It's really real, fer reals

New Mexico is a done deal. The papers are signed, notice has been given and the house rented. It's amazing how at home I feel in New Mexico. I've never spent time in Albuquerque other than to fly in and drive to Santa Fe, but I found it very straightforward and easy to navigate. Unlike Austin with in all of its 2222/Northland/Bee Caves/2244/Mopac/Loop 1/360/Capital of Texas nonsense. The two are so appley-orangey I won't get in to that too much... yet.

I've posted photo sets pictures of the house:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/buttercupbuddy/sets/72157622654098732/
I pretty much rented the house sight unseen, with a quick trip around the neighborhood before I met the landlord to sign the lease. After pouring over apartment and house listings on craigslist for weeks my options were:

A)some cookie cutter condo on the east side where there's one of every chain store and giant divided highways with 2 and 3 turning lanes (scary, I'm from Connecticut and had never even seen a turning lane until I went to college in Iowa!) It seems counterintuitive that a girl should have to contend with access roads and wall to wall carpet to live by the mountains, but I guess in Albuquerque that is how it goes.

B)a student type place in Nob Hill, by campus. I was seriously tempted by these, as it was the only neighborhood I got to explore when I came for my interview in September and I am pretty sure I could eat breakfast at the Frontier Diner everyday of my life from now until eternity (or until I had congestive heart failure) but the whole ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NO PETS!!! AND NO DOGS!!! DONT ASK!!! NO EXCEPTIONS!!! thing wasn't really going to work out for me and Dixie.

C)A funky old adobe on the Northwest Side of town, kind of on the edge of the ghetto, but also ideally situated close to my office (which is by the stadiums and the airport) and also close to the Nature Center and the Bosque (hike n bike) Trail.

Obviously, I chose C. As additional bonus my long runs will wind through Los Ranchos de Albuquerque (which I like to call it the Greenwich of ABQ)and there is a fruiteria a block over which sells seasonal local produce, which currently includes Carrizoso Springs cherry cider and freshly roasted Hatch Green Chiles. YUM!

Also within walk distance there is a bar/package store that advertises 4-packs of Tecate (for when you just can't hang with a sixer I guess?!) a laundromat where old men congregate early in the morning to pull their pants up high and talk about the weather, a family dollar and a small grocery store with a somewhat grimy exterior. All things considered, I'm really quite pleased with my little island of walkability in the vast sea of a car-centric city.

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