Oh, pourquoi es-tu si belle?

My coworker found this pretty girl on The Sartorialist blog. Very pretty, very classic. One thing I've noticed about this photographers recent images is that there are always two matching colors balancing the frame. For example, her red nail polish with a red sign in the back. They don't have to be obvious, but just visible enough for the eyes to look, connect and forget in the pleasantness that is in the image.

Two women came into the boutique today. I knew one of them (an ex of my friend) and she happened to also call her daughter Adl. She was with a friend and we began chatting about names. Her friend said her daughter's name was Juliette. She told the story of how they forgot to give her middle names when she and her partner were filling out legal papers at the hospital. She said she sort of thought it was strange because her daughter didn't have her name anywhere, as it is pretty common in these parts for the children to take both parents' family names. She said 'My partner and I had only been together two months when I got pregnant.. I didn't get the chance to want to have children with him, it just happened. Before that I had been with a man for 10 years, we discussed children, we planned on it. I was thinking of baby names that would go well with his last name. Now I find myself with a baby who doesn't have my name, and doesn't have the name I imagined my baby having. In some ways, I still have to get used to her family name.'

The woman looked perfectly content, but something in me felt sad. Maybe her calmness betrayed something, or maybe I just saw my own fear and sadness reflected in her. I thought it was sad that you could spend so much time with someone, imagine such grand things with them and then have it all go to waste, disappear, as if they had never happened. I sometimes worry that that will happen to me.

Of course, if someone is in a good place, a healthy and balanced place, then even such a drastic change can be taken with stride... I suppose it comes back to the question of 'do you want to be in a relationship with someone who doesn't want to be in one?' I don't feel i'm in that situation, but I think it's one of my biggest fears.

I'm looking forward to NYC with P.