The Next Big Move?

There are some decisions to be made. If I do this cooking school thing, that more or less eliminates the possibility of an MSW, and with it a respectable career. In truth, I really wasn't looking forward to going back and getting a master's degree. Still, it was a shot at professional respectability. Of course, there is always the philosophical counseling course, which might be as good as anything. So, yeah, I think I am willing to let the MSW thing go. But this means saying good bye to a solid way to earn a living in the future. It was kind of impulsive (imagine that) filling out the application course for the cooking school. Well, it is only twenty-five dollars (twenty-five dollars!). Indeed, it was just this morning when it occured to me that if it was going to be done (cooking school, that is), now was the time to do it. I mean, I had the Arizona residency thing all pinned down (not that that mattered). But I was all situated here already and could start things up quickly and painlessly in that direction rather than trying to transition a whole life. Indeed, if I was going to do the look for woman in China thing, it would make sense to do this cooking school thing before, and not after, since it doesn't make a lot of sense to drag a Chinese girl here to watch me in cooking school. I doubt one would come if that were what were awaiting. And it just seemed from the perspective of a book, this philosopher-chef thing attempting to change some fundamental things about yourself would best make sense if it were done as soon as possible after leaving academia, which technically occured a little more than a month ago--or maybe two months, I've lost count. So I will go up tomorrow and check out the cooking schools and make a decision early next week. The thing is, I need to do something fairly soon; cannot sit around here much longer. In any case, I need to sketch out alternative paths if this falls through. One alternative would involve a winter Dhatun from Dec 11-Jan 8th, which would mean I would probably want to be back in the States for Thanksgiving, which would mean, if I did the Canyon trip, that I would have from the end of September until late November to do something/go somewhere. And I could just randomly travel somewhere--Southeast Asia. Europe--Run Athens/Florence Marathons or Beijing/Bangkok marathons (as half marathons, which seems sort of half assed). Or I could volunteer somewhere for a couple of monts=hs