2004-08-11 - 12:54 p.m.

top twelve things i love about san francisco

1. the weather. it was really hot yesterday, 78 degrees fahrenheit. if it gets over 80 degrees here, people start freaking out. by sundown, a cool fog covered the city like a silver blanket. it's august.

2. there is nowhere to park. even my friends that have cars rarely drive them since its such a bitch to constantly look for a parking space.

3. seattle's coffee has nothing on baghdad by the bay. i have started getting the jitters before finishing my jumbo java every morning.

4. san franciscans take sushi very, very seriously. my friends who are sushiholics know the names and specialties of their favorite sushi chefs the way we used to memorise set lists for our favorite DJs. its not unheard of to wait up to an hour for a seat at a popular place. last night's dinner was a papaya unagi roll, a hawaiian roll (tuna, mango, cucumber, mayo, anad macadamia nuts), and a spicy hamachi roll (which included jalapenos). on monday i got a dish of ankimo (monkfish liver), which is a delicacy i've yet to encounter on the east coast.

5. i've been hugged a lot. having lived in new york for five years now, i had almost forgot how californians touch one another much more than we easterners do. it's almost alarming to me how comfortable san franciscans seem in their bodies.

6. everyone i know in san francisco reads a lot, owns a lot of books, trades books with one another and talks about books a lot. the majority of people i know here do not have televisions.

7. san francisco is easily the most photogenic city i've ever been to.

8. the produce is huge and unbelievably delicious.

9. noone here is in any particular hurry.

10. this morning, i went out to mail postcards and collect the times. i was singing to myself as i walked down the street. a bicyclist stopped his bike and said 'that's pretty! what are you singing?'

11. it's okay to be gay. every other couple hodling hands on the streets is same-sex. i counted at least three people on the MUNI last week obviously cross-dressed.

12. in my neighborhood in new york, there are plenty of anti-bush flyers and stickers. in san francisco, there are whole shop windows with elaborate anti-bush displays and giant bush-hating billboards. san francisco is so liberal that the democrat in the last mayoral race was the conservative.