You just might be from New Mexico, if...

1) You buy hot salsa by the gallon.

2) You never take down your outside Christmas lights.

3) Your favorite restaurant has a chile list instead of a wine list.

4) Your Christmas decorations include: "a yard of sand and 100 paper bags."

5) Half of the Yellow Pages in your town are lawyer listings.

6) You hated Texans until the Californians moved in.

7) You remember when Santa Fe wasn't like San Francisco.

8) You have t-shirts printed for your family reunion.

9) Your car can't clear a speed bump.

10) Your stereo system costs more than your car.

11) Your water bill is twice as much as your gasoline bill from April - October.

12) You stop at a drive-through liquor window on your way home from the bar.

13) You think that a red light is merely a suggestion.

14) You have to sign a waiver to buy hot coffee at a drive-through window.

15) Most restaurants in your town have the first name "El" or "Los".

16) You can't control your vehicle on wet pavement.

17) You wish you'd bought stock in the orange barrel business.

18) You remember when nobody in town would lend Bill Gates a dime.

19) There is a piece of a UFO displayed in your home.

20) All of your out-of-state friends visit in October.

21) You have just had your fifth DWI and you still drive.

22) You can actually hear the Taos hum.

23) You actually know the difference between fry bread and sopapillas.

24) You still aren't sure what your turn signal is for.

25) Your spellchecker keeps giving you grief over perfectly good words like acequia, cojones, cabrito, Tierra Amarilla ....

26) Your friend announces that he quit smoking, and no one seems to think it's odd to ask "what" he quit smoking.

27) The potholes are bigger than your car/truck.

28) Most of your favorite science fiction and fantasy writers live in-state.

29) You can correctly pronounce Tesuque, Cerrillos, and Pojoaque.

30) Your next-door neighbor has a sweat lodge in her backyard.

31) You have been told by at least one out-of-state vendor that they are going to charge you extra for "international" shipping.

32) You expect to pay more if your house is made of mud.

33) You can order your Big Mac with green chile.

34) You are still using the paper license tag that came with your car five years ago.

35) The tires on your roof have more tread than the ones on your car.

36) You price shop for tortillas.

37) You have an extra freezer just for green Chile.

38) You think six tons of crushed rock makes a beautiful front lawn.

39) You ran for state legislature so you can speed legally.

40) You pass on the right because that's the fast-lane.

41) You have read a book while driving from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

42) You know they don't skate at the Ice House and the Newsstand doesn't sell newspapers. (For those who don't know: a stripper bar and a porn shop, respectively)

43) Your swamp cooler got knocked off your roof by a dust devil.

44) You think Las Vegas is a town in the northeastern part of the state.

45) You iron your jeans to "dress up".

46) Your other vehicle is also a pick-up truck.

47) Two of your cousins are in Santa Fe, one in the legislature the other in the state pen.

48) You know the punch line to at least one Espanola joke.

49) You have driven to an Indian Casino at 3am, because you were hungry.

50) You think the UMN Lobos fight song is "Louie, Louie".

51) You know whether you want "red or green."

52) You're relieved when the pavement ends because the dirt road has fewer pot-holes.

53) You see nothing odd when, in the conversations of the people around you at the grocery store, every other word of each sentence alternate between Spanish and English.

54) The local schools have more superintendents than they have school board members.

55) The local mayor thinks he gets to dictate who runs the National Labs.

56) You tell the seasons of the year not by the month but by the number of forest fires burning.

Index