Rainy weekends in Phoenix are few and far between, so when these weekends hit the wandering spirit takes a bit of a backseat. The original plan called for an afternoon watching Jenn's sons play youth basketball on Saturday, then hitting the road again for another day trip similar to last weekend's Tucson plan. But it's time to add another Principle to the list:
Just because something is planned, doesn't mean you need to do it.
This should probably be pretty obvious since I mentioned before that planning is the thing I hate most about travel. I guess the weekend trips are were starting to get a little routine, so maybe this is a good reminder that we can always shake it up a little.
The weekend began by trying out a new pho restaurant. We had been pretty loyal to our normal spot, but Jenn and I happened to be close to Scottsdale so we decided to try Pho Cao. I'll keep it short here since I'll talk about this place in the Places Wandered section later in the week, but the direct quote from Jenn was "best pho I've ever had." This is coming from a woman who would eat pho for every meal if possible. After pho we decided to take it easy and just go to a movie, but first we had to stop by Target to get some supplies. This is when things got pretty interesting.
Our Target wandering led us down the aforementioned aisle. The trip started on a funny note when Jenn spotted a young couple in the aisle purchasing condoms. Unable to control her response to the sight of teenagers acting responsibly, she let out an "Awwww....cute!" when she saw them. I'm still not sure if they heard it or if they were just embarrassed by the two "adults" joining them in the aisle, but they scattered quickly after.
Now that we were alone, I was able to take in the vastness of the product selection laid out before my eyes. There are more pads, liners, and applicators than I think any man is capable of comprehending a need. Of all of these products one box caught me eye more than any. I won't plug a brand here (unless a certain two letter brand wants to throw some ad money my way) but the product was labeled "Pro Comfort". I made the jokes I think any man in my position is obligated to make:
"I had no clue women could go pro in menstruation"
and,
"What constitutes an amateur period?"
and of course,
"Does that mean they can't make the Olympic Menses team?"
For some reason I don't think Jenn found this nearly as humorous as I did.
As for the "art" portion of this post, after the basketball games we decided to scrap the travel plans for the weekend and stay close to home. This was mostly my call since I felt like sleeping in my own bed after a long week. Our Saturday stop was at the Tempe Festival of the Arts. My goal was to find one painting or picture to put up in my apartment. One of the first places we stopped was an artist who painted a lot of galactic art using only drumsticks. So many of his paintings would have went well with my science and nature theme for artwork in my apartment. Realizing that the oil canvas works were well out of my price range, I considered buying one of his reprints but balked in hopes of finding "something better". Although we would see many gorgeous works of art that day, no oil canvas would come close to my "price range". I won't even say what that range was since I don't want to draw the ire of the art aficionados. By the time we made our way back to his tent he had already closed up shop and I was left longing to have one of his reprints. Lesson learned!
Education is probably the area I have wandered the most in my life. Here are the stats:
Total college credits (all levels): 237
Undergrad credits: 144
Psychology minor: 18
Marketing minor: 18
Human Resources minor (didn't complete): 15
Graduate credits: 93
MBA credits: 36
MA credits: 54
Human Dynamics concentration credits: 15
Innovative Leadership concentration credits: 15
Master of Public Administration credits: 3
And that last number is where I'm at today, when I decided to wander a different direction. I had chosen the MPA program because I was interested in getting into a position where I could contract with the government or maybe going into politics at some point in my life. This all changed last Friday afternoon. I sat in my study room at campus trying to focus on reading about "Law and the Public Administrator", a subject I had specifically requested as my second class of the program. Despite having loved every law class I've taken in my life, I just could not focus. Every time I tried, I hopped back onto this site and had to tinker with something else of the site or the new site I'm working on (Build A Biz Backward). I knew that I wasn't as passionate about "education for the sake of education" for the first time in a long time.
I'm not sure what it is that draws me to this: storytelling, writing, marketing, website design, entrepreneurship, or maybe just creative control. But at this point in my life, I LOVE this! I have to stress, I don't recommend wandering in education to anyone. In fact, my job pretty much entails trying to keep students pointed in the right direction. This is where I can count one of the great blessings of my life, the right job at the right time. People take shots at for-profit education companies and some of it is might be deserved. However, I will always believe that education is what a person makes out of it. I have worked hard. I have expanded my horizons. Most importantly, I have gone into every course open minded with a desire to grow professionally and personally.
And with that I wandered my way into the pursuit of becoming a:
Master of Science in Information Systems
***Check out more of my favorite items in the Rogue Recommendations section***
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