1. The bedroom I share with my boys and my cat. It's where we start the day, with The Boy calling from his crib, "Up Dada!" And where we end it, with The Boy running around before we bathe him, then climbing into bed while he "reads" his books and we snuggle. The cat settles at the foot of the bed as we put The Boy in his crib, then I actually read him his bedtime stories. Heaven!
2. Prague. I have a picture of the Vltava River, Charles Bridge and Prague Castle as my desktop, so whenever I turn on my laptop The Boy goes, "Pog!" Then when I open up a window and it disappears he goes, "Where's it, Pog?"
Prague and I have an awfully long history together. I first read about it when I was still in high school and it was still in Czechoslovakia. I've lived there a few times, visited countless times and am beyond excited about the prospect of one day taking The Boy there.
3. Paris. I mean, who doesn't love Paris? I was lucky enough to visit a few times when I was young and poor, but I really fell in love when Hubs and I lived in London and I would make an annual trip on Eurostar across the Channel.
And it's not the usual touristy things that I love about Paris, and miss now that I rarely get to go there. I miss being able to sit in cafes for hours, lingering over a teeny tiny cup of coffee without being hassled about leaving. I love sitting on the banks of the Seine during the Summer Solstice festival(Fete de la Musique) and walking the streets of my beloved 9th arrondisement - the slightly dingy district between Montmartre and the Grands Boulevards.
4. San Francisco – It started out as a glittering Bohemian alternative to my dry, suburban Southern Californian childhood and became the place where I met and fell in love with Hubs. I coveted living there when I was a young’un, went clubbing there when I went to university across the Bay and worked in nearly every building in the Financial District while I was temping just out of college.
Along with the myriad places I love in San Francisco – Caffe Trieste in North Beach, the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, City Lights Bookstore in North Beach and Green Apple Books on Clement Street – I really loved the commute I had to the last job I had there. I took the bus along Union, then it turned onto Columbus, passing the old people doing Tai Chi in Washington Square. We’d then whiz through North Beach before I’d get off on Market.
For a long time I’d hop on Bart to get to my job in Oakland. Starting almost exactly 10 years ago, spooked by the idea of taking the Transbay Tube, I would get myself a bagel and a coffee, hop on a nearly empty ferry and sail east across the Bay watching the sun rise over the Oakland Hills.
5. Berkeley – Where I went to college and the only place I have ever lived on my very own.
6. London – It’s big, it’s crowded, endures occasional riots and I still absolutely love it. Hubs and I lived in West London for years. For one of those years I had to take the Piccadilly Line clear across London to Bloomsbury for grad school. It was awesome, especially in the Fall when the leaves fell on the gray streets and Bloomsbury Square, and the cold weather practically demanded that you nip into a pub for a pint.
7. The back of The Vault Martini Bar in Redlands, CA. Strange, since I hate every thing else about my hometown and would rather stick needles in my eyes than ever move back. That said, the courtyard of the Fox Building in downtown Hometown played a pivotal role in my early adulthood. While it’s currently the back of The Vault, it had been attached to several cafes in a different part of the building for a million years. The first café to occupy the location and claim the coveted inner courtyard was Fleur de Lis – site of my first real job, where I had my pre-prom pictures taken and countless scenes of debauchery.
8. Berlin – Berlin is awesome! A sprawling metropolis and living museum, I spent the whole of the 90’s living in fear of it – and Germany in general – only passing through on my way to Central Europe. Going to Berlin to study German for grad school showed me what I was missing. It is old and new and beer gardens and art co-ops, I mostly love it because it’s the first place Hubs and I decided to go together though.
9. Budapest – Because it’s awesome. Viennese-style cafes and Catholic churches that were originally mosques. What’s not to love.
10. Vancouver – Not only was it voted the best place to live in the entire world for a million years running, it was where Hubs and I conceived The Boy. The countless cafes made up for the pubs I missed since leaving London, and the its distance from our friends and family was kind of made up for by the views and the affordability.
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