intersections of life
23rd and clement
jackson and fillmore
eucalyptus drive
26th and taraval
irving and 7th
hearst avenue
haste between ellsworth and fulton
west 20th between 7th and 8th
116th and broadway
edgbaston road
rhode island and 17th
florida and 13th
amber drive
dartmouth street

people are always asking me for recommendations for cities i've lived in. new york city tops the list for most frequently asked questions, london comes in second, and san francisco a respectable third. i've become lisa.citysearch.com. i'm going to work on posting those recommendations here, so i don't have to keep re-writing the same email over and over.

i'm a city girl, always will be. i remember when lin waxed poetic about nature and scenery and foliage, i gave him the classic "what the fuck?" Lisa Look. lin is definitely a country mouse, god bless his pacific northwest-raised heart. i also don't understand the suburbs--i just don't understand them. it just doesn't process, you know? i can at least respect the mentality of people who come from places like the countryside, but not the suburbs. even the word itself indicates inferiority to the city: "sub-urban," meaning "below" or "lesser" urban. (note: for more on the origins of the san frnsiscan superiority complex, click here or here)

i have a ritual every time i move to a new city: i set a destination (usually a store or shopping district or museum), take a map, an umbrella, my walkman (tres 80s, i know), a bottle of water, and hit the streets. i like to explore the city on the first go by myself. i've got a pretty good sense of direction (and i'm the bomb parallel parker!....but i digress), and i don't like to be distracted by people who do not or who do not trust mine. plus i just like wandering around at my own pace, which is usually superfast. i'm a darty walker, as anyone who visited me in nyc can attest to.

i love love LOVE public transportation, especially subways and all their variations. taking public transportation and walking around the city by myself makes me feel like a native. there's also something so romantic (ho romantic-ahhh) about underground trains. all that confined space, close quarters, furtive glances. you can get a really good measure of the make-up of the city by the people who ride the subway. it's an awesome cross-section of people, without all the bourgeois riffraff who have cars.

i love the sound of cars whizzing by my window. i love the streetlights, i love the office buildings with inexplicable lights on late at night. i love the minimum wage workers who i ride the train with at 11 pm, on my way home, on their way to work. i love the pulsing, vibrating, throbbing intersections, seething with life during lunch hour. i love the fashion shows on the sidewalk. i love the food carts. i love times square, farragut square, trafalgar square, union square.

oh, and this is just for freesia:
freesia: whatever taiwan!
me: nice.
me: i don't think taiwan appreciates that...
freesia: yeah well..
freesia: what's taiwan done for me lately??