I want to move again.

I suppose, since I have no children, moving is alright. I've been in Louisville now for just over two years, and after a two week escape to New Mexico, I am ready to move again.

Moving is stressful. Moving is a pain in the ass. Moving with three cats is crazy. And stressful. I said that. I know.

But the genteel-southerner-meets-white-bread-mid-west vibe and the horrible allergy nightmare that is the Ohio River Valley have both my husband and I ready, willing, and able to jump ship--and we're looking hard at the southwest. Again (Utah not included).

I appreciated the New Orleans genteel southern vibe. There was a dark, Caribbean flavor to it that made me hot and willing to just hang out in New Orleans to see what unfolded--crime be damned. I could have lived there in a heartbeat.

Not my husband. So we're here in Louisville because of his family. Now he can't wait to leave. It's so ironic.

And this after I've found the coolest corporate job ever...minus the problem of being laid off on Fridays due to lack of jobs coming into the firm. I am still a huge fan of my current employer and am so happy to have had this incredible experience. If we move, leaving this company will be a sad regret, I think. I will make every offer and do whatever is in my power to stay on.

So we explored southern New Mexico on our road trip, the stomping grounds of my husband's youth. We saw mesas and mountains, white sands and blue creeks, bright sun and gray rain. We wandered the Gila. We looked at Silver City, Tularosa, and even stopped in Ruidoso Downs to check in on some family-held real estate that no one had been able to find for a few years. Turns out the street's name had been changed to--get this--Escalante. You could have knocked us both over with a feather. We had a good laugh.

Ruidoso did not make the top of our list, though. Silver City did with its sweet university, happening business district, and proximity to the nation's oldest wilderness area.

We will keep an open mind, though. Because we do want to start our own business again, and location will have to be a key factor. The town will matter--we learned that the hard way in Utah.

However, a small gnawing question has been pressing on me lately. I'm not sure it really matters, but...a part of me wants to go and see what's going down in New Hampshire, the Live Free or Die state. I can feel that it might be a great place to land, winter notwithstanding, for someone with my particular political leanings.