We were just driving by

What were we doing at Hampton Beach in NH last Saturday? Vacationing 1 month before graduation? No. Just Trying to figure our lives out.

I love all these excuses for a vacation. But when will it end? Too many leads. Way too many possibilities.

During the 8.5 hour drive there and back we took turns reading out of a book I found in our library. "The 4-Hour Work Week". by Timothy Ferriss. Pretty strange reading choice when you are 40 and just starting your career-but interesting none the less.

One thing we stumbled across was some info the author presented from Barry Schwartz 2004 classic -The Paradox of Choice: Why more is less.

Here are the main principles.

The more options you consider the more buyer's regret you'll have.
The more options you encounter the less fulfilling your ultimate outcome will be.

He pointed out that considering options costs attention that can't be spent on action.
Therefore:

Too many choices =Less or no productivity (uh, oh! check)
Too many choices= and Sense of Overwhelm (Whoah! check)

So, it Definitely sounds like we have ruined our chances of ever finding happiness now. What were we thinking crisscrossing the country exploring so many options? Just looking for the perfect one, you know. But in the meantime stacking up way too many "what if's?"

So just like that we are done. No more family vacations/ career explorations/ward shopping long weekends. (We saw the Atlantic Ocean and toured a witch museum in Salem Mass this trip.) As much as I love the chance to see something new and check out the latest career possibility, (not to mention trap my husband in a car with me for several days and have his undivided unattention) I am going to force myself to kiss him goodbye and assess the situation on his own. We had already decided this coming home from on our last trip. But then the Dr. kept telling us how important it was to see both of us at the interview because this was a family decision and we caved.

Even the evening before we left Brent was having second thoughts about taking us all along. "Why am I taking all of you guys again? I think I am just going to throw Savannah's sleeping bag in the buick and take off in the morning."

To which Savannah replied, "No way, Dad. Last time you borrowed my sleeping bag you brought it home filled with fish!" (It was a perfect insulator for all the halibut Brent brought home from Alaska.)

After this weekend, Savannah is more than happy to trade her sleeping bag in exchange for not being included on these road trips. She was dragged along against her will to babysit once again while we met the Dr. and toured the office. These things used to be fun because they involved hotel swim pools, and lots of McDonald's drive thru's (yuck) but it's getting harder to please these spoiled kids who have spent way too many days on the road lately.




I never knew that we were such picky people. I thought we could live anywhere. Why is this so difficult?

It's not like we are just driving into towns and deciding that they aren't good enough for us. Almost all of the places have seemed nice enough for me. Many times almost perfect. But then there is have been a few nagging things about the practice that just don't seem optimal.

This latest opportunity in NH really only had one major concern and if that one can be worked out. . then this may be the one we go with.. . for now anyway. This is for an associateship (no buying in) so no stressing about putting down permanent roots someplace.

Unfortunately, the ward was the smallest we have visited yet. Wow! Why do we always stick out so much? I had to haul Marcus out twice just for singing a few little songs, just because it was that dead quiet in the chapel.