One thing that makes a BIG difference is how much you travel. In my case, I've spent less than half of my weekends at home during the last year. For me, having

One thing that makes a BIG difference is how much you travel. In my case, I've spent less than half of my weekends at home during the last year. For me, having local friends isn't super important because one way or another, I'll end up seeing my close friends several times. Plus, I have yet to live in the same city for more than a year since college. If Derek's travel situation is similar, I can see why he wouldn't care too much about having local friends. Edit: this seems to be the case. From one of his comments below: "Home was the place that I would just work. I was going to so many conferences and such, that all my social time was out of town."