Nostalgic Trip

I am currently sitting on the balcony of my hotel room and looking out at this view, except now the sun is setting so the hotel adjacent is reflecting the pink light of a beautiful California sunset:
I have a glass of water at my side because I bought a bottle of wine without realizing I had no corkscrew, but I've been thinking. Something about living here made me want to start blogging, and even though I've had months of absence on this blog since I've moved away, being back here again after three years (and in a swanky bay-side hotel I didn't have to pay for on top of that) made me want to blog again. I'm pretty sure this feeling will go away once I return home, so I figured I ought to hurry up and post this.

I am so enamored of the food here. I am lucky if where I live there are places have 3.5+ stars on Yelp with >50 reviews. Here, I am swimming in 4.5+ stars and sometimes >1000 reviews. As someone with an obsession with Mexican food and sushi that could rival our society's obsession with celebrity breakups, I am in fresh salsa and fish HEAVEN. I seriously never want to leave. It's been so amazing to see a few of the wonderful friends that live here and spend time with them, too. And finally, this conference I'm at has been excellent. It's reminded me why I went into infectious diseases in public health and how critical conferences like these are to keeping up with research and making connections in the field. But, I wish I could be doing this from somewhere else. I don't mind the Midwest, but it pales so much in comparison to where I grew up and the hot southwest that I love.

Why did I leave again?!