“Mom?”

“Yes Ella?”

“Do you know what flexible means?”

“What Ella, tell me.”

“Flexible means that when someone cuts you in line you don’t get mad.”

“Wow Ella, that’s true”

Then I thought to myself, except when you’re with your friends from New Jersey trying to find parking in Russian Hill and when you finally find the perfect spot an old lady is standing in it with a microfiber duster waiting for her husband to come home from work to take the spot and dust his car. Then you and your New Jersey crew aren’t too flexible. In fact one of them gets out of the car and starts yelling.

Is flexible when you have waited and waited for the release of the Missoni line at Target and all you want is a new swimsuit and when you are entering your credit card number on your stupid phone the bikini is suddenly stolen from your virtual cart AND THEN THEY ARE ALL OUT OF STOCK???!!!!! NO, NOT FLEXIBLE.

Waiting in lines. San Franciscans will pretty much wait in any line as long as it promises something good. This usually involves some sort of food item, but my husband often says that in the city if there is a line people will just go stand in it to see where it leads.

San Francisco has limited space. Lines have become part of our culture. There are times when I am flexible on this. Waiting in line to get into Brenda’s before they renovated was worth it. Creole food with cheerful curvy waitresses and a BYOB policy. They would wink and tell you to run accross the street to the liquor store to pick up your beer while they brought you the best fried chicken you have ever had in your life.

The line on Linden Street for Blue Bottle Coffee makes you feel like you are in some kind of secret club.

Don’t even get me started on Bi-Rite. I will wait 45 minutes in that line and it’s fun and worth it. Hipsters serving you some of the best ice cream while you listen to the hum of the Mission District and Dolores Park in the background.

There was one line I was becoming very UN-flexible on however.

The line to get into the TJs parking lot off Masonic Avenue. Come on! Sometimes it would take a half an hour. Seriously?? Trader Joe’s is great and all, but it certainly does not warrant a 30 minute wait just to park. I had to turn grocery shopping into some kind of event to justify going there. No matter what time of day it looked like this.

So when I learned that the new Trader Joe’s had opened up on California and Hyde I was pretty excited. My girlfriend who lives in Russian Hill posted pics on Instagram that day of how huge is was and commented on the large parking lot.

I decided to take the girls to go check it out.

We arrived and pulled right into the lower lot that had many free spots with wide spaces. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Our arrival after the no hassle parking

The only line we waited in the whole time

Scratch N Sniffs!

The upper lot

Of course I could avoid these lines by living in the suburbs, but what fun would that be?

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Jennifer Latch