1. The Seattle dog from a corner in Capitol Hill late-night.

You might have to be drunk the first time someone convinces you to put grilled onions and cream cheese on a hot dog — I know I was. But once you try it, you will never henceforth knock it.

2. The walking art gallery of gorgeous tattoos

Damon Conklin, April Cornell, and Chris Adams craft dahlias, cedars, and mountains to celebrate the landscape, mark people with a sign of the craft they love, or ink a mini piece of pizza or a cupcake because nothing matters.

3. Summer euphoria that kinda feels like drugs.

Standing on the corner, eyes closed, face turned toward the light: totally normal.

4. When the sun comes out, you call in sick, buy new sunglasses, and hit up a patch of grass with the rest of the Seattleites skipping work.

5. 45-minute drives to mountains and forests and water

Point your car in any direction and you’ll end up somewhere beautiful within an hour or so. You can take a nature day and still be home and showered in time for dinner and a show.

6. Hand-crafted, small-batch, artisanal deliciousness

The man who won the World Cup of Baking that one time? His chocolate croissants are two blocks from my place at Bakery Nouveau. The biscuits Harper’s Bazaar just featured? They’re two blocks the other way at The Wandering Goose. In Seattle, we’re not chunky, we’re well-fed.

7. The rain

It’s basically an institutionalized reason to nap, to read, draw, or listen to a new band while you whip up some curry.

8. 90.3 KEXP

This station gives us local bands, live performances, and a Friday song that makes you happy dance every time you happen to catch it. Most radio stations in the United States are an interchangeable slog through predictable programming. Not this one.

9. Coffee at Vivace or Victrola

When it’s dark and wet and freezing outside as I leave for work, that $4.50 for a latte seems less like a luxury tax and more like buying a reason to live. Oh, and look, they put a heart in the foam. Everything’s going to be ok now.