain-rest break.  

So, Panera, even though you're a bit granola for me, you're the perfect study place, and your food is delicious.  (Try their Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice soup--absolutely scrumptious)  I have a getaway/refuge from the distractions of my apartment and hectic pace of school, and I'm very happy about that.