We’re back in sunny San Diego, and happy to be so. It was delightful to see our friends and family, but Ohio really is a gloomy place this time of year. We had a great time over the holidays, and much thanks to the many kind folks who hosted and entertained us through a whirlwind ten days.

I ended up sneaking a few hours of walking around Columbus a couple of days before our scheduled arrival (during a trip from one set of parents to the other). Wandering about in the chilly, grey, familiar streets made me smile and the gloomy, urban isolation was much needed. Columbus is a remarkably easy city to live in, and certainly as we cast our minds forward to what happens after grad-school (now less than a year to go!), it is by far the strongest midwestern option. There are a surprising number of really good restaurants, bars, art galleries and fun things to do and consume in a small, walkable area. We have friends there, and family two hours or less in either direction. The housing prices are also reasonable, which translates to ridiculously low in comparison with here. These are all attractive.

On the other side, Columbus is just so small. It seems a little limiting, and dear lord do they get a lot of grey days. Even when the sun shone, it was weaker than it is here. Obviously, San Diego is going to win the weather comparison with most places, but the larger city is non-trivial. Our apartment right now requires driving to anything interesting, and that’s a big negative. There are some neighborhoods here, and moving into one of the few seems a necessity. Southern California is really addicted to its cars and urban sprawl, things that really get on my nerves. I spent today (my only day here and between classes) limited to what I could walk or bike to since I don’t have a car and didn’t get up early to take Christy to and from work. I had plenty to do here, so the main problem with this was getting a hair cut at the only local option, one which speaks mostly Vietnamese (the diversity in this place is great) and when that is put together with me being fairly clueless as to how I want my hair to look, the result is the shortest haircut I can remember. I snapped a photo, which is the one thousandth shot I’ve taken with this camera (the first was taken 2006/06/30, so that’s about about a thousand in six months):

It’s good to be home. Happy 2007, everyone!