KC Loves: Nelson-Atkins Museum

I love a lot of things about living in KC, but two of the big ones are (1) having a big, gorgeous, free(!) art museum, and (2) having local friends who love going to art museums. Last week, on Thanksgiving Break, my friend Claire and I drove into the city for brunch at Heirloom Bakery and then spent hours wandering the halls of the Nelson-Atkins museum. When I say hours, I seriously mean hours--my feet hurt when we left, and it was two full hours later than either of us realized! It was the best day, and we literally saw everything in the museum except the special exhibit. Obviously I had serious heart-eyes for the British section, and I also stared for an extra-long at the Andrew Wyeth painting in the American area. He is forever my favorite. Claire and I both became fascinated with trying to find the oldest piece in the museum--and we spent a lot of time in the modern art area too. 

Fall Chill Out, Again

I'm just going to warn you that this isn't going to be the most eloquent post I've ever written. November has been a little bit chaotic, to say the least. I've been feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally drained over the past few weeks. A huge part of that has been a result of the election--I was really not prepared for how much it would affect me. I'm an INFJ, which can mean a lot of things, but one of them is that I'm empathetic to a fault. I'm also an introvert, and introversion combined with feeling all the things(!) for disenfranchised groups affected by the outcome of the election (and hell, even for Hillary Clinton) and trying to be there for everyone hurting in the aftermath was just a recipe for emotional burnout.  The worst part was how ashamed I was of my own distress, knowing that even though I was directly impacted by virtue of being a woman, there were so many others who had it so much worse. I felt guilty for needing to step back, disconnect, or even escape for awhile, because I knew that so many people--by virtue of their race, religion, sexual orientation, or country of origin--couldn't.