"You might not be looking for the promised land..."

Arizona called today, to offer me money. On the phone, my parents and I discussed the respective virutes of Tucson and the Twin Cities. I was Googling (in vain, sadly) for a recent report I'd heard listing Minneapolis as one of (if not the) most livable cities in America when I came across findyourspot.com. Joel and Heather had mentioned a similar quiz in a recent post and so, inspired, I answered the 8 pages of questions, ranking my preferences on size, weather, politics, and others.

Let it also be known, dear fellow Midwesterners, that I did not, when offered the opportunity, select one region of the country over another: these are the straight-up results, unmodified by prejudices regarding preferred regions. My top 24:

1. Medford/Ashland, OR
2. Corvallis, OR
3. San Bernardino, CA
4. Albuquerque, NM
5. Ventura, CA
6. Fayetteville, AR (which one of these is not like the others?)
7. Eugene, OR
8. Salem, OR
9. Santa Barbara, CA
10. El Cajon, CA
11. Honolulu, HI
12. Reno, Nevada
13. Portland, OR
14. Santa Cruz, CA
15. Palo Alto, CA
16. Carson City, NV
17. Sheboygan, WI
18. Bend, OR (the front runner, according to the picture at the top of the screen, after my first few pages of questions--and historically high on my list)
19. Charleston, WV
20. Frederick, Maryland
21. Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
22. Hartford, CT
23. Danbury, CT
24. Sacramento, CA

It's notable that a few of my favorite places (Bend, Medford/Ashland, Albuquerque) made the list, and that others (Redding, Denver, Lincoln) were displaced by the likes of Sheboygan and Charleston. I suppose some of my answers reflected a bit of a split personality: yes, I want lots of sunny days; yes, I want to play tennis in the winter without ear muffs; no, I don't mind a sunny and cold winter; yes, I want to mountain bike; no, I don't want to visit the zoo. I want a medium-sized community, but I want museums, theater, opera, and to live near a university, but could not care less about the sporting events.

Not that any of this matters, of course, in the face of other issues: I live in Ohio and appear to be moving to Minnesota. But after that... look out, Bend/Redding/Albuquerque--here I come!