A Surprise Show and a Win for Walking

Walking against the odds: wintering in Los Angeles to teach, promote craft chocolate, and thaw out from Chicago, with no fixed address to start, and no car by choice. How will this turn out? Stay tuned! :)

Hello from luscious Los Angeles!

On my second night here, I'd planned to attend a friend's book signing in Pasadena, which is 28 miles (45 km) away on the freeway from the Westwood neighborhood adjacent to the University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA, where I'm teaching a Winter Term course on International Business Law at UCLA Extension to a bright and dynamic group of international college students.

I'm also in town to promote exquisite craft chocolate by my local client Letterpress Chocolate to hotels, retailers, and the public through my Chocolate Uplift business, and to thaw out from another Chicago winter.

January in Westwood, Los Angeles, adjacent to UCLA, where it is 71F (21C) compared with 21F (-6C) in Chicago

A mutual friend who kindly said she'd drive us to the book event messaged me that it would take 2 hours in traffic to get there, and another hour to get back, using her West Hollywood location as a starting point. I'd been looking forward to celebrating our friend's book success and picking up a couple of signed copies for myself and as gifts.

Yet after a fun but full and long day, and with a touch of jet lag, the idea of spending 3 hours in a car, among LA drivers -- exceptionally nice people which is part of why I love LA, but often distracted drivers as many would agree -- seemed stressful and difficult. Plus, due to my long day and jet lag and obvious need for a nap, I was too late to get to West Hollywood before my friend with the car needed to leave.

My alternative was a Lyft from Westwood to Pasadena, which apparently would have cost over $100 round trip at the times I needed to be on the road. This sounded like paying to be in traffic. Sadly, I begged off from the event, and I look forward to seeing these friends in different venues.

Site-specific mural by Math Bass at the Hammer Museum, part of UCLA

Happily, walking saved the evening with a surprise show: I decided to stay in the neighborhood and walk several minutes to the Hammer Museum, which I'd read combined art by old masters with contemporary art and social justice, and which I already loved just from that combination!

After a pleasant walk through the warm night (warm to a Chicagoan is anything above freezing!), I arrived at the welcoming and fascinating Hammer, with its indoor-outdoor spaces and social justice-oriented children's book section. I was just in time to wander into an amazing and cosmically beautiful conceptual documentary called "Hale County This Morning, This Evening," in which the filmmaker followed two young men, their families, and their environment in the rural South for five years.

The filmmaker was present for Q&A afterward, and it was a treat to see, hear, and think about this unique, loving, and lustrous work. (And I had chocolate in my bag, naturally, this time by Bixby Chocolate!)

I pulled Bixby Chocolate of Maine out of my multicolored Hilside Bags pouch of San Francisco, California, and enjoyed an innovative documentary shot in Alabama and screened at the Hammer in Los Angeles, California. That's Americana through diversity and artistry!

Whether the craziest part of my winter-in-LA plan is that I'm commuting 2,000 miles (3,200 km) back and forth because I have a lovely place in Chicago and nowhere to live (yet) in Los Angeles, or whether the craziest part is that I don't drive and LA is the city of the freeway, you may decide for yourself.

My decision to be a non-driver is common enough in Chicago, while it is completely confounding to some of my LA friends, and I can understand why!

How I came to be a non-driver is a story for another day; for now, I love the walkability of wonderful Westwood in Los Angeles, and loved this night where being in the wrong place was really being in the right place, resplendent with the always-fresh surprise of art. A win for walking!

Onward and upward!

~ Valerie

Feel free to say hi on Instagram @chocolateuplift!

On my first commute between Chicago and LA!

Happy landing #1 on this LA adventure!

Uplift through chocolate, in comfortable shoes: at my first-ever Airbnb, playing with exquisite Letterpress Chocolate, and ready to walk -- even in LA!

P.S. Looking for a good book for your next trip? I recommend Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love, by dear Simran Sethi. It was named one of Smithsonian's best food books of 2016, and you can buy it here through my Amazon affiliate link.

Thank you, and enjoy, and keep eating real chocolate!