Age of the Geek

There and Back Again

     Well, that was fun, but it looks like the time has come for me to return to the real world.

     For those that missed it, six months ago I packed my things up in a fit of youthful ambition and ventured out west to see what great adventures and opportunities the world had to offer.

     Though initially aiming for Los Angeles, better climate and lower (comparatively) cost of living convinced my companion and I to stay in San Diego. The nice little (comparatively) neighborhood of Mira Mesa, to be exact. After some extremely stressful searching, we eventually got a roof over our heads and jobs to pay for it.

     At long last, we were living the California life.

     Which, as it turned out, quickly became remarkably similar to the life I'd left behind in Iowa.

     To make a long story short, while there's precious little grass in California to adequately compare the amount of green, the metaphor still stands. I had thought that going from a town of less than 200 people to a town of more than a million would naturally involve some major changes but the truth is that things are pretty much the same no matter where you go.

     Eventually my roommate and I came to the conclusion that if we were going to spend all of our time working, playing video games, and going to the movies, we may as well do that here in Iowa.

     Not that everything was the identical. There were several factors that made the decision of whether or not to come home an incredibly tough choice.

     For instance, I will miss the convenience of living in Mira Mesa. I was never more than three miles away from anywhere I ever really needed to go. Everything from food to shopping to work was located on the same stretch of road. Gas may have been more expensive out there, but it hardly mattered when I was filling my tank once a month.

     I used to drive across counties every day without a second thought. Now the distances between towns seem so much larger than when I left and gas seems to be vanishing out of my tank at an incredible rate.

     And while I'm certainly happy to be close to Morelos and Breadeaux again, not to mention Kum & Go's coffee, I'm going to miss the sheer variety that Mira Mesa had to offer in terms of eateries. The sooner somebody in Hampton sets up a Cold Stone Creamery, the better.

     On the other hand, as convenient as having everything close-by was, I won't miss the driving.

     Not just because the streets were designed by a man with a pathological hatred of right angles or that entire civilizations could rise and fall in the span of a red light. What I could never get used to was the traffic.

     Traffic isn't much of an issue here, where miles are measured by minutes. A ten mile drive takes about the same amount of time whether it's noon or night. But crossing that three mile stretch of Mira Mesa Boulevard could take anywhere from five to thirty minutes, depending on the time of day.

     Weather was another change that was hard to get used to. Or, more accurately, the lack of it.

     Time doesn't seem to pass when every day is warm and sunny. It wasn't until mid-December that it got "cold." And by "cold," I mean "50 degrees and scattered rain showers."

     Of course any nostalgia I had for Iowa winters faded as the temperature dropped during the drive back. I'll be wearing two pairs of socks for a while yet.

     All things considered, I'm glad I made use of the opportunity to go. It was a great experience and I learned a lot about a lot of things I never would have known otherwise, both about the world and myself.

     I'm also glad I grabbed onto the opportunity to come back, because of all the things I missed, Mid-America Publishing and my new hometown of Hampton were very high on the list.

     Travis Fischer is a newswriter for Mid-America Publishing again. Happy New Year!