I am just back from a trip to Los Angeles during the UBC Reading Week (Spring Break). I spent two days at UCLA and two days at Caltech. I talked with colleagues I have known for a number of years and I gave seminar talks at both places. It was a good trip: my work was well received (or they were just polite) and I heard about a number of interesting ideas that were new to me.
When I am in Southern California I try to eat Mexican food when I can. I know of one good Mexican restaurant in Vancouver (Tio Pepe's on Commercial Drive) but in general that is something in the LA food scene we don't have much of up here. After my UCLA talk on Tuesday when I was on my own and had time to spend before my Caltech driver came to get me (that is another story) I wandered around Westwood Village until I found a likely restaurant. I had a nice meal of that Mexican slow cooked pork (carnitas) and a couple of margaritas.
Still with time to spend, I started walking around again. I began to feel ill to my stomach, in that way you recognize may need to find release. It could have been a stomach bug or simply that I ate too much rich food I was unused to. I had checked out of my hotel that morning, so had no room to return to. Campus was too far away. I mentally consulted my dead mother, who has advice on (almost) any situation. Actually, her advice to me has improved steadily since her death and in general she is more compassionate. In this case, I remembered she had useful perspective even when she was alive: that involuntary bodily functions were never something to be embarrassed about, that trying to suppress them was unnecessary and unhealthy. I found a quiet, dark street with some side shrubbery and after some pacing back and forth found release there.
If you read a news report about a UBC professor embarrassing himself in public near the UCLA campus, please don't forward them my picture.
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