Two blocks from SLIG HQ at the Radisson is the Family History Library, overshadowing our in-class and after-class thoughts. Almost everyone has research work to do at the library, either for themselves, or for paying clients, or both. Our time management revolves around its 8am opening and 9 pm closing (except for Monday, family night, when it closes at 5; and Sunday, when it closes, period). You can categorize SLIG people by the smallest increment of time they consider worth trekking up to the library for. (Half an hour, for me, at least in the mornings.) You can also categorize them by how close to the closing bell they pursue their researches. (Ten minutes for me.)
In Advanced Methodology, we have had two formidable overnight pieces of homework. Wednesday's involved analyzing evidence; Thursday's adds the element of researching as well as analyzing. I was displeased with myself for wrongly weighting evidence and reaching a probably wrong conclusion in the Wednesday exercise. And by 8 pm Thursday, my prospects for success in the Thursday homework were looking bleak. Having been indoors almost the entire past 24 hours, I threw on my coat and headed for the library. What a treat! A snowstorm had blown up and was busy blanketing the sidewalks.
The library didn't help my homework, but I did manage to find an interesting fact that promises more records on a client's problematic ancestor. The snow was still going as the last diehards stepped out into the night at 8:55 pm. I met the ever-cordial Leroy Atkins heading the other way under an umbrella.
I love IGHR at Samford, but you cannot take this kind of break from your studies in the Alabama heat. Back in the hotel room with my laptop and quasi-legible scribbled notes, I kept on like the storm and finally zeroed in on the strange but utterly convincing solution to our last homework puzzle. I'd love to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
And suddenly -- tomorrow will be the last day of this "time out of time." The closing banquet is tomorrow night, and I'm trying to figure out if it will finish soon enough to leave us a little library time afterwards.
Harold,
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the precious extra few minutes of time to give us a small taste of what it is like to attend an institute. I have really enjoyed your daily posts even though I am incredibly jealous and wish I were there!