The Dichotomy

San Francisco is one of the most stylish, creative cities I have ever visited. I realized the other day that part of it has to do with our neighborhood and the other part may be related to the neighborhoods in which we hang out. But hands-down there's really no comparison at all between what I see people wearing on the streets here and on the streets in, well, Catonsville, MD.

People here (especially in the Castro) are so very friendly, too. I mean, as far as major cities go, San Fran strangers are almost as nice as Europeans are (not including the French, sorry Paris), and will smile and be reasonably open to making friendly comments to strangers on the street.

In Maryland I used to get this, too, but Baltimore is known to be the Biggest Small Town Ever (tm) and Catonsville is just a tiny little Mayberry of it's own, unchanging neighborly goodness for decades. I'd always get "Awesome hair!" or "Where did you get those boots?" or "Nice jacket!"

In San Francisco though, I hear:

"I love your dog!"

..... What??


That's right. I get more compliments on my dog in this city over the last 3.5 weeks than other compliments I've gotten, total, in the last 11 years in MD. While I would love to be as fashionable and creative as the other residents here, oh, who am I kidding?




I know I have a pretty awesome dog. He's fun-sized, but not too small. He's friendly and outgoing and loves to wag his tail and sniff hello to the ladies - and certain gents. He's always the quickest one at the dog park and has cute floppy ears and serenades fire trucks. Not to mention the little paintbrush propeller-tail that won my heart over 6 years ago at the SPCA.


Oh well. If you can't compete with 'em, flaunt what you got. You could have a heck of a lot worse than a Zachary trotting by your side.