Conscientious Objector

"One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity." -Auguste Renoir

"So...apparently the collection has somewhere in between eight to nine thousand prints that we didn't know about."
"Oh crap."

Day five. I show up in Cynthia's office under the assumption that I'll be doing some condition reports, maybe handling some sweet prints, definitely wearing (the favorite) white gloves...ya know. Nope.

Instead, I'm handed a stack of papers, the collection list, and told to find which ones match up. Apparently the incompetence of Cynthia's predecessor was not to be believed and there are several THOUSAND prints floating around somewhere in the collection. The problem is, we're not sure which ones we know about.

So I trot off to the seminar room, under the assumption that the 60-page list of prints is alphabetized and it'll take maybe 20 minutes. Much to my chagrin, there is no apparent order in how the list is organized. What. So. Ever. Of course, I discover this after Cynthia has peaced out for the gym. And Vicki isn't in her office.

Being the devoted and pathetic intern that I am, I make an attempt. To search through a 60 page document with size (I'm being serious) 6 font. Maybe 8. But almost definitely 6. That is not in any particular order. After about ten minutes of this, with zero results, I decide to pretend that it's not there and wait for Cynthia to get back so I can use the beautiful Command-F function. I spend the remaining time taping pages together.

Eventually Cynthia gets back and I get to Command-F the crap out of the now alphabetized version of the print list. Thank goodness I gave up the chase early beforehand. Out of the 230ish pieces on the insurance list and the 6000 pieces on the print list, TWO match up. TWO. That's right, people. TWO.

Let's give a prolonged, very very sincere round of applause for laziness. It saved my ass.