People who well and truly love their work sometimes have hobbies that are also related to their chosen fields. Maggie was one of those people. When she couldn’t sleep, she baked, and when she was bored, she experimented. This was one of those occasions.

It was her day off, and normally she’d go out and see a movie, do some shopping or even go bicycling, but the rain that had started this morning was coming down hard enough that she really had no desire to go outside. She also didn’t feel like watching television. So, as usually happened when she got bored, Maggie decided to get creative. Her mind went into different directions on these occasions. One time after watching Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, she’d gotten the urge to experiment with Turkish Delight, and ended up making five different batches, in various flavors. The rosewater flavor still remained her favorite out of that experiment. Then there was the time she’d gone on a scone baking rampage, curious as to what flavor was the best. That had ended up in a tie between chocolate chip and amaretto.

Today it was jam. She’d been sitting in the dining room for breakfast, dressed casually in jeans and a loose blouse since she didn't have to be in the kitchen, and she spreading jam on a piece of toast when a desire for fresh jam came over her. There had been a little café a few blocks away from Moderne. It was a lovely little place that only served breakfast and lunch, but one of the cooks made her own jam, and Maggie had found it to be delicious. She wasn’t about to start making jam on a regular basis, but she hadn’t really tried it before and it would make a nice treat if it came out well. The problem was she didn’t have any cookbooks that had recipes for preserves. Maggie knew she could probably just go online and find a bazillion jam recipes, but that usually involved know what kind she wanted to make, but at this point she didn’t know what kind she wanted yet, all she knew was that she wanted home-made jam. Besides, just going through a cookbook to see what it had was fun in itself. So Maggie decided to head over to the Institute library to see what was available. As large a place as it was, it was sure to have some good recipe books for jam-making.

The library was a large, lovely place, and quiet apart from the sound of the rain pouring outside. Maggie found the online reference catalog, and did a search for cook books and jam making until she found a listing that looked promising. ’Blue Ribbon Preserves’ she thought to herself. That looks good

After writing down the name, author and reference number, she went over to the nonfiction section and started going through the aisles until she found the number section she needed, then started looking more carefully for the exact book. She knew she had found the right section; and the computer had it marked that the book was available, but it wasn’t there. Maggie looked through some of the surrounding shelves, but still couldn’t find the one she wanted. There were other cookbooks there, and even some on jam-making, but she’d already decided that she wanted that book, and so right now that was the only book that would do.

A little annoyed that she was being thwarted in her jam-making mission, Maggie went up to the main desk to seek assistance.