May 2024: A Trip to LA. To Talk.

May 22: I flew out to LA once more, this time because I’d be presenting at the conference of the Mormon Scholars of the Humanities once more…but not on James Joyce this time! This year I talked about Marguerite Young and her novel Miss MacIntosh My Darling. Also, it was the last week of school, so Liz couldn't come along. I’ll just get that bad news out of the way if you were here hoping for Liz pics. (Don’t worry, though, next post will have Lots!)

Mom, Dad and Grandma picked me up and we all went to Schreiner’s German Grocery Store for sausage sandwiches in Glendale. (I do not know if it’s full name is “Schreiner’s German Grocery Store” is it’s full name but it fits).

Back to Grandma’s for a little rest (I now remember that my flight out of Columbus had left at 6am) and then went to Alhambra for haircuts with Dad. Then I stopped by Cal Tech to check on the turtles … nearly 80 of them were out and a LOT more were at the top pond than the bottom. This isn’t the usual situation there.

For dinner I picked up Howlin’ Rays for everyone. And then I got a patty melt to share from Lucky Boy because it was time for them to all try this patty melt I’ve been getting every now and then the last few years. And while I was getting the patty melt I also ran into the Trader Joe’s across the street. It was a perfect pick up mission. The Mapps joined us and boy these pictures don’t do their visit justice. You can’t even see Blair! Oh well we were eating and having fun, that’s all. Also: I got the spiciest level heat from Howlin’ Rays and I’m telling you now that I do NOT need to do that again. Also: The patty melt was a giant hit. Of course.

May 23: Dad and I went to Claremont for the conference. Heard lots of great presentations, interacted with friends (colleagues?) I hadn’t seen for a year. It was a long day. Food was hard to find on campus, we ate ramen after for dinner. Not a lot of pictures. Was taking notes and revising my presentation in my mind the whole time. But here are some pictures from the campus.

May 24th: The day of my presentation! I got up at 4am (a.k.a. 7am in Columbus, so actually I slept in) to make a slide show (which you can see here) for my presentation (a version of which you can read here). I had had this idea the morning before: What if I made my presentation entertaining? And I think I did! People seemed to really like it. Mom, Dad and Grandma came. I was flattered to have them there. Dad took this picture of me presenting, it looks like I presented to 3 people But actually it was over 20. He also took this picture of me A’ing a Q. That’s like my favorite part of the presentation game, if I get asked questions after. Also, that’s not my Dr. Pepper. Get real.

After the presentation it was lunchtime and we went to Del Taco. What a great way to celebrate. Dad got the salad. Wow. I had never seen the Del Taco salad before. Or such a big handicap parking lot…I mean space!

Dad and I stayed for the rest of the conference and then we all met up again back at Grandma’s and headed downtown for dinner at Damian. We like Cosme, we like Detroit, it was time to try Enrique’s fancy Los Angeles place. Grandma came too, I was a little worried if she would like it. Well, guess what? She LOVED it. Super big hit of a dinner, what a great feeling.

The food we ate was:
-”Chips” and Salsa
-Guacamole
-Salmon Tostada
-White Bean and Veggie Tlayuda
-Potato and Artichoke Huarache
-Ricotta Tamale (just about killed us all dead with joy)
-Soft Shell Crab Tacos
-Pollito al Pastor
-Swordfish
-Carne Asada
-The Hibiscus Meringue (we also had 3 other desserts)
-Mom and Grandma with the corn soft serve, one of those 3 other deserts

May 25th: Mom and Dad and I went to the LACMA in the morning. Turns out most of it is closed for renovations, but that’s ok, I just wanted to see Metropolis II in action and I did. Other good stuff on display in the contemporary building and then some good WWI and Persian stuff in the building across from the contemporary building. Also saw those famous lamp posts and the big rock.

The LACMA is right by the new Academy of Motion Pictures museum so we went into their lobby and saw an original Millennium Falcon model and the camera they shot those Star Wars models with…there was a presentation going on, that’s why it’s crowded. And we walked over to the tarpits to have a look at tarpit things, too.

On the way home we had lunch at Villa’s Tacos, which keeps winning awards and, you know what? I say it deserves them all. What an awesome and delicious operation. Don’t be scared of the line, they really keep it moving and get you that food.

Here’s some around the house pictures from Grandma’s. For dinner we had Lucky Boy because everyone wanted a patty melt again! I tried the bacon avocado cheeseburger and, wow, it blew my bacon avocado cheeseburger expectations away! So much bacon, so much avocado. Lucky Boy DELIVERS. Keep your eyes out for pictures of me in my next post wearing my new Lucky Boy t-shirt.

May 26th: Off to church! And from church I go to the airport and fly on home to Liz, just in time to repack for our next trip. It was a trip-filled end of May! You’ll see!