'You'll need a car' UPDATED

Much has happened since my last post (thus the lack of posting). I survived my first academic conference, not to mention my first trip to Los Angeles. The conference itself was extremely exciting. Southern California was exciting as well, but in a different way. Being too young, too grad-student-incomed, and (here's the real problem) too lacking in a drivers' license or the ability to drive to rent a car, LA was daunting. But figuring I've done it in Chicago, which is also a car city, and with icier weather, Jo and I ended up walking across the city, from UCLA through Beverly Hills through Hollywood, past the Scientology headquarters and over to Los Feliz Village, on the day before the conference started. That's about it for my sneakers, and quite possibly my feet, but it was worth it, and there will, of course, be pictures.

While I was at the conference, Jo ended up at an Obama rally and saw Oprah. My celebrity sightings were limited to three in Los Feliz Village, a neighborhood the New York Times Travel section once referred to as "walkable," which is only walkable inasmuch as its main street lasts for three blocks. But in this Village, we saw 1) Phoebe's brother from "Friends," 2) Dharma from "Dharma and Greg," and 3) Lorelei from "Gilmore Girls," otherwise known as walking evidence of my wasted high-school years. I really should not have recognized any of these people.

UPDATE

The photos.