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Sometimes, I really like this researching life. Others, it seems a strange ordeal to put myself through! Cold feet, cold shoulders, no coffee right next to me, a hungry hole in the pit of my belly (no snacks either!). Because what else are you to do in a Rare Books and Manuscripts library but page through folders and of material, hoping for that gem, deciphering handwriting, or worrying about just how much all those photocopies are supposed to cost?
Because certainly, you wouldn't want to spill hot coffee on hundred-year old documents (and you wouldn't want iced coffee given the air conditioning.) Nor would you want to nibble tasty banana bread and get crumbs on those documents for the mice to find! And you certainly couldn't bring in your knitting, because what if you removed a document from the library hidden therein - or punctured a hole in the all-too-fragile paper! (I suppose that's what evenings are for: catching up with the yarn).
Sometimes you find a small, congenial library: the lockers for one's bags are located close to the reading room; there is a small shelf atop the lockers for - you guessed it - coffee storage! Last week, I finally decided to bring my beverage into the locker room, which also held the photocopier. That way, whenever I went in there to make copies, I could take a leisurely sip of coffee. Yum! Or, if the archive is even smaller, there's no pretense: coffee and computer on one table, and on the next table over, the old folders and books and boxes. There's caffeination and a warm beverage to take the chill off, and the air conditioner might even be adjustable! Such, indeed, was my pleasant experience this morning!
Edited to add:The above was written yesterday, when I was indeed freezing (one woman yesterday had on a sweater and two shawls; a man had on a thick wool sweater), under-cafeinated, and hungry (but too engrossed to want to go get lunch). Julia and The Add Knitter are right, though, there's much to enjoy and I do get into a zone, trying to imagine and read and think my way into a life or a movement separated into labels, folders, boxes, finding aids. Someone real touched this paper, someone who fascinates me - and someone else real categorized this same paper, called it X, separated it from all the myriad little things that went into its production. When I'm not dreaming of being covered in wool socks, shawls, and hats it's a lovely world to be a part of, for a little while.
Tomorrow, I need to get back to real life, though, and remind myself that I'm moving in 2 and a half weeks, and haven't started packing!
How's everyone doing in the heat? I can't wait for it to be over, I can tell you that much! I've been keeping cool in the AC... in fact, I even have a finished object to show you!
How did I make so much progress? I joined Audible.com and downloaded a book, listening to it on my iPod this past Saturday. We were at Borders and I meant to do work, but instead, the very yarny cover of The Friday Night Knitting Club caught my eye, and I read it in the store for about an hour... and I got hooked. Not hooked enough to pay market prices and take time out of knitting for it, but enough to decide I'd listen to the book and knit at the same time! The book is, well, entertaining enough, but that's all I'll say for now since my wrists are in pain from the knitting, fiddling with that little microfilm wheel, and answering a bundle of email.
It's a good thing I'll be stuck in a car for much of tomorrow, heading off to Boston & Camberville for another research visit. (I can't knit in a car; it makes me ill.) Hopefully that will give my wrist time to recover - not to mention more to say about my dissertation proposal progress.
I was up in the middle of the night last night, from about 4-5:30 alternately writing down thoughts and surfing for pretty handpainted yarns. I'm never up in the AM with insomnia. It was very, very weird. At least I got back to sleep for a bit.
This is getting long. I will have to show you my FO pics once I'm home next week, once there are pics to show!
Thanks so much to everyone who played along in my blog contest! We have some winners! Danielle will be taking home some Shadow in Sunset, and Jeanne will find herself with some tweedy blue-green!
And thanks, all of you, for your sock suggestions! I was truly amazed, at first, at the number of "monkey!" requests that came rolling in, and (though they are certainly on my list) was nonetheless pleased to see things start to diversify. I'll have no end of possibilities for the Summer of Socks!
My research trip was good, if inconclusive. It was especially nice to see so many friends, and to make a spontaneous, if out of the way, trip to my college town for dinner at my favorite restaurant. I really actually meant to go to WEBS while still sort of in the area, but I also wanted to visit my "old stomping grounds," as the waiter in the restaurant said. The timing made it such that I couldn't do both, and instead of stocking up on yarn, I stocked up on popovers with apple butter, salad with almonds and poppy-seed dressing, and seafood bisque for dinner, with many years' worth of happy memories to keep me company. I'm usually uncomfortable having dinner alone in a restaurant, but in this case I was so happy to be there, the first time in years, that I really saw all my old friends, my family, my professors, at all the tables in the room, and strangely enough, the memories really did keep me from feeling alone.
In terms of research, it ended on a happy note, as I "had" to go to that shrine of learning and books, the Boston Athaeneum! Wow, was that a lot of fun! However, it was a bit inconclusive, for several reasons. One, I wasn't quite as focused as I've been on previous trips, so it seemed less immediately helpful. Two, I think that the topic I'm interested in might not quite be the best one to address the broader questions I'm interested in, so the question becomes: to switch topics, or to switch questions. Either are possible at this point. I need to mull things over for a bit... perhaps while redoing the upstairs bathroom. This has been on our "to-do" list for over a year, and finally we're both caught up enough with school to permit another venture into the wild world of tiling, painting, and plumbing!
This week I'm headed off to Boston for a semi-spontaneous research-and-visit trip. I need to see if there are enough sources to pursue a particular possible dissertation topic, and Harvard (not to mention Boston more generally) is one logical place to start looking in detail. It's off to the big university I go! While I'm there, I'll also be visiting old friends and favorite yarn stores, so it should be a nice trip.
Contest update: less than 12 hours to go! But we're well over the magic number of 15, so two prizes will be drawn! Enter your comment on this post by midnight tonight for a chance to win a prize! I'll be able to inform the winners and post sometime during my trip, but it might not be immediate, especially if the archives kind of suck me in. I'll be in touch with the winners over the next few days to get your addresses, and will put the prizes in the mail after I return.
I'm really excited about this trip. It's been a while since I did anything archival (reading for generals kind of got in the way of that) and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm especially curious since I really don't know exactly what I'll find. I'm hoping to find enough sources to be able to say "yes, I have a topic!" which would just be very exciting.
Of course, I'm also bringing knitting - two socks, to be specific! They are neither of them ones recommended in the contest post (though many of those are ones I do want to knit!):
 The Gentleman's Fancy Sock by Nancy Bush, in Knitting Vintage Socks, for a certain Professor Coffeeboy and
The Embossed Leaf Sock, from Interweave's collection Favorite Socks (and from the, what, 2005 edition of Interweave Knits, right before I started subscribing?). These will be ankle-length as I only had one skein of the, yes, pretty soft blue-and-green Koigu. Yum. They're going to a very lucky recipient at some later date this year... For now, though, it's time to hit the road! See everyone in good old New England! (Or something like that.)
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