The Work Week

On Friday I completed my first week of work!  Since I don't have my costumes in yet, the week ran a bit differently than a normal week will, but I still loved it.  Monday, I and another summer hire, Josh, were shown around the two currently operating kitchens and ante-kitchens (where we store the food, where we have running water and dish-soap).  We were shown the breakrooms, the bathrooms, and all of the little necessary things needed on the job.  Next, we learned over the course of a couple of days the "bucket routine" for cleaning out the wash/rinse buckets and the buckets conveying fresh water to the kitchens.  I am going to have very, very strong arms by the end of this summer.  On Tuesday and Wednesday I got to eat stew made in the colonial kitchens, and fresh bread from the brick bread oven.  Best job ever.

On Thursday and Friday, since I have no costumes, I had "library days."  Library days confirmed for me why I am going back to grad school this fall.  When I enter a library I'm like a small child in a candy shop.  I love being in the stacks.  I love looking through all of the book titles.  Each one thrills me.  I want to try every one, each sweet morsel, each full of different but wonderful knowledge.  I am diverted by every book I see; they all promise such sweet things.  Who knows what excitement lies between the covers of a book?  They all sound so full of magic and mystery and things I never knew I wanted to know, and I pull them off the shelves with relish.

I love finding my section for a research project.  To get to the Foodways books I passed the theater books, the Tudor/Stuart history books, folklore books, craft books, books on dolls and dollhouses... eee!  I had so much trouble not stopping to browse each section.  Once I got to Foodways I squealed in excitement-- quite literally throwing my arms in the air-- over the two and a half whole sections at the end of the row filled with books useful for learning about food/beverage history.  I pulled about ten from the shelf before realizing I could never complete that much reading in a single work day.  Still, I had my notebook and pen ready to take notes, and away I went!  I read a research report on cooking in Colonial Virginia, the (rather long) intros to the Martha Washington Cookbook and the Mary Randolph cookbook, and Nelly Custis's household management book.  I read the intro and Chesapeake chapter of A Revolution in Eating and parts of a book about 18th-century Virginian beverages.  I put four books on hold for when I get my official I.D. next week and can check books out, including a beautifully illustrated The Story of Tea.

Is there anything happier than reading in a library?  I think not.