To the seemingly pleasant woman who nearly ran me over on Wilson and California
While I clearly had the right of way, there are no hard feelings. I made some bad (read “stupid”) assumptions about how you would behave in the situation, and the whole problem could have been avoided if I weren’t thinking about the k-Local-Hamiltonian problem while trying to read the road.
In case you’re wondering why I didn’t stop sooner, I had a fair bit of momentum built up. Stopping any shorter than I did would have caused me to go over the handle bars, and I think we can both agree that it’s better you hit my wheel (which was unscathed) than my head (which would have been lucky had it received only a scathe or two).
Also, I should have pulled over to talk to you, but as there were no injuries or damages (and since I wasn’t thinking super clearly on account of having just been hit by a car) I went on my (honestly) merry way. (And I complain that I never meet new people.)
Should the occasion again arise, I’ll be smarter on both fronts. Unfortunately, I doubt you’ll ever see this. I think you were Caltech, though, so maybe you know someone who knows someone who’ll point you over here. My email can be found from the “contact” link in the upper right if you have the inclination.
(Yes, Mom, I’m fine, and it is my firm belief that she is as well.)
dude, i almost got run over today…returing a movie to penny lane. the dude didn’t even see me…i froze like a deer in headlights…hilarious. luckily he didn’t hit me.
Hey, you don’t happen to be a Caltech student do you? If so, how do you find the time to work on bbPress?
Michael (caltech ug)
Holly, Goodness. I’m glad you’re ok. Next time I get almost run over, I’ll be sure to let you know so that you can take precautionary measures.
Michael, I’m a grad student at this fine institution, yes. Lately, I have not found the time to work on bbP but hope to get a couple things done soon that have been sitting on the burner for too long.
[…] It has been a powerful bad fortnight for nearly everyone I know and a lot of people I don’t know. There’s drama of many sorts: personal, professional, and political. There’s danger. And all along the way there are little teeny problems that would merit a funny blog entry on their own but are currently too insignificant next to everything else that’s going catastrophically wrong. […]
michael – the sad thing is you did let me know. i still went out and almost got myself run over. crap.