Grown-Up Work

Two weeks ago, when I was in Fort Wayne, I spent several hours per day for four days at the sem library. Katie was doing fine with nursing Alia, and I didn't need to be in the new family's hair all the time -- just at mealtime and cleaning time ... and a little bit of cooing-at-Alia time.

There is a CCA project that got stalled. Some grad assistants at the sem were working on the project. But then they had the audacity to graduate [can you believe it?!?!] and get ordained and go out there in the world to take care of the sheep entrusted to them by the Shepherd. And so, the project languished temporarily for want of attention.

I requested the job and was given permission to tackle it. When I started in on the project, I realized that I had a lot to figure out. I (the techno-phobe who took three weeks to learn how to operate the email, and that only after repeated and explicit instructions from my children, and copious note-taking on my part) figured out the sem's computer catalog of books and articles. The librarians showed me how to work the funky copier that's specially for books, and I did it. The librarians and I managed to get photocopies off both the microfiche and the microfilm. I found articles tucked away in odd places. DoRena's Sam even told me how I could get a hold of as-yet-uncatalogued books. I puzzled out things that I honestly thought my brain was no longer capable of.

It was exhilarating!

I was a little afraid of coming home and rebelling against the daily housewife routine that doesn't require such stretches of problem-solving in unfamiliar territory (and enticing peeks into articles and lectures that looked quite intriguing). But it's been okay. I haven't been pining to do that out-of-the-home grown-up work. There's just something wonderful about knowing that I haven't lost so many brain cells that my work at the sem library was completely beyond me.

So wonderful, in fact, that it was [amazingly enough!] as good as Baby Watching.