Off to Starbucks so I can hear myself think

Can I have a mocha and 2 hours of undisturbed time, please?

My sister-in-law has to leave work to work.  My husband has to leave our house to study for his PhD.  I have to hole myself in my room with earplugs to write.  Why is it that we have to escape our offices, home offices, and even our homes just to think?  Maybe because coworkers, friends, and family are, in a word, LOUD.  Bless their hearts, cuz they don’ mean to be, but seriously, when my husband leaves our home to go to his office to study/write, please don’t bend his ear for 4 hours about your marital problems.  Or when my sister-in-law goes to Starbucks, how productive can she really be as the barista yells out 25 different exotic “coffee” drinks?

Here’s an idea: white noise.  Our lives were transformed when we introduced this blessed and most revered little machine.  We had tried fans (which when you use them to block noise so your kids can sleep and they inadvertently get turned back to oscillating or vibrate off the bedside table and onto your sleeping child, the point has kind of been lost) and ear plugs (which can make your ears sore and don’t come in children’s sizes, nor do children understand when you stiff brightly colored “toys” into their ears) to no avail.  Go figure.  Anyway, my husband googled white noise and found something like this.  Now we use white noise in our room, both our children’s rooms, and at the office.  In all honesty, white noise doesn’t cancel sound- little does that doesn’t distract you even more.  But it does cover all those irritating little noises that keep me from concentrating and even napping.  Anything that does that consistently gets my praise.