There is something I didn't anticipate in moving down here; that I'd be lonely during the day. It seems blindingly obvious now, but for some reason I didn't forsee it. Back in San Francisco I either worked at home, or downtown, in my office. In both locations, I was around people all the time - usually people I knew. Here, on the other hand, my choices are to either work in my new office, where there are only three other people from my company all of whom are busy sales-people, or to work in Starbucks which is full of strangers, or to work at home in the Valley, which is the least attractive option. No matter which I chose, I'm finding I'm spending most of the day alone, frequently without any conversation.

This morning I'm sitting alone in Ben's dining room. Ben has just left for work, and the dogs have gone back to sleep. All I can hear apart from the tapping of my keyboard is the white noise of the traffic on the freeways across the street. The textured silence just seems to spread out in front of me, like the fabric of an empty day. Some mornings when I know I'm going to be alone all day, I feel depressed almost as soon as Ben has closed the front door behind him.

Out with the dogs.

Not every work day is like this of course. Usually when I work at my new office, or in Starbucks in West Hollywood, there is enough diversion to the day that I don't feel completely isolated. In my new office, I can get out to grab a coffee, or walk over to a local restaurant to pick up lunch. And there are a few cheerful people around the office who will nod hello. Or I can break off mid-afternoon to work out in West Hollywood. But my company is considering asking me to work at home, because my office is expensive - $1200 per month. And working at Starbucks presents two problems: it's noisy, which makes conference calls difficult; and the seating is far from ergonomic - I'm finding I come home after a day at Starbucks with my shoulders so tense and rigid that even an hour-long massage can't free them up.

Working at home in the big, wide, empty silence of the Valley

So my work day is a work in progress: I'm going to have to figure out how to make it bearable every day. On days I work at home, I'm going to start taking the dogs to the dog park up on Mulholland Drive - that way I can hopefully meet people, or at least laugh at the antics of the dogs. Brewster, in particular, is such a handsome dog that people always want to come up and ask about him. I'll try to make eye contact with people in Starbucks; there must surely be regulars there in addition to me. And maybe I'll take the dogs with me from time to time and work outside at Starbucks. And I can have lunch with Ben once or twice a week. I have to find some way to make this part of my life work down here.