This is a really timely post for me since I'm at the point where I really do need to figure out what to do with my life. Although for me right now, I'm even trying to decide if I want to continue down this path of research or if I want to shift gears entirely. Whow knows. Anyway, as always, I enjoy your perspective - another thing to think about...

Mr. Chemist's parents and my parents also live in the same area and we have the same problems - how much time do we spend with each family? They're close enoough that we end up splitting every day (which is really stressful). It's funny, just before we left for our hometown for the holidays, I mentioned to someone that we were going "home", and her response was - "do you really still consider that home?" It made me think that, no I really don't, home is now here in this city in my house with my cats. My hometown will always be "home" to some extent because that's where I grew up, but in all reality as the years go by it becomes less and less like home.