Daydreamin'

Driving home the other day after a particularly long tiring day I started to think about what I would like to do if I could just take off from work for a really indefinite period. Of course, like most people I think how it would be great to hop a plane to some neat obscure destination or find a beach to relax on. But that's when reality sets in. When have I EVER wanted to sit on a beach longer than about an hour? And usually I enjoy having coffee and muffins on the beach with my hubby when the sun is just coming up, or relaxing with some fried conch and a lemonade when the sun is going down...but middle of the day when it's sizzling hot? No, I have to be brutally honest with myself at least. If I could take off of work for a month or so with no obligations to meet I think I would be estatically happy to hole up on the geneology floor of the downtown library and delve into the family research. As part of this, I would immerse myself in history books that record the background diorama of my family's past and make lots of charts and notebooks to organize everything in my mind. I want to uncover the nuggets of anecdotes about those ancestors whose names hide the secrets of my past. They sound like a story waiting to be told: Colbert, Thomas, Hallie Llewellyn. It's funny, I never realized what a geek I was until now. Don't try to dissuade me! I once carefully returned the first volume of the Lives of the Queens of England by Agnes Strickland to the shelf where I found it because I wanted to wait until there would be a time in my life when I could really savor it, wallow in it if you will. Well, that time hasn't arrived yet and I put that book on the shelf in '76.
I think my family is starting to get wise to my geek leanings. This year for my birthday, Christmas and other assorted celebrations I received an antique sugar mold (who else would have even known what it WAS?), and antique bakery bread rising platform, and antique silver hand mirror and three different antique irons. Oh yes, and my sons gave me a Williamsburg replica pottery pitcher (Thanks Mark and Laura!) and an antique biscuit break (Thanks Patrick!). I get great warm feelings just looking at them and imagining how they were used. One of the real joys was an absolutely fabulous 19th century wood steamer trunk. My wonderful husband gave me that. I've put all my geneaology research in it. It seems to be the right place. Last summer I spent a good deal of time researching the geneaology and reluctantly put it away when school started.
Anyway, I hope I live long enough to really wallow in my history fetish when I finally have the time to really do it. I indulge myself in an interesting book periodically between grading papers and other responsibilities. I'm concurrently reading The Real Lincoln on the downstairs and 1000 Years Over a Hot Stove on the bedside table. Jeesh, what a geek! And I used to be really cool...really.