Observation Essay for ENG 1010

He sat down at his computer, situated himself comfortably at the keyboard and began to type.  He got so far as typing his name when a blank, vacuous stare of unoccupied thoughts came over his monitor-illuminated face.  His internal struggle seemed to surface in his efforts to reposition himself; first sitting back and stroking his scarcely stubbled chin, then leaning forward as if to type, only to relapse into the embrace of his chair.

Slowly, he typed out his first paragraph.  He sat and read his first paragraph with a look of deep concentration on his face.  His eyes snapped back and forth with intensity as he read :
“He sat down at his computer, situated himself comfortably at the keyboard and began to type. He got so far as typing his name when a blank, vacuous stare of unoccupied thoughts came over his monitor-illuminated face. His internal struggle seemed to surface in his efforts to reposition himself; first sitting back and stroking his scarcely stubbled chin, then leaning forward as if to type, only to relapse into the embrace of his chair.”

Suddenly, with a burst of enthusiasm he started typing again.  He typed slowly at first, but his typing quickly gained vigor and his vacuous stare evolved to a determined glare.  He paused after nearly every sentence as if to reflect on what he’d just written and perhaps to contemplate what would come next.  He studied his writing, supporting his jaw in his hand, for an over-exaggerated time and then stood abruptly, walked out of his office, grabbed his coat, went outside and lit a cigarette as if to reward himself for writing his first two paragraphs.

He snubbed his cigarette, discarded the butt, gained re-entry to his home, removed his coat, popped open his third and final beer for the night and returned to his desk.  His return to his desk also brought about his return to his words.  He read and re-read what he had written.  His cat joined him at his desk and pleaded for the attention that his paper was getting, pacing back and forth in front of his monitor and doing its best to look adorable.  He barely paid it any attention but was obviously inconvenienced by the attempt to type with a fifteen pound addition of fur in his lap.

After being ignored for what must have been, for a cat, a seemingly endless entirety of five minutes, the cat fled his lap in search of attention elsewhere.  He resumed his writing in a determined, yet cautious manner, pausing between ideas as if to verify their accuracy.  His movements, appearing awkward and self-comforting in nature, gave the impression that he was still struggling with some internal ideas, or that maybe he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the subject of his writing.
 
This pulsing “start writing”, “stop to contemplate” pattern continued for some time which caused the quantity of his writing (barely two pages at this time) appear a belaboring process.  His freshly poured beer, largely ignored, began to perspire as if mocking his struggle.  Occasionally, he would break from his process to reference a word on the internet.  He would navigate to Thesaurus.com and type in words like, “burden” or “seem,” and then return to his paper and use an appropriate synonym.

After every paragraph, he would sit back and re-read his writing in its entirety.  Nearing the end of his second page, he perused his words cautiously.  His vacuous stare returned as he attempted to type further, his hands resting on his keyboard as if anything could startle them into typing again.  He sat in this position for a few minutes, then with a sigh of defeat, he stood, looked at his cat begging for attention on the floor, and mumbled, “Next time I’ll come up with a subject to observe, kitty.”  He picked up his cat, stroked its back and continued, “Observing yourself while you type your observations is exhausting.”

He left his computer with another sigh.  His shoulders sagging and with a perplexed stare; he studied his ignored beer before grabbing the glass, downing the liquid and going to bed.