"This is HARD! I am in a pickle!"

So, after a year and a half in New York City, I am heading back to Albuquerque in a couple of weeks in an effort to get my dissertation finished on time. There will be things about New York I'll miss, and things I absolutely won't; likewise, there are things I look forward to again in New Mexico, and some things I dread.

However, my move has stuck me with quite a devilish problem. My current haunt is having a mayoral election this year, in which I have the chance to try to bring down a would-be king. Since I will only be gone temporarily (roughly a year), and as a New York taxpayer for 2009, I could vote absentee.

However, Albuquerque is having a mayoral election this October, where I have the chance to vote against the contemptible Martin Chavez as he seeks a fourth (guh!) term. The number of times I cursed Chavez and his policies, his rhetoric, his lies, and his self-serving actions (including posting firetrucks in front of his house during a wildfire, "just in case," while others on his street were fighting off the fire with garden hoses) in my first round in New Mexico are numerous; to be involved in Chavez's final downfall would be so sweet. I'll be there early enough that I could vote at the beginning of October in an effort to eliminate Marty from the chance of even a run-off, and even if he made it to the second round, it would be one more chance to get rid of Mayor Marty.

You, dear reader, can see my problem here: two elections, two absolutely contemptible men who absolutely need to be removed from office, and I can only vote in one of the two elections. Decisions, decisions.....