Fic Rush 48

Seems like this post needs Husk as I'm now at the casino/hotel (and have already had cocktails and lost money)

So I got to sleep in some today because nothing opens before 10 AM. I checked out of the Sheraton and rolled out for Independence MO. Now if I knew this nearby town was so stinking cute I would have picked a third place (or at least planned to take the horse drawn carriage thing).

I went to Vaile Mansion It's a gorgeous home (that popped the dream bubble of owning an old home when I saw the 1.5 million dollar repair bill it's working on). Vaile was a lawyer/vinter whose wife (as these stories almost always go) died moving it here and he never finished the third floor billards/ballroom. It went to a lady lawyer next, his friend because his family tried to break his will giving it to a girl's college. It took so long to break the will his family was out of money and sold this house for a buck.

And SO much like Marietta's The Anchorage, they kept it up as a sanitorium for the wealthy and then a nursing home until the mid 1980s and unlike The Anchorage it didn't sit vacant long.

This place is filled with chocolate marble fireplaces, every ceiling is a painted mural. Sadly all the original furniture is gone (sold to pay that lady lawyer) but they tried to replace it as close as possible (the auction list was in the house so they knew what was there) There were tons of hair memento Mori in the house from the hair museum which I had wanted to go to but couldn't find times. Turns out even though the webpage is still there, the museum is not. The owner died in her 90s after covid and her daughter has sold off all the hair pieces. I didn't want to leave this place.

From here I went to the historic jail
. It's in that stinking cute down town and what fun was this? It's thought the limestone prison was built in the 1870s but they're learning it's probably the 1850s and the brick part is 1907. They have a little one room school house that was moved there years ago and every 1st grader in their school district goes there for a field trip to do class like they would have then. Sounds fun. The brick part of the jail is a little museum of local h istory (I need to look up what the priests of pallas was).

The jail was interesting. I was getting the cold, ghost chills standing there only to find out I was directly under where they dropped the prisoners to hang them (not a lot of hangings there mind you but still). Jesse James' brother had been imprisoned there but he was so well liked/folk hero status that they let him Al Capone that prison cell (before Al was probably even born) filling it with his personal stuff and he had it to himself. Most of the people were jammed in there 3 to a cell.

However during the Civil war, they had up to 11 women jammed in per cell. Most of my civil war travel (which is min.) has been in the north. Until I was in Louisville and now here, I didn't realize that the Confederate sympathizers had their land grabbed and they were imprisoned if they didn't leave. Tried to get my dad a book on this but the only one they had was a skull buster that even I couldn't see the print. Did get me a ghost book and some true crime book because I need books and make good choices. Also the kid running the cash register saw my Hazbin purse charms and he was very excited.



From there I went to the John Wornall Majors house but I missed the tour and didn't want to wait 40 minutes for it since I wasn't feeling it. I did walk around and read the placards. I did appreciate they were honest about the house's entrenchment in slavery (also ditto the jail which was built by slaves)

But since it was only like 230 I didn't want to go to the hotel because I couldn't go in for another 2 hours so I went to Nelson Atkins Art Museum. Turns out if you have a handicapped tag you don't have to pay the 20$ to park. Woot. So I sprung for the Alphonse Mucha exhibit which I really wanted to see (but if I had to pay for parking it would have been a 45$ ticket for it all)

The Mucha thing was SO nice but since my camera has a light (not a flash) I couldn't take much in way of pics because the docent was right up my ass. The flash is off, I swear. Wanna see?!? So I didn't get a shot of this but I'm putting it here, they had a bronze light fixture of Sarah Bernhardt's head he'd designed. To be honest I know very little about Sarah and had NO idea that she played several male roles including Hamlet.

I'm also not sure I knew just how much of Mucha's work was for calendars and ads. They had a whole room with 60s-70s rock album cover art inspired by his work (Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd) and I didn't know about the Slavic Empire set of 20 paintings he did at the end of his life that were hidden from the Gestapo because they inspired Slavic patriotism

From there I went to the main art area (the whole wing was closed where Mucha was except for that) This is the largest art museum I've been in I think. It was one little room after the other. I was so happily lost in this place. It was getting on 430 so I hit the gift shop wondering why people were still checking in when everything closes at 5. Had a gorgeous mucha umbrella and scarf (45 and 75$ respectively hard pass) and went for the car only to realize Wait it's thursday! It's open until 9 so I go back up to the second floor that I hadn't had time for. But there is art in here from Egypt to early 20th century (I assume the rest is in the Kemper modern art museum)

I head off to find the casino. I didn't realize it was SO far to the north west. I'm sure it wasn't super far (I remember google directioning all of this so I wouldn't make a bad choice) My GPS tried to murder me in a roundabout repeatedly. Americans suck at round abouts. I pulled out, no one was there (I have sensors on this car soo I know that there was no one there) and this guy comes whipping around SO far he nearly hits me and the guy in front of me while he's blowing his horn like he's not the idiot. When the GPS tried to make me go around a third time I said fuck it, I'm going straight and you find me another way there. It did and I have no idea how it didn't figure that out from the get go.

The argosy is done up like a roman street. Nice room, fancy bathroom BUT the shower is designed for wheelchairs so water runs everywhere, the rain shower head is the only one that works and so far I can't get it to be hot water. eye roll. I hit a little jackpot put it all back in and now I'm quite tired. no pictures yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Today was only a half day. We used to do two full days of workshop but not only was it a lot so many faculty had to leave half way through the last day to return to work (and some are still taking their suitcases with them on the bus today) so a few years ago we went to this.

Workshop #1 was definitely one I wanted to go to but I'm not sure if my students would go for. It's about scrapbooking your successes in class and/or using it to outline a tricky problem you think you've conquered (also I loved the study tip of quiz yourself, highlight what you know, look over the unhighlighted stuff and self quiz again). I could at least give it a shot (for credits)

Workshop #2 was all about gaming and not only that unlike all the other gaming ones he put links in to make your own game resources AND other games for sale. I'm really gonna need to check that out.

Workshop #3 canceled. AGAIN. I went to my second choice which was to build a brachial plexus from pool noodle vertebra and pipe cleaners. It was fun but I don't go into that level of detail.

It was only 1 when I got back to the hotel. I went to the American Jazz Museum . Didn't think I'd get there because the road to it was closed but I got there. And I got lucky. I'm not sure if they do this all the time or if it's all the time but they had high school bands playing the whole time I was there. Yay! The museum chose depth over breadth. It's 90% about Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald. They have it done up well, lots of interactive reading things, plenty of ads and other stuff on display. I knew that KC was big in Jazz but I didn't realize it was more important (or at least AS important) as NYC and Chicago. They had a mocked up Blue Room (that does concerts almost nightly). I didn't know much about Soundies, basically music videos that you could find in the 30s=40s in nicklelodians and things that like and there was a Columbus OH lawyer John H. Baker who gave his collection to this museum. they have literal miles of footage this guy preserved and tons of archives (and i suspect no space to expand the collection)

When I left it was after 3 and since most things close up at 5 I decided now would be the time to go to Elm Wood Cemetery Neat, rather small cemetery with cool stuff. I missed Leannah Loveall's grave (a famous madam) and my phone is crap so I couldn't use find a grave or download the map. (turns out she's not on find a grave but now I've seen the map. I can always go back)

Came back saw one of my compatriots and she told me there's a freaking Hallmark museum at the end of the block. I could have come and did that. Ah well (might still try to go)

Also thought about what someone told me about the roof pool here. From my room I could see no steps, just ladders but she had mentioned a tunnel. I couldn't see a tunnel so I trundle over and there it is a little room with the towels and a tunnel and there are steps doing to the tunnel (I can't do the ladder) I run back, get my suit and put in about 40 minutes of water aerobics. I'm the only one there.

Indulged in Jack Stack BBQ again, turkey and lamb ribs this time. They were amazing. packed everything up. Tomorrow I go to the casino (because the price of this place is going to shoot way up).


What I Just Finished Reading:
The Antique Hunters Guide to Murder - this was pretty good

What I am Currently Reading:

The Faraway Inn - a cozy fantasy (portal) set in Vermont. I'm enjoying it.

Our Sisters Keeper - a very weird own voices black magic setting in the 1920s, has some serious creepy vibes


The Gay Disaster Detective Agency - one of my arcs. I usually like Lev AC Rosen but this isn't working for me.

The Death Card - currently struggling to get into it


The Kindness of Strangers - another arc and I'm not sure this is going to work for me


What I Plan to Read Next: some of my looming arcs

I had a hypoglycemic event last night so of course the correction left me over 300 this morning and for some reason my phone did not go off when I set it. It went off when I was getting up the last two days so I was cranky about getting to the breakfast with barely time to get to the first workshop.

It was an oddly laid out place with workshops all over the damn place (I did not bring my cane. I will bring it tomorrow) My first workshop was moved all the way across campus so I went to the one next door. Not really a topic that interested me that much but I did get some helpful things from it for the syllabus.

Work shop number two was canceled. Boo. I wanted to do the dungeon crawl case study escape room thing. I went to the one next door. This one was interesting, talking about how out dated some of the graphics and concepts we still use are and I was wondering why some of it hasn't been adopted.

The lunch hour was something else. I have been going to these off and one for 16 years and this is the first time the line was insane (I was literally in a different building) They had one table of food and RAN OUT. There is no real excuse for this because they know how many people have registered, not sure who messed up. Luckily more food was cooked up (didn't go with the rest of it mind you). I got my food 10 minutes before the afternoon session started.

That was a case study one by a former doc turned teacher (similar to my story) and...for the first time I used ChatGPT to create the case studies and I was a bit terrified at how fast it did it and relatively accurate too. In talking to a few others I might remove the extended responses from my exams and put in simple case studies (as the nclex for the nurses are all going to those). Also it made me very sad to write this case study as a SOAP note (even though I am relieved I no longer have to write SOAP notes any more, the medical record a doc writes every time they see you).

My last workshop was a bust. No one showed up. I moaned not again. I don't want to sneak into another workshop late again. And my table mates say why bother? Let's just go get on the bus and go home. And so we did. The fun thing was before that we were talking and I mentioned my age (it was relevant to whatever it was we were talking about) and the guy I was with said I would never have guessed that (his partner agreed) why thank you. I don't think I look nearly 60 either.

Also at lunch I brought out my heavy ass laptop because the blaster box for Hazbin Hotel was dropping at noon (10 minutes late as it turns out) it's their new card set and it will sell out. I managed to get it...twice over because I fat fingered my touch screen and it would NOT let me empty it out probably because it sold out in minutes and I'm like fine, I'll buy it because I can either sell it whole or more likely get the cards out and sell them separately. These cards have been selling out in under 5 minutes and people are reselling them for hundreds. I won't do that but I can sell it for easy 10-20 a card if I wanted to. I can recoup this and each one has an ultra rare and rare and other specials. Those I'll keep. Have I mentioned I love cards? I've been collecting them since 1977 with Star Wars (I even have the 70s era Planet of the Apes tv show), I have shit tons of Buffyverse and Fullmetal Alchemist cards. I have the entire Sandman set including chasers (probably worth a lot less now that we know how skeevy Gaiman is)

Dinner was chicken speidini at Garozzo's, yummy but I almost wish I had ordered the other chicken dish (they're credited from turning the traditional beef speidini to chicken) because I didn't like the pasta that came with this. I would have enjoyed the garlic/olive oil one with the other dish. I haven't eaten the tiramisu yet.

I also DID buy my Kansas City Gangster tour ticket for Saturday at 10. All the afternoon ones were sold out but you know what I don't mind. I have been getting up early for days now and once I get that over with I'll have time to do my afternoon stuff. Now to sit down and figure out my tourist days. I know what I want to do Thursday but now for the rest of the weekend.

Have fannish 50 the questions, I'm using Buffy for this

Day 4: Least favourite female character. This was much harder than it should be. I decided I wasn't going to use any one off characters and using Joyce or Dawn felt too easy. I didn't hate them. Joyce made a lot of bad choices that annoyed me and Dawn was...supposed to be younger than who was cast so I don't actually blame the character for being off.


I went with Kendra. She was a poorly drawn character. I liked that they went with the naivete/lack of social awareness because she was never a girl. She was just a weapon to be used until she was killed. That was a nice contrast to Buffy's wild side. Maybe it was that she came off as rather...dumb and that the one character of color on this whole show (other than Giles' girlfriend and Mr. Trick, a villain) was there really to make the white characters look better. It was uncomfortable. She was there to die (so much for the traditional training).

( all questions under here )

the conference portion of the con is over and now it'll be two days of workshops which are always so invigorating. I almost wish this was the end of July/beginning of August so I could roll into the new semester all fired up.

We had the celebratory cocktails and it's usually appetizers but today it was make your own ramen bowl. Wow. (kimchi and spicy tofu were so in my bowl). Expecting not much, I had already ordered dinner from a BBQ joint (highly recced) it had a menu like none I've seen. So beef burnt ends and beef ribs with a pool of smoked beans it is. Delicious. I mean I don't usually eat meat but when I do go carnivore, it gets ridiculous.

Finally met my mentee who didn't much need me (as expected) as he's a retired family practice doc just moving into teaching. got a mug from holt anatomical. Didn't win a single door prize. Didn't murder any kids but the urge was there (they were screaming in the halls until 130 in the morning and several other Hapsters did complain. I had to turn them in when I went to heat up my lunch. they had trashed the microwave, food and wrappers all over the floor. You know, I've BEEN a kid at a hotel with school functions and I never did this

I did find a few things that no one but me will be interested in but I'm putting them here so I remember. A study contract for students (how long to study, what days, what's in their way), having them do a group eportfolio of their dissections, collaborative testing before exams to build confidence, using the guess who game to do histology quizzing (and others if you build it) and gee I've already forgot a few.


I watched a giant chunk of The Pitt (they had the whole season on) today. It is easily the most accurate medical drama I've ever seen and there was some real ptsd on a few of those scenes for me. Shudders. And then I saw The Bride (part of it) WTF was that? Easily the worst movie I have seen in years. Also thanks for the multiple sexual assault attempts in it.

dinner


new mug


It's music monday 30 weeks of music. This week's prompt is # 27 A song you discovered from a tv show. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

( There are SO many TV shows that introduced me to so much music )





here's the whole prompt list

( All under here )