A detour to the right place...

If you are a minority owned business and navigating the certification process--send me your address. I will priority mail chocolate and wine because you are going to need it. I tried finding information online but after being transferred several times I decided it would be easier spending a day in Raleigh researching the process--and hopefully less frustrating.

The tiny single-day conference was tucked in the back of a college conference center. I greeted vendors as they shoved ham biscuits and watery coffee into their faces. I asked questions nobody answered. I can hear Maya Angelou whispering in my ear, "I did then what I knew how to do. now that I know better, I do better".

Right when I was wishing I had stayed home, another attendee over hearing my dilemma guided me to the right table. Asked to share data insights learned at the national level with my local medicare/medicaid office--I decided to certify my business. 

Stopping for lunch at my favorite cafe Iris, inside the North Carolina Museum of Art--I exhaled after a busy 4-days and decided not to think of the texts and messages buzzing in my bag.

A quick business tip--when you travel--find the local museum. If time is tight see if you can at least breeze through the museum shop. It can restore your humanity.

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This beauty of a book caught my eye. Mid-Century Modern Women In the Visual Arts. Short biographies of influential artists beautifully illustrated by Ellen Surrey. Isn't it funny how our work lives spill into our aesthetics throughout our day? It can be helpful to sketch out data visualizations before even analyzing data for identifying the type of variables and potential chart types to consider--so this resource is perfect.

The book opened to this quote by Yayoi Kusama. It reminds me of the day I became fascinated by data. I was observing a data set and noticed a lone dot or two in the upper right corner of a scatter plot. 

Curious, I looked at the data points to find the story--and I haven't stopped looking. Let's just say now I know better...