Why I Still Love NM, and I miss it.

One of the nice things about flying to the Southwest, and vacation in general, I suppose, is the idea that all the annoying and stressful things about the world (Washington, and NYC, for those out in the eastern half of the US) disappear for a small while. With the crumbling of the financial system and the administration's insistence that he gov't bail it out (I'm not so sure it's a good idea, but I'm no financial expert, so begrudgingly I'll have to leave it to the people who got us in this mess to get us out...ugh...), and a dragging war, I can sit down at El Nido's in Tesuque, NM, and enjoy a huge green chile and cheese hamburger.


So the fries are universal. The chile is not. For those that don't know and haven't read my blog enough. Green chile is tha bomb. The shiznit. The best pepper you could ever eat. Put it on everthing. It only serves to make it better. It's hot, it's rich with flavor, and it's a New Mexico specialty.
But I was getting to how I miss NM. I miss not reading about the financial markets every day. I miss seeing the wide open sky, and smelling the fresh air. The grass is always greener, I suppose, because not 15 years ago, my fiancé, got the hell out of Santa Fe, because it was to much of a small town, and headed east. First to DC, then to NYC, then back to DC, where we finally met.
One of the things I didn't realize I missed out on as a kid growing up in DC is the small town-ness of Santa Fe. A city and neighborhood, whose age is measured by the hundreds of years, not by the decades. Now I did grow up in Northern VA, which you could extend to mean DC. But it isn't quite the same, because I didn't grow up seeing the people of DC every day, and learning their "traditions" (I'm beginning to think it's corruption and stealing, what with the recent tax scandal, Marion Barry, and the lastest shenanigans with the markets). I grew up in Lake Ridge, VA. Basically suburbia. Our tradition was the high school soccer team.
So when I went to fiesta de Santa Fe, a 296 year-old tradition, I became a bit envious.
But again, the grass is always greener. I suppose growing up in the smalltown environment like my fiancé did, only made her wish to see the big city. But in the end, we found each other and now I can claim to be raised near the big city and call a small town like Santa Fe my second home, while the reverse is true for her.