The True New Yorker

So I've been reading up on this, and everyone seems to have a different opinion. So here is MY list of what you have to have experience to be a true New Yorker:

1) Choose a side in the Yankees/Mets rivalry, and then passionately defend your side despite all logic.
2) Go to a Knicks game.
3) Frequent a cafe in your neighborhood until they know your name and you can say, "the usual."
4) Visit all five boroughs.
5) Join the throngs in Times Square after midnight on a weekday.
6) Get comfortable hailing a cab.
7) Orient yourself east to west by which side of the park you're on.
8) Figure out the difference between local and express trains.
9) Start calling the subway, "the train."
10) Buy pizza and hot dogs from street vendors.
11) Attend summer events in Central Park.
12) Be verbally accosted by psychotic ranters in the subway.
13) Identify summertime by the smell.
14) Learn to cross the streets no matter what the signs say.
15) Always carry cash.
16) Love the city life.

I'll be interested to see if this list changes after I've really been here for awhile. I'm still a California Girl at heart, but for now, I'll give John Updike the last word:

“The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.”