Monday, October 26, 2009

It was a graveyard smash

Another lull at Panera between schools. I feel compelled to mention that this is my first Panera stop in a couple of weeks; I've been in areas lately that don't have one nearby. It was strange. I ate a lot of burgers and now feel guilty. (Is it okay to share that with the blogosphere?)

Now that I've covered the open house, I must give a shout out to my sister, Kim (she doesn't have a website or anything for me to be fancy and hyperlink to). Saturday night following the open house, I went on a historic ghost tour with Kim and our aunt in Naptown. It was pretty adorable. And, the best part, we got glow bracelets! Blue, in case you wondering.

I realized after that I was actually pretty disappointed with the low volume of cemeteries visited. I'm actually a little bit fascinated with burial traditions, and I think historic cemeteries are insanely beautiful and fun to wander through. (When I went to NOLA with Keri for spring break, my second favorite thing we did was a walking tour of the French Quarter and one of the cemeteries. My absolute favorite thing was eating.) We did visit one to hear about a creepy gravedigger who tried to bury people alive because he was such a fan of the process, but then we moved on to residences and offices. Lame. For me, the creepiest story took place in a really nice house belonging to a wealthy family. They were rumored to have a fortune buried underneath the house, but no one could ever find it... until they found the secret room! (Note to fortune-seekers: why wouldn't you look for a secret room first?) Sadly for them, all they found was the mummified remains of a young woman. Yeah. Historians suspect that she had some psychological issue, so her family did what any respectable family would do: created the circumstances for her to die so no one would discover the terrible secret and their family name wouldn't be besmirched. So they bricked this poor girl into a room without food or water and waited for her to die. (We don't really know why she would be mummified, though, if they bricked her in...) A ghost hunter type of show actually put an opera singer in the room and discovered that no one in the house or on the street could hear anything in there. Poor girl. (Oh, yeah... apparently she haunts the place or something.)

The weather today is amazing, so I'm trying to plan a wonderful adventure. I might cross two more FLW houses off my list today. Maybe three? We'll see how ambitious I'm feeling. I am fairly caffeinated...

2 comments:

  1. Oh god. I just looked up the Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield Illinois because I was going to comically suggest that if you like burial customs so much, we could go there, but then like in two weeks suggest it again to see if maybe I could force you to go on the best Abescapade possible with me, BUT IT'S CLOSED. I need consoling, please.

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  2. That is tragic for both of us. Any hope of it reopening? Maybe if we get S.V. on the case?

    ...but obviously I would have gone with you.

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