It seems fitting that Judi Evans Luciano spent her formative years in a traveling circus, raised by trapeze artist parents: Since her Emmy-winning daytime debut on GUIDING LIGHT in 1983, Luciano has swung between dizzying highs and disastrous lows. Right now, with a plum role on ANOTHER WORLD, a cozy home in a New Jersey cul-de-sac and a blissful one-year marriage to cameraman Michael Luciano, she is soaring.

Dressed casually in jeans, her poker-straight blonde hair shimmering, Luciano sips a cup of coffee at a quiet New York cafe and reflects on the unhappy marriage that preceded her current state of heavenly domesticity. With her pretty face free of makeup, Luciano looks a good five years younger than her AW alter ego, Paulina. But dig a little deeper and you'll find that like Paulina, Luciano is a bawdy, straight-shooting survivor.

"My first marriage taught me what I would never accept again," Luciano says philosophically. "It taught me more of what I wanted than maybe if I had had a good marriage." She concedes that her union to businessman Robert Eth was doomed early on. So early, in fact, that she had doubts walking down the aisle. "I knew from that moment, to the next day, to two-and-a-half years later when I left him - the marriage was a mistake," she groans. "I just kept trying to fix it, to put Band-Aids on it, but it started getting worse and worse and WORSE."

Looking back, Luciano blames the mismatch on her own rush to get married. "I never loved him; he never loved me," she says, shaking her head in disbelief. "We never even LIKED each other! I left a job in L.A. to move here to try to fix my marriage - not that he had to appreciate it - but it p--d me off that he never did."

After leaving Eth, Luciano enlisted the help of a therapist and made a startling discovery. The never-without-a-man Luciano was happy...alone. "When I came to that place it was cool," she smiles. "I thought, 'I'm fine. I can take care of myself. I don't need a man for anything. I don't want a man for anything but companionship.' That's when all of a sudden this guy showed up."

That "guy" was Michael Luciano, whom she met for the SECOND time at a New Jersey dance club. (They had met years before at a farm where they both boarded horses.) Fortified by liquid courage ("I took a big slug of my glass of wine"), Luciano asked him to dance. Six weeks and many candid phone conversations later, they had their first date.

The evening was unconventional, to say the least. While waiting for a table at a Hoboken restaurant, the couple discovered their shared passion for fishing and on a whim, decided to catch a 10 p.m. party boat. "We ran to the mall - we were all dressed up - bought some sweats, tennis shoes, a cooler, a couple of six packs of beer, a small bottle of tequila, some munchies and zipped down there. We didn't think we were going to make it, but we got there at five to 10 and were like - 'YES!' Then we found out the last boat left at 7," she laughs, pounding the table in playful frustration. "So we went to dinner and sat [on the shoreline] until almost sunrise, talked and watched the waves, and had some brews."

Luciano may have missed the boat, but her romantic ship had sailed in. "We dated, we got engaged and we got married," she exclaims. "On our wedding day, he pulled out that leftover bottle of beer - he saved it from that first date - and instead of champagne as our first toast, we had a Rolling Rock." And the romance has just kept on coming. "Michael is very honest, sweet, kind, generous," declares Luciano. "I haven't met too many men that really like women. They might like to DO women, they might like to BE WITH women, but they don't LIKE women. He likes women and treats women with respect."

Not that Luciano is one of those women who gravitates only to men - she also appreciates the women in her life. In fact, good pal Jensen Buchanan's (Vicky) decision to rejoin AW in October thrilled Luciano. "It's a real friendship, and you don't find a lot of those in life," she muses. Oddly enough, their choice of vehicles is what cemented the friendship. "We both drive to work and Jensen said, 'Did you get a car?' Yeah, I got a car. 'What did you get?' A Jeep. 'What year?' '91. 'What KIND?' Limited. 'WHAT COLOR?' Gray. We had the exact same car. Instant bond. From then, it just grew."

Has watching her good friend with a baby (Buchanan had a son in April) stirred Luciano's maternal instincts? "We were thinking about starting a family basically because I don't want to wear another bathing suit at the Cory pool," she deadpans. "I'm 30 and we want two or three kids...I'd sort of like to be pregnant at this time next year. But we are playing it by ear."

For the time being, the former party girl is content cozying up to her husband in their country-style cabin far beyond the New York City limits. "I like walking down the street where no one bothers you," she affirms. "Not that they don't bother you, but it's more like, 'Hi, how are you doing Judi? Oh fine, Susie. How are you?' I'm Donna Reed. I just don't wear pearls and high heels when I vacuum."

SIDEBAR: "Homes Sweet Homes"

Judi Evans Luciano is one of those rare actresses who has jumped from show to show to show and found great success on all of them. Here are some highlights.

Guiding Light: 1983-1986
"I loved the [incest] story and the character."

Days of Our Lives: 1986-1991
"I made some really good friends. Wally [Kurth, ex-Justin; Ned, GH], [former producer] Becky Greenlaw and [her sister] Marcia Greenlaw. Adnd [DAYS] paid really well! I learned a lot, I grew a lot. I became more of the person that I wanted to be."

Another World: 1991-present
"At AW, I've really blossomed. I love the character and I love the friendships that I've made. They let me be dramatic, they let me be bitchy, they let me be mean, they let me be conniving. They throw things at me all the time."