I miss New York City.

Even though I was completely ready to leave it when we did, I never realized how very much I was going to miss it. Sometimes it's as bad as craving. There are many reasons why I miss the beautiful city, but one of them is the variety of friends I had there.

Mostly due to the fact that I did more differing activities when I lived in NYC, but also because the city draws so many different people. When I look back upon the years I spent there, the people whose faces jump out at me are from so many different backgrounds, not just Wall Street. I remember the artists, the musicians, the readers, the goth, the programmers, the deaf, the teachers, the executives, the Turks, childhood friends, fleeting friends, random acquaintances.

It was wonderful having such a wide variety because it was a constant reminder that my way wasn't the only way to live life. And it's too easy to forget that sometimes. It's easy to get lost on the Wall Street life or the Silicon Valley life. I've been blessed to have worked at the best of the street and the best of the valley, but it's still crucially important for me to remember that these are small microcosms of humanity. They may be where the money is concentrated but they definitely are not the only place to look for interesting people (sometimes just the opposite in fact.)

So I need to find a way to build that variety in my California life. I have a bit of it with the scrapbooking I do. But not enough of it. Not nearly enough of it.