Smoking in public places in NOVA?

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by imisscarlsbadcalifornia

Saganista, you're the best! Though that list is far thinner than I would hope for. Perhaps NOVA will progress, or I'll end up cooking more than I already do! Thanks for the recommendations on restaurants. We will try them out for sure!

car54, please allow me to explain. My husband is chuckling right now because he knows the back story to this move. You see, I was a deliriously happy go lucky, self employed, wonderfully balanced, community involved, lots of friends-having Californian...then, I met my husband on e-Harmony, who lived in Denver. He is a rocket scientist. A real one, you know the type, with the Ph.D. in aerospace engineering with a particularly exotic pedigree in orbit determination. As you are probably guessing, there isn't a ubiquity of opportunity for people with this degree of specificity. With some reluctance, I sold my business and moved to the dread of the mid west. I am convinced that after living less than a mile from the beach in southern California that there will be nothing else that contents me however, my husband's opportunities are primarily clustered in your neck of the woods, Houston, Denver, and yes, Los Angeles, though no one in LA is, at least at the moment, interested in meeting our salary requirements. So it seems that my lot in life is to live where there are enclaves of highly specialized aerospace communities doing what ever it is that my husband does all day. Trust me, no one is more dismayed about this than I am. We know that there are some operations in Phoenix as well as some start up "boutique" opportunities in Washington State with companies like Blue Origin, but again, none of these places are my much beloved Southern California, where people are restricted from smoking even around public doorways (absolute heaven) and the sun almost always shines gently through the marine layer, Thai food is excellent almost everywhere you go, and folks are laid back. Ah yes, my geographical karma has hit a most sullen streak and there seems to be very little end in sight.

I may seek professional counsel on how it is that one goes about letting go of one of the things they hold most dear in this life, with finality! After all, I'm a Californian, we all have shrinks and I haven't seen mine in nearly five years. It's probably time to go back to the well and pour my woes upon someone who is paid to listen...this is all half in jest, but the other half is profoundly sincere. Every day is an exercise in the reinforcement of the notion that I will always miss Carlsbad, California...thus my screen name.

I shall not impose upon you further; I just had to take the opportunity to tell one more person how much I miss home. My husband, having never lived in The Promised Land and having grown up in the swamps of Louisiana is happy most anywhere...much to my chagrin.

If you are that bummed being away from California-----you may be wise on having an 'escape plan' just in case that things truly do not work out for you in the DC area.