#20 - Try 12 New Workspaces

The pandemic sure put a stop to this one quick. I am looking forward to the day when I can work and explore the city every week.

1 - Chicago Athletic Association Library
1/17/20

I have been to the Chicago Athletic Association many times, and each time I walk through the Drawing Room into the Game Room, I think, I would love to study/work in here. Welp, I finally did it. What a glorious space for some remote work. Here are my favorite things about it.

• It's all dark and Hogwartsy.
• The servers are attentive when you're looking for them and leave you alone with you're not.
• They have great tea options.
• The tea comes in an individual pot.
• The servers will offer to get more hot water for your pot without charging you for more tea.
• There are options to sit by a window that overlooks Millenium Park, at a long table that reminds me of the UM Law Library, by a lit fireplace, or, my favorite, at a big table all to yourself.
• To go to the restroom, you get to walk through the game room and past the pool space where there are usually interesting pop ups. The last time I was there, it was decorated to look like a summer patio for Parson's Chicken and Fish, complete with astroturf, picnic tables, and red-and-white-striped umbrellas.
• It's just a beautiful space.

This will definitely be in my rotation, and if it weren't so far away, I'd be there on the regular!

2 - Starbucks at 180 N. LaSalle
3/3/20

So after a lovely lunch with my buddy Zann, I headed over to the DMV to get an updated car title. That may sound like a miserable thing to do after a nice lunch, but really, the vehicle services side of the DMV in the Thompson Center is usually a pretty efficient process. I've never had to wait more than 15 minutes or so. I make my turn down the vehicle services hallway, grinning at not having to wait in the driver services line that is somehow spilling into the atrium, which I have never seen before. So I pop into a short line, already filled out forms in hand, and am then told that the computers are down. There are still people waiting, so I assume things are just getting reset. Nope. The entire state system is down. It had been for an hour and there was no estimate of when they'd be back online. But I really didn't want to go all the way back downtown another day. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Then the computers were back online. They tested a couple quick purchases, and then I would be next. And then they were down again.

Bay Park Coffee

I realized I couldn't afford to lose any more work hours, and then I realized, WAIT, I CAN WORK FROM ANYWHERE NOW. So I popped across the street to a Starbucks and worked for about an hour. Then, I went back to the DMV and was told the system was still down. So I gave up.

So this is not a story about an interesting workplace. It was fine. But wow, what freedom to be able to just say, oh, well, this is inconvenient, so I'll go do some work somewhere nearby for a bit.

Loving this life--inconveniences and all!

3 - Bay Park Coffee, 4130 Napier St., San Diego
3/10/20

Love this little spot! Love the vibe, love the tea selection, love the snacks, love the reusable cloth coasters and metal straws. Love that the people at the table next to me climbed under the bench to plug my lap top in for me. Whenever it is that I can spend more time in San Diego, I will definitely hang out there a bit!

My Luce view

My Luce snacks

4 - Luce Bar & Kitchen, 1959 Moreno Blvd., San Diego
3/10/20

I needed a little more to eat and to prep for happy hour, so after Bay Park Coffee, I headed over to Luce, which has great happy hour food and drink specials. It had been a little rainy, and it was only 3:00pm, so I found a spot on the patio by the fire to stay warm, have some snacks, and wait for my buddy to join me for some wine. It was a great spot to get some work done for a few hours!