little bitty girl

Marie, Boutsy and I spent most of Ash Wednesday walking around in the mists of confusion. The confusion for the girls was compounded by the fact that they had taken a red eye flight the day before from the West Coast and were a little disoriented. I had no real excuse other than my general malaise from travelling.

We were in NY to attend the Coterie, a bi-annual fashion trade show. The show which is usually broken up into three separate sites by commodity was under one big roof this time around. It made the whole experience quite over whelming. The first day we just walked and walked and walked. Endless booths of clothing just melded into one and we finally had to leave due to the fact that we were no longer processing the difference from one line to the other. We spent the rest of the late afternoon scouring lower Manhattan in search of visual inspiration. Other than Anthropologie, no such inspiration came.

The second day, the first ashy forehead made its appearance in the early morning.

"What is that all about?" we asked one another.

Then, throughout the day, more and more came. Usually on the foreheads of pretty, young girls, trendily dressed, the standard staple of fashion reps.

"Is it a new line?"
"Some secret club? A cult?"
"What date is it today? Perhaps it's Ash Wednesday?"

At the end of the day, we boarded one of the shuttles to take us to Penn Station.

"I still can't figure out the ashy forehead thing" Marie and I were discussing quietly among ourselves.

"It's definitely not a new line as I saw the Lacoste girl had one too," I replied." And also on the security guard."

"So weird that they should have it on a Tuesday."

Then we had an epiphany by way of Boutsy.

"Are you guys still discussing the ash forehead thing? It's because today is Wednesday. It's Ash Wednesday, guys."

The epiphany was this - Marie was obviously still jet lagged as she seriously thought that it was Tuesday. That, and she's not a very good Catholic (albeit, nonpracticing but still) for not know the date of one of her religious days. I obviously had no clue and generally don't during the week unless I am looking at my calender and Boutsy obviously was not paying attention to us ALL day. As she would have clarified the Tuesday-Wednesday confusion at the beginning of the day and not the end.

I love seeing those girls. Even if it's for small moments in time.