Better Living Through Handwriting

Related Content

• Occupy Bernal: Neighbors to Dump Banks on Valentine's Day
  February 14, 2012
• How Not to Kill Your Roommate Over Her Lovey-Dovey Skype Sessions
  January 26, 2012
• Medical Marijuana Week: Protest President Obama, Mail Nancy Pelosi a Heart.
  February 10, 2012
• SF Beer Week: Singles Edition
  February 14, 2012
• How To Buy a T-Shirt Without Angering the Merch Guy
  June 8, 2011

More About

• Janet Gallin
• Tresa Eyres
• Sharpie Permanent Markers
• Love Letter Squad
• Valentine's Day

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

As Valentine's Day creeps nearer, do the heart-shaped candy boxes in the drugstore speak to you? Sure they do. They say things like “last minute” and “cheap bastard.” How about the TV ads for high-end (and also heart-shaped) jewelry? Yep. They say “overdoing it” and “payment plan” (not to mention “gaudy”). And Etsy? You bet: “Heart drawn in red Sharpie on soda-can fragment.” Go ahead, admit it. You want to do something for your sweetie, but something genuine, not contrived or thoughtless. So write a letter. “Handwriting is magic,” says Janet Gallin, who co-hosts How to Write a Perfect Love Letter tonight with Tresa Eyres. The two women call themselves the Love Letter Squad. They offer workshops, podcasts, and until recently a weekly radio show on the now-stifled KUSF. (Ouch!) The squad covers choosing a recipient, identifying what you feel, and expressing it in your own voice. They also go through the various ways to dress it up – literally – via stationery, envelopes, stamps, and seals. “Every part of a love letter expresses something you want to say,” says Gallin. This skill goes beyond V Day. Gallin says people write “love letters” year round to various recipients, including exes and parents (to apologize or forgive), animals, and historical figures – one woman even wrote to her shuttered retail shop, which she missed terribly. (“She was my best friend,” the woman reportedly said of the store.) Bring your own stationery and postage – the final step of the workshop is sending the letter.
Wed., Feb. 9, 7 p.m., 2011