Okay, L.A. does suck.

In just a couple days, my excitement over my first all-expense-paid business trip is starting to wear off. Mostly, it's because I got sick yesterday afternoon, and still can't remain vertical too long without enduring stabbing stomach cramps. But that's really my own fault. Being a psuedo-vegan is trickier than I thought--even though I only observe veganism when I'm cooking for myself, my diet has endowed me with a new-found and unexpected intolerance for eggs and dairy, which can be quite an obstacle when you have to eat out three meals a day. Yesterday morning I thought that egg white omelet sounded like a good idea, and I'm still suffering for it. I was excited to witness NCI's Continuing Dynamic Planning course, which I was assisting with today and yesterday, but because I got sick I had to leave early yesterday and was pretty lackluster today, though I would have liked to be paying closer attention to what was going on and getting to know the course participants and the projects better. Oh well. At least I will probably be well enough to enjoy the conference this weekend. Tonight my boss Bill is going to a reception of some kind for the conference, and I'd like to go along so he can introduce me to all the heavies in the field of smart growth, but there doesn't seem to be much point in trying to network when you are feeling under the weather. I'll see how I feel in an hour or so, maybe I can make it.

It's also supremely sunk in how horribly designed downtown Los Angeles is. It's one of the worst places I've ever been in terms of walkability--even 82nd in Portland is better. 82nd of course is worse in terms of the volume of cars and the eye-sore aspect, but downtown L.A. was designed as if people who work in office buildings never need to leave. The multiple freeway overpasses don't help either. One unexpected gem is the Los Angeles public library, which is right on the corner across from the hotel, and has pretty neat older architecture. That corner also featured a farmer's market today.

At first I found the concept of a farmer's market that runs October - August, in a downtown financial district, a very strange idea. But it makes a lot of sense, after I visited it. The market was bustling, and definitely had the best lunch food options around. I picked up a tamale, which seemed the right thing for my stomach (simple, unrefined carbs and protein, sans salsa of course) and some local strawberries for lunch. There was a lot of nice looking produce and the cart food was pretty reasonably priced. If I worked in downtown L.A. (god forbid) I'd definitely look forward to the chance to swing by on my lunch break and purchase some vegetables for dinner.