○ lapis . lazuli ○

Minutia: Paris is amazing, but the whole city feels a little bit like a museum. Everything seems a bit stuck - and everyone seems to think that’s normal.
Real question: Do I really want my children to grow up in a country where the first answer to every question seems to be “no”?
Minutia (OK, not really): Isn’t marriage the last great way to change your life?
Real question: Is this the change I want?
The fact is, Gwendal was simply not who I’d been expecting (and I’d been expecting who I’d been expecting for quite sometime). Like most women I know, I was born with a Prince Charming checklist: Is he tall enough, smart enough, rich enough? Has he been places? Is he going places? The list goes on and on. I am fully aware that this kind of musing grinds the feminist movement back to the Stone Age. Though I was raised by an independent single mother, I always fantasized that my husband would be some practical banker type who would earn enough for me to pursue my artistic interest and still send the kids to a decent college.
“How are we supposed to be to creative people in a couple? We’ll starve to death,” I continued, crunching into the tip of my cone.

– Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard