[jyl]

Some practical, albeit small, things to do if you find yourself in the NE for another winter.
- Ridiculous amounts of daylight spectrum lighting, everywhere. I had SAD here in the PacNW, put 600 watts of daylight spectrum CFL above my work desk (equivalent to like 2400 watts of incandescent), put the biggest wattage daylight spectrum CFL or incandescent bulbs available in every socket at home, ignored wife's complaints about the "harsh" lighting, told the kids "remember how daddy always nagged you to turn off the lights? that's over, I want every damn light in this house left ON" . Made a significant difference.
- Spend more time outdoors. I rode my bike to work every day, rain or shine. Even overcast light is helpful for SAD.
- Exercised a lot. Also seemed to help.
- Go somewhere. Don't take time off in the summer, take it all in the winter, go to Mexico or Spain or skiing or etc. Somewhere with lots of sun and ideally warm too.

As for the bigger question, seems to me there are a few dilemmas going on. (1) Where to live. (2) What to do for a living. (3) How to be happy and positive in so-so situations, instead of sad and negative. Third obviously being the elephant in the room. You've lived in a lot of different places and done various things, your life so far has been more diverse than many, and if you haven't felt happy satisfied and content anywhere, then the next move isn't going to do it.