I drive 100 miles a day because I want to surf before work. Worth every penny!
Man, this is totally irrelevant. You don't commute to the surf break because it pays you your wages that in turn allow you to plan for FI. You also don't complain about the cost of your surfing hobby, as it clearly benefits you.
How close to you live to where you work? I'm guessing that you don't live near the surf break due to the cost of living associated with living on/near the coast (in that area), nor would you want commute 50 miles to a job from where you live. Imagine you got hurt and broke your foot. You can actively choose to NOT surf if you broke your foot, thus eliminating the need to drive 100 miles to enjoy that hobby for the time being. However, you'd still drive to work every day. Thankfully it's not 100 miles round trip to work because you chose to live near the ocean that you can't enjoy with your theoretically busted foot.
I can understand someones need to be near friends and family, but can't accept illogical thinking as an excuse. Commuting to see friends once a week sounds much better than commuting to a job 5 days a week. Most of my friends agree as well.
My wife and I are moving 800 miles away from our home this Sunday for a month, for a contract we'll be working over the holidays. We'll miss Christmas. We almost had to miss Thanksgiving too, but the contract got pushed back a week. Both are very important holidays in her family, however, I'm not willing (nor is my wife) to miss the $4k paycheck that week for Christmas day. However, in the past, this has affected her family ties (mainly her sisters), on other important dates. Oops. Not sorry.