Book Tour to Joplin, MO (Day 1)

Monday, September 28, 2026
6:22am Wake up. Quick work out, shower, and breakfast. Temp 64F.
7:45am Sit down at laptop and discover what I forgot to pack: my webcam for patient video visits today.
11:20am Ride to Missouri South State University campus. Temp 76F.
12pm Talk to the interdisciplinary undergraduate research class about researching the dissertation, writing the book, and how my scholarship affects my clinical practice. 
1:32pm Sit down to lunch in the cafeteria. 

"If I'm remembered 100 years from now, I hope it will not be for looks but for books." ~Dolly Parton

2:10pm Find a window seat in the library. Temp 81F.

3:42pm Take a walk around the "quad" while eating an apple.

Above: Since 2012, Roary the Lion has been the mascot for MSSU's 12 sports teams.

Below: The freedom flagpole was dedicated on September 11, 2002.

5pm Wrap up working and meet old med-school colleague for a tour of the fancy-schmancy new health sciences building with multiple simulation labs, dissection rooms, and 3-D printing shop. Temp 82F.

I spy, with my little eye, a book-talk poster amidst the other announcements.

6pm Dinner at RibCrib.
8pm Comfy on the couch in my hotel room to catch up with blogging. 
10pm Bed. Temp 69F.

Huge shout-out to the librarians at MSSU! They have gone out of their way to make the library welcoming, fun, comforting, and entertaining. There's a lot of art, some displays (middle-school students had re-designed famous album covers), and a Library of Things students can check out. Also the Lion Co-op, which is a food and toiletries pantry for anyone on campus who needs them.

German Studies in Phoenix, AZ

Thursday, September 24, 2026

4:59am Open eyes. Curse being awake so early. Decide to embrace consciousness despite the dark. Facebook for half an hour. Temp 49F.

5:32am Get out of bed and spend the best 15 minutes of the day brushing and petting Rosamunda.

6am Run two 10-minute miles and do strength training to a Last Week Tonight episode. Lie on yoga mat to recover. Water the plants.

6:45am Shower and dress.

7:25am Pack toiletries and electronics. Make breakfast. Tidy around the house.

8am Wake up Dear Husband to kiss him goodbye. Review packing list and decide you have probably forgotten something, unsure what yet. 

9am Catch parking lot shuttle to the Pittsburgh International Airport terminal.

10:11am By the time you take your window seat on the plane (17F), have two conversations inspired by the University of Pittsburgh Med-Peds logo on your jacket. Temp 54F.

11:22am Touch down in Detroit. 

11:50am Settle for a salad from Potbelly's.

12:01pm Get distracted by the medical history displays from University of Michigan, which is celebrating its 175th anniversary.

12:32pm Take window seat 40F and eat lunch. Temp 67F.

?pm Attempt to finish reading pre-circulated papers for your seminar but take a nap instead. Snack.

1:40pm Touch down in Phoenix. Temp 80F. Pick up bag and grab a Lyft to the hotel. 

2:45pm Struggle to connect to wifi. Reboot computer. Work.

3:55pm Find my book at the Johns Hopkins University Press table!

4pm Business meeting.

5pm Reception.

6pm Check email. 

7pm Dinner at a South American restaurant with an old friend!

8:30pm Start required electronic health record module.

9pm Give up on staying awake. Temp 81F.

Friday, September 25, 2026

4:13am Give up on staying asleep. Finish module. Do other computer tasks. Temp 81F.

6:40am Now that the hotel restaurant is open for breakfast, shower and dress. Discover that exfoliating hand wash is too harsh and excoriate face in multiple places.

7:45am Decide that none of the first morning sessions are relevant enough to attend. Return to room to help a med student with an abstract on the history of psychiatry and edit/conditionally accept an article manuscript on physicians with disabilities.

10:10am Discussion session on body studies in German history, art, and literature. 

12:15pm Burgers and fries with colleagues from other institutions. Temp 91F.

1:45pm Panel on the internment of civilians during WWI and WWII.

3:45pm Grab-bag panel on German body studies. Temp 95F. (Glass-walled room that didn't appear to be air-conditioned. 🥵)

6pm Redeem drink ticket and then peace-out of the reception in favor of computer work from the lobby whilst slightly buzzed.

7:30pm Awards banquet. 2 friends won awards!

10pm Fall asleep. Temp 85F.

Saturday, September 26, 2026

4:15am Wake up to a full moon put the hotel window. Facebook, computer work, and watch the sun rise until breakfast. Temp 77F. 

7am Omelet for breakfast with a Swiss scholar of smell and the senses.

8am Session on interdisciplinarity on the occasion of the 50th birthday of the German Studies Association (word clouds showing changes in conference keywords below). Temp 79F.

10:10am Present paper.

12pm Group lunch. Temp 97F.

1:49pm Slide into undergraduate student paper panel a little late. Make significant progress on cross-stitch.

3:45pm Skip last panel of the day to swim and read by the pool. Temp 99F.

5:30pm Practice book talk: 46 minutes.

6:30pm Recruit a couple of grad students to Body Studies Network at the reception.

7pm Dinner with one old and one new colleague. Temp 90F.

9pm Edit book talk and slides.

10pm Sleep. Temp 86F.

Sunday, September 27, 2026

4:33am Wake up and roll over.

5:27am Wake up again and Facebook. Temp 79F.

6am Get up and go to gym. Rue not having done this every day. 

7am Hastily shower, dress, and pack.

7:42am Early to first session of the day. Temp 80F.

8am Eat breakfast during roundtable about Hannah Arendt and totalitarianism. Note to self: read the introduction to The Human Condition (1958) and the last 50-60pp of On the Origins of Totalitarianism.

10:10am Last session of our seminar together. 

12:12pm Take Lyft to airport. Buy 1/2-lb box of cactus candy. Watch Cleveland Bengals lose to Pittsburgh Steelers on the waiting lounge television. Temp 95F.

1:15pm Squeeze into seat 15F. Read a chapter, outline an article, lose at Candy Crush. 

5:52pm Land in Tulsa. Meet the professor who is my chauffeur for this trip. Drive 2 hours to Joplin, MO. Temp 79F.

8:09pm Settle into hotel room. Practice book talk (50 minutes). Temp 71F.

10pm Turn off Sunday Night Football. Temp 71F.

Labor Day on the water, 2026

On Labor Day Monday, I got up early and found my way to the 24-hour gym in Dennison, where I worked out and then walked back in the early light. By the time I had showered and dressed, breakfast had been delivered. We ate out on the patio and then relaxed on the lower bunk/daybed until it was time to go to lunch. We again had to be flexible but managed to find a Mexican place that was both open on the holiday and served really excellent food (El Rey). The original plan had been to check out Uhrichsville's municipal water park, but online research before we left showed that it had opened late and closed early; a Facebook post referenced human feces on the water slide. Hard pass. Instead we drove to Atwood Lake Park Beach. We had worn our bathing suits, but the air temperature was a little lower than ideal for swimming, so we read / dozed / watched the scenery around us. It was perfect. 

For dinner we drove into New Philadelphia, where we watched sports while we ate at Broadway Brewhouse, then took a stroll around downtown to enjoy the nice evening and some of the public art.

After another peaceful night alone in our train car, we had an easy morning of working out, showering, packing, brunching at Timi's Cafe, and then driving back to Pittsburgh. I'm glad we made the time for an extended stay, because it was so relaxing to have some real time away from our usual labors.

Destination: Schoenbrunn Village

After exercising our eyes and brains it was time to exercise our stomachs. Next stop: lunch at the Tusky Dugout in Tuscarora, OH. Yes, the picnic tables are surrounded by cornfields.

Then it was on to Historic Schoenbrunn Village--or at least, what has been recreated of it.

"Step back in time to 1772, where Ohio was the western frontier. David Zeisberger and his Moravian missionaries settled in Schoenbrunn, in German 'Beautiful Spring.' Here the missionaries lived in peace with the Delaware American Indians. Today the Village offers a glimpse into the past with an historic village complete with 17 log cabins including the first school and first church in the State of Ohio. Check out the museum with artifacts from the time period and watch our informational video in our theater to learn more about the village."

The museum is small but well done, trying to balance the perspectives of the Native Americans who were already on this land and the various groups of Europeans and European-Americans who encountered them. The village was founded for Christianized Native Americans; the only whites who lived there were Zeisberger or a few who had grown up with Natives. The reconstructed cabins are all different and tell the stories of their inhabitants: leaders, families, widows, etc.

The text on the cloth draping the table in the photograph above reads, "The sermon was about the words: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. During this the baby girl born to Brother Lucas and Sister Pauline on the 30th of last month was baptized with the name Anne. They had been the first baptized at Lawunakhannek and there is now also the first here." ~ David Zeisberger 

The village only existed for five years, until it was caught in the crosshairs of the Revolutionary War because of its strategic location. The British and the Americans both accused them of spying for the other, so ultimately they decided to abandon the site and burn the church to prevent its "desecration." The group moved repeatedly, including briefly coming back, before largely dispersing westward and northward. There are still Moravians--they founded Moravian College (now University) in Bethlehem, PA.

The center of village life was the meeting house (above and below).

Zeisberger not only learned the Delaware language but gave them an alphabet and taught in the school (below).

Much of the signage expressed how idyllic life was at Schoenbrunn, but I noticed that the display cases with recovered objected included multiple locks, and there was a mechanism for judgment and punishment in the community.

I was particularly interested in the cemetery, sometimes referred to as "God's Acre." In the 1920s, after the site was rediscovered, headstones were carved for the wooden crosses that had been lost, and laid over the bodies, which are segregated by sex, age, and marital status. They are oriented toward the east, where the Savior is supposed to appear according to Moravian tradition.

Finally it was back to Dennison for dinner at "the Yard" (owned by the same Pangrazio family as the previous night's restaurant) and bed in the train car.

Last but not least: Labor Day, on which we did no work!