Why New Mexico?

How did we end up here?  It's a story that might seem odd, but it's true and it's destiny pure and simple.  I had been to most the states in the US and New Mexico has not hit the "been there done that" list.   I had been at a lunch on a cruise ship a few years back and the couple we talked to came from here and raved about how they moved to New Mexico and just loved it.  They raved about how sunny it was. I told them I couldn't handle the heat, and they told me that it wasn't that hot.  Not like Arizona or Texas - think high desert they told me. They told me about the art and the beautiful sunsets.  I put everything they said on a back burner and after many rain filled years in Portland Oregon, I was filling out some survey on facebook that asked where is a place you think you will live that you haven't and I wrote New Mexico without even pondering about it. 

That was just the beginning of New Mexico everything.  The guy that worked on my homes woodwork started to tell me all about his former business in Taos, NM.  So I asked him about his experiences and what he liked and didn't like about living in New Mexico.  Then the HGTV channel made their dream home just outside Albuquerque over the East Hills.  I was pretty convinced that I should win and entered regularly.  Since then I've gone and toured the development and I wouldn't have wanted to live that far out.... tooo far.

Then I was in Vegas at a work party for my husband and I ended up talking to one guy and of course, turned out, he was from Albuquerque and we talked New Mexico for a long time.  After that I started noticing cars parked next to me in Portland with  New Mexico plates.  It started to be sort of a crazy thing that everything was about New Mexico - that synergy thing.  We rented a moving truck to help my son and a huge New Mexico scene is plastered across the truck.  Then I was trying to call my brother-in-laws girlfriend and couldn't reach her and of course she and he had been in.... New Mexico.  So we talked about their trip and they told me it's one of their favorite places to visit.  Then I call my sister and she is headed to.... New Mexico.  So I hear all about her trip and she tells me that she thinks she will move there...and I tell her - wait, I'm moving there.  During a trip with my sister - we were in Vienna Austria and we were talking about the whole New Mexico idea and suddenly we look down the street and there is a restaurant named Sante Fe... and I say, "Another sign," and we laugh, but it was sort of weird.

I had been talking and by that point researching everything about New Mexico so much by this point that my hubby says, maybe we should plan a trip before you get too set on this, afterall you have never been there.  So I start planning a trip for right after our sons wedding.  Then hubby tells me that he would really rather look at Arizona to retire cause thier tax situation is better than New Mexico and why don't we plan a trip to look at Arizona first.  So reluctantly I decide that would be good and I start to work on a trip to AZ, but nothing feels right.  I can't even focus on this task and everything thing I try to do seems wrong with this AZ trip.  Finnally I call the hubby and say, can't do it, I don't want to live in Arizona.  Let's visit New Mexico first.  So the trip gets planned and some friends even decide to join us on our trip.  Meanwhile the hubby looks at his works job postings and there is this job that has NOTHING to do with what my husband does, but does interest him.  He makes a call and plans to have a chat with the department while we are in New Mexico.  He had told me that there was NO chance he could find a job with the same company as there are NO marketing people at the New Mexico location.

So we go, I fall in love with New Mexico the second we arrive and I feel great and everything just looks perfect for a great retirement spot.  Hubby interviews for the job over the next few weeks after we are back home and outcome is that he doesn't get the job and I try to get over it and put the whole thing on a back burner again and say, well, when retirement really comes, that's where we will go.  That was the beginning of December.

About this time I remembered a crazy moment that happens two years prior.  I got this call from my Navajo Indian roommate from college a bazillion years ago.  She must have gotten my number from the school cause I haven't heard from her in many many moons/phone numbers.  I can't remember her last name and this call was so weird - I forgot to ask.  She calls and it takes me a while to figure out who is calling.  Then she says, "How are you?" I say fine.  Then she says, "You are in my dreams, and I would like you to get out, are you sure everything is okay?"  She's always be a woman of few words so I didn't expect this to be a long call.  I said I would do my best to get out of her dreams, and asked how she was?  To which she barely answered and then the call was over.  I thought about it for awhile, and decided it was a signal for me to discuss roommates with my daughter who was starting college right then.  Now I think it's part of the New Mexico thing starting, cause my roommate was born and raised and still lives in Gallup, NM.

January I have a heart procedure that I hadn't really even thought anyone would do for me back in November, but here I am having it in January.  Come middle of February I'm in a hospital for a week trying heart meds cause the procedure made things worse rather than better... bummer, but it is what it is.  I'm trying to get well enough for a cruise that weekend and about Wednesday the doc comes in and says... I know you are trying to go on a cruise, but we don't think that would be wise, so we want you to cancel.  grrrrrrr   So it's done we are not cruising that winter.  Then on Thursday hubby calls me at the hospital and says - guess what?  The job in New Mexico says the guy they picked didn't work out, they don't want to interview again, they just want hubby to come out and start as soon as possible.  And they want decision pronto. So we end up doing a ton of thinking and hubby wants to go for it.   We start the process to sell the house, and after some cleaning and repairs and staging the house sells in three days for full price.  We get our check before leaving the state and head down.

A couple weeks before moving I go to the Apple store to buy a laptop while I still have no sales tax...(that's been hard giving that up) and I work with a salesman who I tell that we are moving and ask if there is a store in ABQ for training purposes, and ta da... he was born and raised in ABQ, and loves it there.

Then I tell my Holistic doc we are moving and she gets all giddy and tells me how much she loves NM.
We had a going away party and people come out of the woodwork - that have ties or were raised in NM and tell us how much we are going to love it.

Back up - we do go down in March for a house hunt trip.  We were about to rent this rather sad looking small house that had this crazy thing with a see through fireplace that joined the great room to the master bedroom, so weird.  When I was about to head out to sign the lease, I ran back and checked craigslist one more time and a newer townhouse had come up in a neighborhood that we had heard we would probably like and I got an appointment to look at that the same morning.  When I walked in the door and saw a print on the living room wall that looked almost exactly like a painting I had painted a few weeks earlier, same colors and everything - I knew that was a sign for sure!

So boom, we are here!