adventure: dancing in DTLA/post-valentine's day thoughts

photos by Steve Kim

Aaah, Valentine's Day. A time for pressuring your significant other to declare their affections with grand gestures of overpriced jewelry, flowers, and chocolates.  A time for those single people without a significant other to brood on the worthlessness of life without a partner.  Kind of a sh*t time, if you ask me.

I won't lie, being single on Valentine's day (or "singles-awareness day" as many of my students call it) is no fun.  So on a day where it can be so easy to lose yourself in depression and worthlessness, I think it is important to remind yourself of just how awesome life can be, and how much joy you can be for others and have others share with you.

In that spirit, last night I went dancing at Grand Central Market where one of the greatest swing bands around, Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five was playing.  I got to dance, eat, hang out with old friends and make some new ones. It was a lovely, old-fashioned evening, and the best part: it was a piece of cake to forget it was Valentine's Day.

snapshot: vintage vibes

red lips, polka dots, hair flower. 

adventure: sewing with yia-yia

Last weekend, my mother and I made the drive up the 5 freeway to go visit my grandmother, or in Greek yia-yia.  I hadn't seen her for a few months, and as time passes and she gets older I find myself wanting to spend as much time with her as possible.

Her life story is an incredible one - growing up in Greece during World War II, leaving school at age 10 to apprentice a seamstress, meeting my grandfather and moving to America.  I spent as much time as I could listening and recording her voice as she told stories and expressed her views of the world and her life.

I was also able to get her to teach me how to hem a skirt from Unique Vintage that I had purchased! My Yia-Yia is an incredible seamstress, who has inspired me to continue to learn to make and alter my own clothes.  It was a lovely trip, and I can't wait until next one.