Anybody know about New Mexico?

and this is bad because?

not really sure. an aunt of mine who's semi-retired makes and sells jewelry around albuquerque and santa fe (and on ebay).

How hard is it to live there?

i wouldn't want to. the food's good and the mountains are pretty but i'd be bored out of my skull.

Basically, I've hardly been functional the past four years thanks to around the year allergy and sinus problems so I'll take a boring place where I can be active over a place where there's a lot to do but where I am forced to stay inside and vegetate.

mickey kaus moved to santa monica to escape allergies, i believe

as far as culture, you kinda have to make it, but it seems like there's enough to do. tons of amazing things to see within 5 hour drives or less (ie. tons of beautiful canyons/mountains, indian pueblos, casinos, cool historic stuff, etc.). and while it's not a total hotbed, lots of bands do play in albuququerque as it's in-between socal/az and texas (and there ain't much else).

i'd probably move there for the food, alone, tho. going out next week for the holidays to visit my dad and stepmom, and i can't wait.

I'm currently a librarian in a public library, but I'd be happy to get out of that lines of business. I don't feel very marketable (outside library land) with an MLS though. Maybe I just have the wrong attitude about it.

Food: if the climate doesn't clear my sinuses, the chili peppers will.

this mixed

I meant less mixed.

(Just put out an incredible CD.)

xp omg Taos

perhaps you could get a university job? i would think actually having an mls would be quite marketable in n.m.

i prefer tucson, az; it's a bit more er "bohemian" (but in a shaggy-dog way, not in an overpriced-bad-art-for-tourists santa fe way).

yeah, but Alb is closer to Taos!

it is?

Also I don't want to derail this into a thread about Mexican food but OMG yum. And I don't know if they've finished the Nabisco Boyhood Home museum in Portales, but there's always that to look forward to.

that seems to expand the list somewhat.

I successfully escaped years of horrible sinus trouble by leaving the midwest for the Phoenix area. However, after 5 years of living there, I developed asthma in reaction to russian olive pollen (only in the month of April, when they are blooming). I could escape it by heading to Flagstaff (they don't grow at that altitude) or down to Tucson (where it is illegal to plant them).

I just moved to Las Cruces. Not a big job market. But people are super fucking kind and friendly (I got in a bad bike wreck my first week here and the ER tech gave me 50 bucks right out of his pocket to help me buy food/get a taxi home, random strangers definitely have dependable kindness).

Everyone I talk to says their allergies were exacerbated by moving here–my fiancé is totally dependent on Claritin now. But this could just be a SW NM/Northern Mexico/east Texas thing? El Paso is really close by & a lot of people commute there. they have a good job market.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/index.php

We're fucked (for the most part) in Texas, but I don't know if those two have been as badly mismanaged.

dunno, probably not great but there's 2 feet of snow on the ground here, so probably better than last year.

where's that last pic (and which is the mountain)?

that last pic is looking out from the top of acoma sky city towards mt. taylor, 45 miles north. the san esteban del ray mission (pic #2) was built on top of sky city by the acoma tribe, they brought wood for the beams/roof of the structure from mt. taylor BY HAND. if any of the wood was dropped, it was "unpure" and not used to build with (and i assume whichever indian dude dropped that shit got dropped as well). the mission was incredible, but they (as you see) don't allow pics of the inside. there are still something like 50 or so adobe houses on top of sky city that are still functioning today, some residents live there year-round (despite no running water or electricity - the road up the mesa that john wayne's production company built in 1958 during the filming of "way out west" makes it a lot easier though).

the petroglyph in pic. #1 is from inscription rock at el morro, which just celebrated its first hundred years as a national monument (it was designated by tr). from indians to spaniards (including diego de vargas, who returned new mexico to the spanish after the pueblo revolt of 1680) to americans, there's carvings all over the bases of the rock cliffs there.

I was born in Albuquerque, so I know that.

i thought you were born in rio rancho, poseur!

going to santa fe ski basin tomorrow...

anyway i'm glad i'm up in the mountains this xmas. rio rancho is okay for a suburb, but being up here totally rules.

lucky. you in the Fe? if you run into a girl named L3gs, kiss her and tell her i said 'hi.'

one of the four sacred mountains

despite having spent a fair amount of time in the sw, i've never been to nm. anyone been to acoma on a feast day? is it especially worth it vis-a-vis any other day?

my parents went this past feast day, they said it ruled. sept. 2nd, if you're playing at home. it has to be "especially worth it" as it's the only day of the year they don't charge an arm and a leg to go up to sky city.

i think chaco or bisti might be more of a stretch, tho.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/334623227_cdba4b2960.jpg?v=0