Career path change, with certification

After loosing my job from my employment for almost 9 years I have been taking some time off to research where I want to go next. For the past few years I've been loosing interest in my job, where I was a Windows system administrator. Day in and day out, I felt like I was stuck in the same job functions, not learning anything new, while I was just called upon when things went south.

Once I was let go, I started to deeply think what was wrong with my old job and what did I want to change to. It's such an easy question, most people would say that they don't like their managers, co-workers, job functions, etc. When I started to write the list of what I don't like about my current job, and what I do like.

Below was my list.

Dislikes -
Being called at all hours
Working with non-team players
Limited growth

Likes -
Helping people
Working in a team
Able to move towards different teams or departments

After thinking about the jobs available I realized that I could move to any career I wanted but the first step is learning and getting the experience. I do enjoy working in the IT field, but wanted to do more than stay on the Windows side. My first choice was to look at the Linux administration, I always felt that when I was working on Windows there was so many functions "hidden" from an admin view. When I would call Microsoft for help they only offered more cryptic answers which really bothered me. It was as if I bought a car but couldn't open the engine hood to see what was wrong but had to take it to the dealership.

Then I was thinking that I do like security, on Windows but any other OS in general. I liked the research I did for Windows and see how I could apply security in order to keep a system safe from harmful users. While I would need to understand the Windows world even further, there is also a matter of learning new security information.

Down the longer 1 year path I might still make a serious change in my career but I first need to find a job again, and make the best of it.

Where I want to go is first get a certification, which will allow me to further sell myself as a more successful administrator. The choice on which certification is pretty basic, I'm mostly thinking of the Microsoft Windows MCITP Administrator, but at the same time I am also interested in the Redhat Linux RHCE which is also a great selling point.

Which will I finally go for? I have much more experience on Windows so I will go for the MCITP first, but until I have a full time job, I have the time to explore the two.

Will see just where I land, I'm currently looking for a job and hope I can get employed shortly.