Cali

There are some things that you shouldn't do without permission. One of them is calling someone by a nickname without their permission. One of my personal pet peeves is when people call me Debbie. I AM NOT A DEBBIE. I worked with someone last week that called me Debbie without my permission. Again and again and again. And it made me want to pull my hair out. Or sock him in the face. (I'm busting out the violent references, thus, I must have been in Tokyo).

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If HK had a personality, I would say that it's impatient and intense. Whereas NorCal appeals to the hippie yet yuppie, mountains & ocean & nature & Whole Foods & ethnic food & good wine & generally everything-good-in-life loving side of me, HK appeals to the fast-talking, fast-walking, impatient side of me. The fast pace, the access to great Chinese food, the efficiency, the truly international scene, the access to the rest of Asia (and the world)...these are the things I love about Hong Kong.

However.

As much as I like HK, it's not a place I see myself living long-term. Because while I am intense and impatient and that aspect of HK appeals to me, I also LOVE LIVING LIFE. The whole point of life is to LIVE. Not to work. Not to make as much money as humanly possible. Not to measure one's worth by wealth. But to measure one's life by how much life one has lived. And that's the thing about HK - it lives life at such an intense and impatient pace, but it forgets to enjoy life. In HK, it feels like people only have one goal in life, and that's to be rich. And although I love money, I only love it for how it allows me to live life, travel the world, provide for my family. I don't love money enough to give up living life. Which is why I have always been, and always will be, a SF girl at heart. Because SF is one of the few places in the world that I think has the balance down just right - work hard, achieve, succeed at whatever you are doing, but do it from 9 am to 6 pm so you can enjoy a drink at happy hour, a delicious dinner (at any one of the fantastic restaurants available, or made fresh at home with all the great ingredients you have access to), time with friends and family. And head to Tahoe for the weekend.

As much as I like HK for now, I'm looking forward to returning to Cali in a couple years and being able to enjoy life each day (instead of maybe for like 6 hours on a Sunday).