until i fall away

I just got back from a two and a half week trip to California. The first half was spent with family in Clovis, and the second was in LA with my BFF. I neglected to bring my camera with me, so the only evidence is in the form of multiple Sidekick photos on my Tumblr. Visiting the area where I grew up always Stockholms me really effectively, and that was especially true this trip, when we spent all this time driving around in my great aunt's sweet Mustang convertible, heading up to the mountains and driving through all these dinky little mountain towns that leave me in alternating states of why would anyone ever want to live here??/oh my god, I want to live here. Surely it can't be as romantic in reality as it is in my head, right? Cheap rent with a great view, hot sun, artistic inspiration, small town suntanned boys? No, right? It wouldn't just be an endless idyll where I get to dress like this all the time -


Dress and shoes, vintage.




Do you know how hard it is to find vintage shoes in my size? It's literally only ever happened one other time in my life.

It couldn't be quite like that, is the thing, because the dress came from a shop in Silverlake and I just found the shoes in an antique mall here in Vegas. So I'd probably go nuts living in some poky little mountain town with nothing to do and nowhere to shop. (Right? Right?) On the way out of Clovis I totally stopped downtown to hit up all the antique malls we'd missed, and ended up leaving with a stack of 1960s Cosmopolitans, a hat, a dress/lace jacket combo, and some weird accessories. I feel alright about it. I also attended my mother's 30th high school reunion, where I was deluged by questions ranging from my marital status (augh) to what grade I'm in (wtf). Everyone was really nice though, and my mom was adorably jazzed to hang out with her friends. It was an awesome trip all around for sure.

Anyway, here is photo evidence of one other thing I did:


Me and BFF! I'm wearing a vintage dress, with pink ankle socks and sparkly Oxfords out of frame.

That was at The Like's show at Bardot on the 11th. It was really fun and full of attractive people, and I danced a lot because this dress has the swingiest skirt. So good. The next night we went to see The Black Apples in Long Beach, and it turned out they were playing at Alex's Bar, where the Fangtasia scenes were filmed during seasons one and two of True Blood. Um, amazing. (Also Jon Hamm from Mad Men was at the show at Bardot. At this point I just accept that every experience I have in the LA area will be in some way bonkers.)

Now I'm back in glorious Henderson, NV, where it's hot, and also hot. I have purchased tomatoes and later I will go to Barnes & Noble to do some writing. I kind of just described my entire life right there.