growing up veselka

Veselka is a tough last name for a kid. It's Czech, which makes it hard to pronounce and hard to spell - no one ever gets it right. To make matters worse, I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where 95% of the (Mormon) population has surnames like Smith, Adams, Jones, Michaels... you get the picture. Plus, you always end up last at everything; end of the line, back of the class.

So, being the me that I am, all I dreamed of as a little girl was marrying up the alphabet. It was on my little checklist of things I wanted in a crush: cute, pink cheeks, blue eyes, and the closer the last name was to the start of the alphabet, the better. "That new kid is cute! What's his name? Whatshisface Adams, you say? Catch me, I'm going to swoon!"

These days, I like my last name. I get to go by "V". There's a cool deli in NYC called Veselka. It's Ukrainian, not Czech, but... they have these amazing, elegant dinner plates that say Veselka on them in a gorgeous font. My cousin Katie got me a set of them, and they are among my most treasured possessions. Thanks again, Katie!