We were standing by the stairs that led down from the mezzanine. The office mezzanine was all wood and concrete; it was always an equally awkward and fascinating spot because it was suspended above one of the galleries- literally surrounded by open space that allowed sounds of visitors to drift in, or sounds of us to drift out to them. You almost felt like an invisible part of the exhibit– or could look down and observe visitors as though they were on exhibit.

In any case, we stood by the entrance to the stairwell. I’d been about to leave; he’d been about to come in. I don’t remember just what we started talking about or how the question came up. But one way or another, he asked me: Tell me one thing on your list of things you want to do someday, that you haven’t done yet.

Paint a whole house, I told him. He promptly told me that I didn’t want to do that!

That was over two years ago, and I still want to paint a house. But now I want more… yesterday I spent the morning helping with a gallery renovation. My task primarily involved pulling off labels, signs, and graphics from the wall. I find that unscrewing bolts is great contemplative time. It was the fastest two hours I’ve spent in the museum. I simply really like building or dismantling things. Websites, K’nex, whatever. And I like doing something physical- using my muscles, challenging my body and using my logic to figure out what resources I have and how to best use them. I watched a video the other day of my friend laying floor tiles and now I desperately want to try it (ironic, since he was saying he’d said he’d never do it again).

Since I don’t have a house to play with renovating, I’ve been trying to think of alternative ideas that would let me try out these things. Of course it’s a disappointing fact that I don’t own any serious power tools like that tile cutter my friend used! But I don’t really see myself cutting miniature tiles for a doll house or something (and what would I do with a dollhouse, even if I could afford all the materials to build and decorate it?) I’m actually already planning to help with a Habitat for Humanity program a local group is hosting, so that’s one opportunity, though I don’t know what kind of work they’ll have us doing.

I also think it’ll be much more fun to have hands-on, non-computer projects to do in my spare time.

This is, of course, all in my blood. My mother and aunts are Sinclair’s daughters; they fix the toilets and assemble the bookcases in the family. And I’m a Sinclair’s granddaughter. I don’t know what Pop would think of my assembling websites- an odd spin on his skill with building and repairing things- but I’d like to think he’d be impressed by it, and encourage my interest in learning to build and repair physical things as well.