Vacation, All Ugly Club Ever Wanted

"It's very interesting...but I'm not interested." 

In this episode of Grossly Competent, hosts Steve and Patrick trade their usual “grossly competent” professional advice for something a little lighter—vacations, travel, and what it really means to unplug. From Door County, WI charm to Florida Keys serenity, they break down what makes a great getaway. Spoiler: it’s less about luxury and more about slowing down, good food, and not being trapped in a tourist t-shirt vortex. Along the way, they debate hotels vs. Airbnbs, confess their mutual distrust of hostels, and firmly agree that camping is… not it.

Before that, Steve makes it all about himself by announcing an upcoming speaking gig at DisruptHR (and giving Patrick full credit for his elite editing skills) while Patrick discusses the finer points of his time with the ATD (Association for Talent Development).

Here are some links you might like:

• Kayla with NAPS Chicago 
• The Go-Go's Vacation 
• DisruptHR 
• Assocaition for Talent Development (ATD)

Come for the chat, stay for the laughs, and run from our faces: we're Grossly Competent!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hello, and welcome to Grossly Competent, the learning, development, and adulting podcast that doesn't claim to be pretty, but we'll happily pretend to be slightly competent. I am your host, Steve County, and I'm joined by my co-host, the embodiment of all things opposite of an Aphrodisiac, Mr. Patrick Aylshiger. Ooh, that one uh that one kind of stings, and I like it. Feels good. Chill. Chill. That's good stuff, Steve. I love, absolutely love that you peek right at the introduction every week. It's really very efficient. Listeners know immediately what level of competence to expect. Well, as long as I have fun. Like that's really isn't that what matters? Isn't that what matters, Patrick? And then does the yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Does the mask fit?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

And listeners, I think I owe you a quick explanation. I was telling Patrick to chill because he is now currently wearing a hat that just says chill on it. So I had to call it out. My god, it's staring at me. I had to say something. Am I talking about just like taking it easy or am I talking about the temperature? I don't know. Column A, column B. I guess it's just up for the day. Folks, we've got a lot of great things to chat with you about. And before we do all that, why don't we indulge those of the in listener land on who our wonderful sponsor this week? Believe it or not, Steve, before I read this sponsor, I want to tell you a brief sentence or two. I ran into this sponsor earlier this week. Oh, that's wonderful. Wonderful. This episode is supported by buying groceries while hungry. Met them at the store, believe it or not. You came for essentials, you left with chaos. Buying groceries while hungry. Snacks first, logic, never. Wow, thanks, big buying groceries while hungry. I think we've all visited this sponsor at some time in our lives. Oh my gosh, yes. And every every decision you make is a good one while you're hungry. Like, yeah, for sure. This is well worth it. And you get home, and you're like, that was a why did I spend three times as much as I thought I would? Yeah, that was not as good of an idea as I thought. Oh yeah, yeah, had a little something to satiate you and move on. Yeah. Well, Mr. Patrick, it is time for me to steal the limelight because you are the master of television appearances, and that one unreleased mishap that happened on the bachelorette. I think that's why I got canceled, right? Is that was that you part of it? Well, I like how they're trying to paint this woman, I was what call her a girl, but she she is a woman, uh in the bad light. Like it's all her fault. But really, what they haven't said is you were on the show and you took your mask off, and you didn't actually alert anybody, and they thought that an actual like scary monster was there. I think she might have been at Boomers that night. I think she might have been two when that happened. But anyway, you get the limelight to yourself, no more. Okay. I I'm gonna I have to pat myself on the shoulder here. I I'm gonna do something I'm not normally honestly good at, and that is like talk about something that is exciting in my life, and that is I have been a chosen speaker for the disrupt HR event that's taking place in Milwaukee on April 29th of this year. So I'm really excited. That is amazing. Congratulations. I was actually kind of hoping you would like there was applause. Oh, are we just gonna edit that in? We can edit that in. Okay, we can edit that in. It feels like you're a natural for this. I mean, you disrupt me all the time. Yeah, but no, in all seriousness, congratulations. That's super cool. It sounds like an amazing opportunity. Oh my gosh, I just thought of this. How great if you could come to this event and in the middle because it's only a well, I'll explain what the whole program is, but uh, in the middle of my thing, you just start talking, just interrupt. I would, I think they would have to carry me out in a stretcher. I would be laughing so hard because people be like, how rude of him. I'm like, you don't understand. I do this to him all the time. Like, I am the worst. Um, well, thank you for the kind words. And listeners out there, Patrick is doing a very wonderful job of showing his acting chops because this is not the first time he's heard this. In fact, the the real truth behind this is I had announced this, which really was a surprise. Patrick did not know about it at the time that I was given this opportunity, and then I found out that I couldn't actually state it publicly yet. And so Mr. Patrick, in his infinite power as godlike editor, went back and edited out the entire section that I talked about. This so Patrick, thank you. Like sincerely, thank you. You're you are an absolute stallion. Thank you. Steve failed to mention that he threatened me with extreme violence. If yeah, I can edit that out. But listeners, you need to remember this. When I say extreme violence, I'm not talking about physical violence, something more along the lines of Steve removing his mask in front of me when I was not prepared. Speaking of disruptions and disrupt HR, do you mind filling us in on this event? I'm actually, I know you told me the first time, but I completely zoned out when you were talking about it. So technically you brought it up, but you didn't because I had to go back and erase it. But now you're sharing it again, it's true. Yeah. No, that's completely fair. And yes, I'd be happy to explain what the day disrupt HR event is. So disrupt HR is something that takes place throughout different cities throughout the nation. This is something I took right off of their website. Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes things up, it makes you think differently, it leaves you inspired. That event is disrupt HR. 14 speakers, five minutes each, and slides rotate every 15 seconds. Teach us something, but make it quick. I think they pick the wrong person. Five minutes. What do you I can't even get through I can't get through our intro in five minutes. Are you kidding me? No. Uh so if that was clear as mud to all of you, the the premise is really say something that you feel like goes against the grain or is disruptive to the HR industry and say it in five minutes. Like if you can't say it within that time frame, it wasn't worth it's not worth more effort than that. So if you can't introduce it in that amount of time, then just stop. And mine, my section, because it's live, like you you can go and check out their stuff, it's all on there. Mine is titled We Need to Talk because every great situation starts with we need to talk, and that is HR and L and D need to get a divorce. Ooh, yeah. So the the short crux of what I want to get to is that if each department is allowed to breathe on its own, you get more accomplished because they kind of hold each other off. So that's the very short abbreviated thing that I want to make sure I touch on. But yeah, that's that's that. That does sound really exciting. I love the the idea of the kind of the quick five-minute hit, but also 15 seconds. It's kind of like go, go, go. But there's gonna be something completely worthwhile that the it'll be a great takeaway. It does sound also like a really great opportunity for you to plug grossly competent. I mean, five minutes of audio clips just back to back, even if you have to do 15 seconds at a time. I mean, that's gonna be we've got plenty of material. We've got some great. I mean, I'll even let you throw in a uh an eclipse joke or an elevate escalator story, whatever. But I was actually just gonna say that that maybe I should just have it be a series of you getting locked in the bathroom, Lynnell getting locked in a stairwell, you staring at an eclipse. There's I think they'd be like, yeah, they'd be like, we're done here, like, but there's only been two minutes. They're like, yeah, no, but my slides, they change every 15 seconds. No, and there's a guy in the back who is just yelling at you still me, like, wow. So, no, I I really I'm I'm pumped, I'm really excited. I believe it or not, Lynelle Meath is the one that told me about this event and said, like, gosh, I think you would be a really good fit. You should try to put something out there. So I took a week or so and kind of thought about what would I want to say? Like, what do I really feel about this industry that kind of drives against the narrative? And it's where I came up with like, God, yeah, LD is always lumped in with HR, and I do like my HR folks, like I do, but I feel like sometimes we need our own space to breathe a little bit. So I'm excited, I'm really pumped. My mask is gonna be super oiled up, I'm ready to rock and roll. But I will tell you, and I normally don't get this way, I'm a little nervous because I have seen some of the other speakers, and I am against some serious giants. Like, I am not swimming in the kiddie pool. Like, oh, you this is like real. And I hope anybody that's from Disrupt HR, I hope if you're listening, you just feel extra confident now for choosing me. I was curious, Mr. Patrick. Do you seek out these kind of events? Like whether or not you just want to attend, or do you seek them out to actually speak in them? Yeah, in the past, you were part of ATD or the Association for Talent Development for you non-HR L and D folks out there. But did you do like speaking events with them? You were a part of that prior to me, so I I don't honestly know. I saw it's a good question. I so I haven't done anything that you're going to like you're going to do, which is like super cool opportunity. With ATD, I did serve on the board of directors. So as Steve mentioned too, ATD, it's a national organization, Association on Talent Development. It's done by a boatload of volunteers all across the country. They do have regional chapters. So I in Wisconsin, if I'm getting this correctly, there are three. There's a Milwaukee, a Madison, I think there's like a Fox Valley. So those of you not in Milwaukee area, it's a north of Milwaukee, hour or two. And the cool thing about the branch I was a part of is called Suey ATD, as us nerds in AT called it. It's southeastern Wisconsin branch of ATD. So Suey ATD. The that branch was either the third or fourth largest by member size in the United States. And we're talking Milwaukee here, who is his in the top 40 for total population of all cities. Not anything, not higher than that. We had more in our chapter than Chicago did. And so that was just a cool part of that. But back to where I served. I served for a couple of years on the board of directors, the VP of marketing and communication for that the time I was on the board. Hold your applause, everyone. This was not only a volunteer gig, it's a very, very, very fancy title for saying that I ran the social media LinkedIn account. And also I created a monthly newsletter. I also attended functions with the other board members. We had a couple socials throughout the year, and then all the professional development opportunities. So that's kind of what the going back to what's this all about. It's they offer ATD offers monthly programming, professional development, networking opportunities. Yeah. And it was a really rememberable experience. I they like just because it's volunteer, they like to rotate. So after a couple of years, I kind of ran kind of through that. And there was an opportunity for me to maybe bounce to a different position on the board, but I had a I had a good run. And before that, I was on the board. I was part of a volunteering like different committee for a couple of years before that. So I had a good, you know, three, four-year run on it. And it's great because the connections are still there. I I still connect with them either online or out in the public. And so you you kind of create those those relationships. And I even use someone as a in my a job search, I had use them as a reference. Oh, yeah, I think helped me land the role I'm currently in now. So that's awesome. I you know what you raise a really wonderful point, and that is this should be a a word of advice to anyone that's listening. I don't care if you're in learning and development, HR, or if you're in none of those things, you're in sales. I I genuinely don't care, but you're gonna like wing if you're gonna wing it. Yes, if you're gonna wing it or you know, just ad lib your way through, whatever. I do think it's entirely it's very important. Number one to network. Like, yeah, we could do an entire episode on just networking, but seek these kinds of things out. Like, if there is a committee or a group that's like specific to your industry, it hurts you none at all. Like, it is only beneficial for you to go and meet some people that are affiliated in the same type of career format that you are, learn some of their tricks, they can learn from you. You make these great relationships. What do you have to lose? Like you just said you uh somebody that you worked with on ATD was able to help you with your job search to where you are right now. How awesome is that! Like, of course, you've introduced me to people from ATD that you worked on the board with whatnot, and I had great communications with that, like so, just wonderful. Yeah, that's awesome, man. Don't downplay it. You you did great things, man. That's awesome. Yeah, I think it's just it's it's fun to have those connections to whether you're just signing up for the networking or you are using professional development. I mean, it it can hit up uh a couple different ways of what's the benefits are from it.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

You know what? I will make sure I make a note of it. I'm gonna put something about ATD in the show notes. So if somebody wants to go and like check out local chapters or something, you should be able to go and and peruse that and see if there's something that fits into your into your career, right? Yes, because it was from your prompting, I believe, that I finally signed up for it. Because I was like, I don't know. So then I just decided what the heck, what do I have to lose? I signed up for it and it's been great. So yeah, all that's awesome, man. Well, Mr. Patrick, I don't know if you know this, but spring break is just around the corner. Yeah, yeah, I know, big deal. And I thought it would be fun because I feel like maybe it's just me, but I feel like the last couple of episodes have been real serious and heavy, maybe, just because like so I thought we could stand for a little vacation and just wing this or ad lib it, right? You know, 62 words or less. That sounds like something simple that meets the criteria, you know. Now, are you talking like are we like MTV Beach House and Malibu Spring? Obviously. Obviously, yeah. So if you did you were you a TV watcher and like so oh go ahead. I'm thinking I'm just I'm having a flashback to this would have been like that's like late 90s, yeah. Maybe freshman year of high school, eighth grade, something around there, MTV would have their their beach house, and they would have all their VJs, your uh your Bill Bellamy's and your Dan Cortez, and yeah, the old guy playing the the organ or piano. Man a booth, the um TV, beach house, Malibu. I don't know. And then it was all just like foam parties, pool parties, drinks, and all that, but it it looked like a good time for a 15-year-old to watch. It was time to get to Bone Thugs and Harmony at top 20 countdown and some TLC. Total request.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Live C R Lizley.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

So speaking of music, do you think it's in our budget that we could cue vacation by the go-go's just spoo this section? Is it in our budget? No. You know, no, that's not. You know me, Steve. I will find the closest knockoff version that I possibly can. We're gonna listen to Road Trip by the stop stop. Speaking of songs, do you think that someday someone will create a knockoff version of our podcasting time? AI. I think I've done this before. My thoughts loved it. RCR. Okay. Anyway. Oh, okay. That was that's fine. That's fine. We're on vacation right now. No, I uh I actually thought it would be fun to chat a little bit about vacation. Great. Take time off, whatever you want to look at it as, like, just have a nice casual conversation about all those kinds of things. Like, what do you think of like when you think of a great vacation? Like, what where do you venture? Do you are you a beach person? Are you a hiker, snow person, international, or international, or international jet setter? I I don't know. What uh what what strikes Mr. Ayleshire's fancy? This is a fun question to think about because I think about where I'm at now, where I was as far as traveling goes. I mean, first and foremost, I do love the travel. I think it's super exciting no matter what type of vacation you're getting just to get away from the the everyday, the some of the mundane things. I I I I don't currently I don't say I it's not that I don't do it enough. I haven't done it enough, is what I should say. And I don't make excuses, but for a decent part of my adult life up until seven, eight years ago, it was tough for me. Not a pity party by any means, but I went to school part-time to college, and so I didn't graduate until I was 26, and then I spent the next seven, eight years on a teacher salary. So basically just load in. Yeah. So yeah, so once I switched careers in 2017, I was to be able to not only afford the time, but the the trips themselves to be able to get away. So now when I left L teaching, gotten to LD, I had a couple years where I was starting to go at least domestically around that around the country, and I had a some great time. And then there was this little thing. I don't know if you've heard of it, Steve. It's what was it called? It was a it was something it was a global pandemic. Yeah, I don't know if you know that, but there was a global pandemic. Yeah, yeah. You might have yeah, I heard about it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was a beer, Corona. Yeah, my my corona. Yeah, it is the song My Corona. Yeah, the the the song about the beer that they're drinking. Right. So that. Happened and that for whatever reason that beer went on for a long time and I was not able to travel for a while. With all that said, I enjoy destination places where I can be active, busy, but also time to chill. I don't need to do, I don't need to be going doing things around the clock. But I also like, I don't need to sit at the on the beach for eight hours. Oh, fair enough. I know some people hold that, it's just not for me. I'm gonna steal a quote from something I just heard while watching a Netflix show last night. And it was from an it was from a character, I don't say a character, a person, my god. It's a it's a real show, love on the spectrum. And it was from one of the actors, the and I'm not an actress, it's one of the the women that's on the show that's featured on the show. And she was at a winery with her boyfriend, and she's she's autistic, and she was trying the wine out, and they said, How did the woman pouring the wine was like, How is it? And she said, It's very interesting, but I'm not interested. And I love oh man, I want to use that for like everything from now on, and she almost kind of like it, it kind of came off sarcastic, but not she mean it that way. And so I the idea of like I was thinking about the beaches is I like the beach, but it's not like my favorite thing. Yeah, very that's very interesting, Steve, but I'm not interested. And I want to use that, I want to use that in my future conversations when someone's like, Hey, do you want to go check out that movie? That's very interesting, but I'm not interested. You want to go to that meeting? You want to you want to join us for that meeting? That seems very interesting, but you want to serve on this committee? That seems very interesting, but I am not interested. I do really like that one a lot. Great, great show. Yeah, okay. I I'm actually surprised by my wife. I don't think she watches it. So I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to plug that for her. We're right now in the throes of mom talk or some I don't know something with the Mormon, whatever. I just hear him yelling in the background. So I'm like, oh no, no, watching TV. I guess I'll finish up my rants here. As far as places I oh your I do love to go to often is Door County. And Midwesterners, you know, Door County. If you're not from the area, it's a place about three to four hours north of Milwaukee, depending on where you're going. It's such a just an awesome, it's it's in the it's a peninsula, it is got such great charm, a small town feel to it. These they've got all these little towns that are like sometimes they're unincorporated, sometimes they're super small, but it's cool because it doesn't, it's not commercialized. So the south part of Door County, when you're getting in there, you do have like your BP gas stations and your, and you still have some of that stuff, but like you don't have your McDonald's or any of that. Like when you get into the heart of Door County, it's all family-owned businesses, small restaurants. You've got a place called Al Johnson's great breakfast and brunch spot. They have goats on the roof, literally goats that are hanging out on the rooftop in the summer weather. So it's like it's just a cool spot. I've been I've been there a billion times. It's a it's holds a special place in my heart and it because it's very slowed down place to go. Like kind of forget your troubles for the weekend or whatever. I did go to Vancouver last spring, and that was by far my favorite city outside of the US that I've been to. But also, that's not saying much because my passport doesn't have a lot of stance on it. But I'd love to, I'd love to visit you know, Denmark, Sweden, possibly Austria someday. And also continent-wise, I'd love to go to Australia. Oh yes, but that's on my bucket list. What about you as far as vacation? What's your like ideal either place or attitude changes in latitudes, Jimmy Buffett? Yeah, yeah. I want to kind of point out or kind of piggyback off of something you said, and that was what you like about Dorr County is that it's that slowed down. I couldn't agree more. Kind of case in point, I want to say it was 21. Yeah, that sounds accurate. So my my mother-in-law and father-in-law would go down to the keys every year, just the the two of them. And in 2021, actually, I think it might have been towards the tail end of 2020. They asked my wife and I if we would want to come down. Uh, maybe it was 22. I don't know. I think my daughter might have been three, it doesn't matter, but my kids were young, and they're like, would you guys like to come down with us for the week or whatever? And I'm like, I'm on board, why not? So we ended up going, and we don't go to Key West, we go to a island that's north of that called Marathon, and they're probably gonna kill me if they're like they know I'm talking about this because you're like, shh, don't say anything to anyone. This place is awesome. I'm pretty sure people can just like, I don't know, look it up. But what I really like about it is yes, there's some touristy parts to it, but it really does feel like a typical small town, but there's everything that you want there as well, so it's not like it's so reserved, but it doesn't have like the flashy, like, oh come stop at this place and whatnot. Like it had like there's a farmer's market you can go to. Like I like that, and believe it or not, my kids love it. Like, I almost think that when things are so just like intense, it's an overload, like oh like we can only spend so much time in places like that because I feel like it's just it's so much. So having that nice laid back, everyone is more relaxed. Like, you don't feel like you're just getting pressured into doing tourist traps, which I really like. So I'm with you. I enjoy that a lot. As far as where do I specifically like to go? I genuinely I'm I'm pretty generic. Does it have nice weather? I'm a big seafood guy, so like how's the seafood or local cuisine? Like, is it awesome? Great. Uh, can I get a bevy? Can I get an adult cocktail of some kind? If the answer is yes, I'm I'm happy. Like, I'm about as easygoing. That I I don't know if I have a ton of non-negotiables except for like don't be a giant tourist trap. Like, that does nothing for me, it just turns me off. Uh, do you have anything like that? Like, do you have a place cannot have this? Like, or just something that turns you off from a place. Well, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to go to the Dells, but so okay, can I jump in on that real quick? Because the Dells are okay, the Wisconsin Dells, for those of you that are non-Wisconsinites, if you've never been to the Wisconsin Dells, it is a very touristy city. Like, yes, there's different things to do, but you drive along their strip and is just an endless sea of hotels or like buy three t-shirts for ten dollars, like those kinds of places, like tourists, all the stereotypical kind of tourist places. Now, the reason why I go is because, well, it's close, and a lot of the resorts there are set up in a way that you don't need to leave, like you can do everything just on resort, which I'm fine with. Like, uh sign me up, I'm good to go. That's cool. I'm there to hang out with my family and you know, friends or whatever. All good. I don't care about venturing off elsewhere. That's my exception to that rule. If if I can do the things I want to do in your little secluded area, fine. I don't, that's cool of me. So I'm sorry, I know I interrupted you, but I felt I had to say something. Well, and the Dells, again, if you're if you're not downtown Wisconsin Dells, you do have those resorts that are great for families. I mean, they've got everything in there. You don't have to leave. Yeah, you've got the pools, you've got the game rooms, you've got the restaurants all in that area. So it is a it is a great spot. I have frequented the Dells, I did a lot in my my uh as childhood and then in my childhood, and then even like in my 20s, it was just it's a quick drive from the Milwaukee area. So as you were saying, to answer your question, like non-negotiable, there's nothing really that like I won't go to because of this reason or that reason, but for me, the best vacations have spots that have some walkability. So I love good, yeah. I mean, it doesn't, I'm not even saying like because I love going to like I'm a city guy, obviously living downtown Milwaukee, but like I still and I love going to other cities. Well, I've been to Manhattan, uh Boston, I love the big city feel, right? But that I just but even with walk and and those obviously have great walkability, but I'm talking about like if you are going to like Key West or somewhere like that, where you have like a uh an area where you can still get to places without having to always jump in a car, right? Just like it's got the the local farmers market or you know, those where there is those little shops that you want to go to, restaurants to walk to bars, whatever, that happened, it just makes it easy to get around. So you don't always have to rent a car. Yeah, it's great point. And but with that said, I think public take public transportation is great. And I love I love being a tourist in large cities, but I also if I want to be on foot for just the day, I want to have that option. You know, so similar to like Milwaukee, it's it's it's I am able to I do own a car, but I do walk a lot to a lot of the whether it's a grocery stores, to my appointments, to restaurants, to different museums, things like that. Yeah. But I will say, Steve, if I had to pick one thing, I need a bed to sleep in. It doesn't have to be a fancy four or five-star hotel, but I don't want to sleep on the ground, aka camping. Like that's not a I don't need to be uh that's not a vacation for me. Now I I I I don't mind camping, but I I always correct people when they say, Oh, do you like camping or do you want to go camping? And I said, You said glamping, right? You mean that your C is come your is coming off, should be coming off like a gluh, gluh, glamping. Oh, okay. I'm all about I'm all about s'mores and bonfires and all that, but like I are at least make me elevated. And the reason I don't like the tent experience is because I don't know if it's an undiagnosed claustrophobia or or waking up because of the lack of ventilation, but I have had it where I've woken up either middle of the night because maybe the ventilation wasn't great or whatever from camping, or waking up in the morning where it's like 175 degrees, and I've woken up and done like the and and like you're almost like you're dreaming it, you can't breathe, and all of a sudden you wake up and it's kind of scary. And I the last time I went camping, I was like middle of the night, and I I believe it we had to the the the tent I was using with the person I was camping with. We got the tent out, and we realized that there was no top to the tent of like the the not the tarp, but like whatever go the cover for the tent to keep to keep the the wind the rain out and everything. So we had to use the we had to use the bottom tarp because we knew it was gonna be raining to like cover over. Well, apparently what that did is that sucked all the air out of the atmosphere, and so when I woke up in the middle of the night, I like couldn't breathe. And I was being very dramatic because I didn't necessarily want to be there, but I was like, I need to step outside. It's like two in the morning, and I'm like, I'm gonna go for a walk. And it and get attacked by bears. Yes, sasquatches, whatever it was out there. I don't know. I have never had that experience. Oh my god. Well, now I that makes it no, I've never had that where I haven't been able to breathe. Like but do you like wake up from a tenth and like it's it's freaking hot in there because like it's an enclosed space, and so I don't know if I should state this publicly, but I feel like every time I've gone camping, I don't wake up in the middle of the night because I'm already up. So you are a party machine. The last time I also went camping, I was in my early 20s. So that is a young man's game in my eyes. I'm good, I'm with you. I don't know if sleeping on the ground sounds really fun. So I I totally get it. I was really trying to figure out where you were gonna go with this, and you're like, give me a bed. Like, what place doesn't have a bed? What? And sometimes as a surprise in my stories, I do this in training some poems, and I'm like, Where where is the where am I steering this vehicle? That is get back on the road or we're going off the cliff, baby. I love it so much. All right, so it so camping's off the absolutely get that out of there. So do you have a preference? Like, do you like hotel? Are you an Airbnb kind of person or verbo or whatever, right? Do you would you prefer to go to a place that you have friends or relatives that you can stay with them? All none. I I don't know. What do you I'll say I've taken some trips where I I stayed with a friend when I was out in California, they lived out, he lived out in San Francisco. That just made sense to stay out there. But typically, if I do like I'll do like solo travel from time to time, and I've done I've done both the uh Airbnb or Verbo. I've also done hotels. It kind of just depends on the experience. So, like with Vancouver, I was going out there. So I took a started with a solo trip, and then my parents were like, oh, we want to go too. And so they got their own place. I wanted to spend a lot of money on the experiences, knowing that I wasn't gonna be at a hotel all day. I was gonna be in and about doing things. So it was what that was one trip where I like was gonna be out and about for the lot. So I did do a I did do do a uh Virbo because it was more cost efficient, and I didn't need a whole place to myself. I did I rented out some rooms that were still private, it wasn't oh I had a closed door, the people, the the ratings, reviews looked great. So I I I trusted obviously the place I was staying in. Yeah. Um generally I would like to get my own space, and I've done that too, where I just want my own my own apartment or own house to rent. Just feel more comfortable that way, and it's easier just to like be able to like chill out after a long day. But I I don't love the idea of like a hostel. No, I know like I'm with you, some people do, but it's like I just like my own bathroom space, I'd like my own bed, like not next to someone else. I don't know. And yeah, I I couldn't and I I think the movie series also doesn't help hostels either. Do you remember those? Like, I mean, I I don't know, they're whatever. That was like when Saw was a big thing, I swear. Like, how much shock can we give you? It's like that's a great speaking of saw that you know, I don't know if you were aware, but it's a great date movie. Date night, perfect date night movie. I know you're happily married, but I'm saying, like, if if you have just if you have friends that are single, I would highly recommend. Yeah, well, I disagree because I don't want anybody stealing my thunder and taking my great ideas away from me. Listeners, if you're unfamiliar, in a uh I swear I think I brought up on this podcast, didn't I? I don't know. But I I know I've brought it up at some point in time that one of my first dates with my wife was to go see the movie Saw. And she hates horror movies, but she didn't tell me that at the time because she loves me so much, and I mean she couldn't pass up an opportunity with this guy, right? So, yeah, we had to go see Saw. And yeah, and as uh thinking is she thought you were so attractive. She's like, This guy's gonna have a podcast one day, an audio only podcast one day. Well, there's a reason it's audio only, yeah. But it it actually worked out kind of funny because I remember these we saw it. I think it came out in like October, like the first Saw movie because in February for Valentine's Day, as a joke, she bought the DVD for me, like just to be like, hey, like we should watch it. I think I gave her like the notebook or something like that. And she's like, let's watch this one instead. Like, okay, that sounds fine. We can watch your your chick flick, that's all good. But yes, I uh no hostels sound awful, and they're probably fine, like they probably are, but just the idea does not sound remotely appealing to me whatsoever. I'm with you, man. As long as I have a place that I can just like at the end of the day go there to hang out and relax, I'm good with it. I don't really spend a lot of time in those places anyway. Like, really, isn't that the point? If you go somewhere, you want to experience the breadth of the environment, so you're not hanging out in the room, it's kind of like a locker, right? Like, I'm gonna keep my clothes here, I'm gonna go out, and then I'm gonna come out back, and then that's it. And like, I there was nights that I mentioned going to the keys with my in-laws. There would be nights that we would just be sitting outside hanging out by like the ocean canal and having our whatever our cocktails or whatever, and just sit there listening to the breeze and just fall asleep, like outside, and it was heavenly, like it was amazing. Then it's like, Oh, it's two in the morning, I better actually go inside now. But like you like doze off because it was just so calm and quiet, and just like that that sound of the ocean. Oh my god, like sign me up. That is that's heaven to me. Like, I love that. That as you were explaining that, I was actually having flashbacks to this was gosh, probably almost 20 years ago. I took a fishing trip, so up to Ontario, and this was like before you needed passports to so maybe it's 25 years ago, maybe before you needed passports to like leave the United States. Yeah. And we we took a fishing trip up in Ontario, kind of at like the the the the uh road's end up in Red Lake, Ontario, about a 15-18-hour drive from Milwaukee. Yeah, so it was it was up there, but yeah, we would we would go fishing all day, and so you you'd rent a cottage, obviously. You're like in the total of like the woods, the sticks, right? Nothing so desolate up there, but I'm up there with my uncles and my grandpa, and we go out fishing all day. You come back, you clean the fish, you have dinner, you have drinks, and we're sitting on this like porch, overlooking the lake, watching the sunset, and it's it's summertime, and the sunset is at like 10:30, 11 o'clock at night up there. It was like, and so it was just a cool, like, you're so I mean, and the thing is though, what at least the group we were had, I mean, my uncles and you know, they could hold their own, but like even I was in my 20s, right? But like you're so exhausted from being out on the outer all day, you're not getting hammered, you're having a couple beers, shooting the shit after dinner. But it's like it was so calm and peaceful, and you're watching the sunset, and you're like, I can't believe it's almost 11 o'clock, and you're just totally relaxed. Yeah, you might doze off for a little bit because you're in such a like a flow state. I just had like that reminded me of that's you were sitting on a total different side of the country, but also like what a great memory of that's awesome. You kind of made me think about what I said, and my saying that like my father in law would sit there, have a couple of cocktails and then fall asleep. It makes it sound like we passed out, but uh no, no, to your credit, you're right. Like we would go out fishing, we'd leave at like I don't know, six in the morning or something like that, to get out to where we wanted to in the ocean, fish till about I don't know, noon or something like that. Come back, eat something, then venture right back out and come back by like four or something. Like, so you'd spend all day out, and yeah, it wipes you out, man. Like we'd eat, I'd have a whatever, a drink of some kind, and just close my eyes and oh, but you're just sitting there listening to everything. Oh god, yeah, yeah, it's heaven, man. That's awesome. Oh, that's great. That's one thing I've never done, which I would love to do, and that is do fishing, like a fishing excursion in Canada. I've heard they're they're excellent and so much fun. So it's cool. That's pretty cool. I'm not I'm not a big fisherman, but like I've just felt like a because my uncles and my grandpa, they did that trip multiple times. They go every couple years, and I think they did like six, seven, or eight trips. Oh, wow. And I went on a couple of them with them, and I liked it at a good time. But like I wasn't like I don't need to go for a full week, but you have to because you you drive so far away and you're like driving 15, 18 hours. I did, I did really enjoy it. It was the just the the the cool thing was just that learning the differences about what fishing's like in like Wisconsin versus Canada. It's a total different like in Wisconsin you can what is it? You can you have to throw back the big fish, you keep the little fish, vice versa. Well there's yeah, there's size limits. Sure. Where it where it's it's like the opposite in really they want to protect the it you'll know the difference. I I'm con confusing on which big or little, but they have a different they have a different mindset of we want to grow this population versus I remember my uncle was telling me like, yeah, it's it's different here, so we can only keep these fish or that fish. Oh, hey, that's really cool. Yeah, I will admit that whenever I go fishing, I rely exclusively on my father-in-law because he is like he's a wealth of knowledge. Like the amount of times I'd catch something like, Oh, what's this? Is it this? He's like, No, that's uh that's a boot. Yeah, like no, but like no, he always knew like everything, and that is something that fascinates me. Yeah, people that are really into fishing exclusively, like Steve is like, I got a muskie, and he's like, That's a bluegill. Like, that is not no, like, oh, it's a shark, and it's like, nope, that is a squid, but gosh, good effort! Like, oh man, yeah, it was it's really fun. Uh, that's I assume that fishing, like reef fishing or anything like on the ocean has got to be similar in just how fun it could be as to fishing in Canada. I just I don't know that in my head, it feels like that would be the way it would be. That's awesome. But I think similar to what you were saying, even if you were just out, you're out in the sun, whether you're fishing or not, you're it's just getting that sun exposure, whether you're at the beach or you're in a boat, even if it's cloudy, it doesn't matter. It's it's that you know that uh that sunlight is is a powerful thing, which is why they don't recommend staring at the sun, whether there's an eclipse or not.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

The issue I feel like I had was wasn't that a gum.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Eclipse gum. I don't know anyway. But the issue I have when I go on vacation is especially if it's really hot, is my mask starts to melt to my face, and I actually can't tell the difference between my mask and my skin. It's it gets rough, guy. It's tough, but it's okay because nobody has been able to tell the difference, and it's okay. Completely rent-free. Fisheruski! No, finaruski! The Zablinaruski. It is indeed. While Mr. Patrick fires up the wheel, a reminder for all of you listeners: each episode we spin the spinnerouski, which is a wheel of names. I should say, a very real wooden wheel of names that might belong to the woman who so generously shoved Mr. Patrick and I into the ugly club all those years ago. And the goal of this is that eventually we land on her name so we can thank her properly. All right, Mr. Patrick, you ready to fire? Off? I am. Is it? Would it be copyright if we said it was a wagon wheel, but we don't sing the song? It's a wooden wagon wheel. We're gonna rock me mama. I'm gonna spin out please. Here we go. Kayla! Kayla! Oh my goodness. Kayla. I went to school with a Kayla, and she is a delight. I don't, it was not the same, not the same person, though. Not the same person that pushed you and I into the ugly club. This Kayla was a very good family friend, and she still is just as wonderful as the day I met her. So, Kayla, if you're listening out there and you happen to be at Boomers about 20 some odd years ago and shoved two grotesque figures off to the side, we want to thank you. Thank you for everything you've given us. Thank you for allowing us to create the ugly club. We appreciate you, Kayla. And the only Kayla I know of a friend of mine who lives in Chicago, and she's doing some awesome stuff in the non-alcoholic space. She runs a company called Naps, which is non-alcoholic party scene. And so she hosts awesome events and is obviously getting the word out there about having a good time without the buzz. So well, Kayla at Naps, right? Is that her thing? Is she uh is she on the gram? She is on the gram. And uh all right. Well, maybe we should yeah, put herself in there. Yeah, yeah, that'd be awesome. So I'm sure she'd need that.

unknown 49:51

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

I love it. Well, Steve, that about does it for this episode. Thank you to everyone so much out in Listener Land for joining us on the Grossly Competent Podcast. If you like what you're hearing and you want to support the show, here are the best ways possible ever. You can subscribe, follow, and give a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts. You can visit us on BuzzSprout at grosslycompetent.buzzsprout.com. Here you can become an active supporter and help us with the show. Every cent counts. We appreciate it and we love you for it. You can give us a shout out on Instagram at grossly competent. You can email us if that's your jam at grosslycompetent at gmail.com. Or you can tell your friends, your family, your coworkers, or that super awesome learning and development person or your travel agent about this podcast. We appreciate all of you more than you know. Any support you can throw our way truly means the world to us. This show takes a surprising amount of effort for two guys who very unfortunately look like us. But we are grateful we get to bring it to you each and every week behind our masks. Heck yeah, man. Uh, genuinely, you're right. Patrick, do you have any shout outs this week? I do. A surprise for you. I don't know if you maybe had wanted to shout this person out, but I just figured it was a great thing. This is someone that has emailed us a couple of times at uh grossly competent at gmail.com. I'd like to give a shout out to our friend Simon, who has reached out a couple of times asking us to be a ghostwriter for our yet to be written or even thought of book. Our apologies, Simon. I truly mean that for not responding to you quite yet. We're just completely starstruck that you'd consider us. Woo! I can't imagine how that would feel selling negative books. Steve, I do think we should keep this opportunity in our back pocket, though, for the future, because we might we do have a good story to tell. I just I don't know 29 episodes in if we're ready to have a book written about us.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

I was not expecting that.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

Oh my god. Shout out this week, Steve. I actually do.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Oh my gosh. Yes. Oh, I am very aware of Simon and his. Oh, there's another guy that keeps emailing us, and he keeps writing really cringy emails, and he says they're really cringy. I'm like, yeah, you're barking up the wrong tree here, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

Yay, Simon. All right, so this Jesus. Anyway, wow, okay. I did actually have a shout-out to give. I would like to give a shout out to our good friends in Ashburn, Virginia. I assume your listenership was due to losing a bet in the office, but sincerely, uh we we love it. Hey, so thank you for listening. We it was clearly last week's episode struck you because I will say, I know I've mentioned this in the past that Patrick and I can see the stats of like where we have listeners and cities and whatnot. And so every now and then we have one that pops up kind of out of the blue. It's like, oh well, that's a new one, that's kind of fun. And Ashburn, Virginia popped up all right, like we had this like very large cluster just kind of emerge out of nowhere, like, oh okay, somehow the word got out in Ashburn. That's pretty wicked. So, hey, thank you very much. I hope you liked what you heard and hope you get to actually hear me give you a shout out this time. And we hope you continue your adventure with us. Uh, we'd love to have you continue to be a listener, be awesome. That it was funny because when you text me that, I just I assumed it was just like, oh, we have another uh city that listened, and that's typically like, okay, it was we're in, you know, I think we mentioned it at our 25th anniversary. We were at like 80. I think we're at like 85 now, which is cool. We keep getting hurt cities. Yeah, so I was like, I'll I'll take a look at that later. And that when I logged in, I was like, oh no, there's actually a lot of people just in this area in Ashburn. I was it wasn't just one person listening, but it was a bunch of people. So I thought that was super cool. Yeah, because we'll get it like even if it's one listener in a given city, but this was like boom, like just an explosion of people. We just thought it was funny, like, oh wow, all right. Like, I think there was more, like that was more listeners than we get in like the Milwaukee area. Like it was just was so wild, like just so out of the blue. So, whoever out there is the progenitor of that, we just want to say thank you. That was really awesome of you. So and we really do hope you enjoy. Hope you enjoy. Well, before we oh, yeah, are you gonna tell our sure our members? Okay, cool. You go ahead. We we wrap things up here and do our typical outro. Just a heads up, listener land folks, we are gonna be taking our own little spring break next week. But we will be back with more hot takes and fresh perspectives right after that. We sure will be. Right you are, Mr. Patrick. But for this episode, we are signing off. Thank you, all of you. We love you, and we are going to see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

Ugly ugly out Ugly out, ugly out, ugly out, ugly out.

SPEAKER_00 56:18

Please don't sue us for the obvious copyright to the song I was just trying to sing. That was a wolf. Ow.

SPEAKER_01 56:30

Hello, and welcome. Ah that shit. We got our we got our outtakes already, and we haven't even started. I know, right? It's pretty good.