Julie & Julia

So did I ever tell you how much I ADORE Nora Ephron and her films?? I mean, the woman is my director soulmate. I just love all of them...starting of course, with When Harry Met Sally (which she wrote, but Rob Reiner directed). Then there's Sleepless in Seattle, my all-time favorite movie You've Got Mail, and her latest, Julie & Julia. The woman is brilliant. The songs she chooses always get me, and make me all warm and fuzzy. Her actors are hand-picked, and perfect for their roles. I mean come on, Meryl as Julia? Who better?!

I liked Julie Powell's book back in 2005. I rushed off to the library when it finally came in because I was broke and couldn't afford to buy it (ha, not much has changed there)...and literally read it in about 15 minutes. Ok, not really, but it's the only book I read in one day. ONE DAY. Do you know me? I am extremely, and I mean OVER-THE-TOP ADD. It is really, really hard for me to get through a whole book lately. I used to love reading. But it was always very hard for me to stay focused. The words danced around the page, doing backflips and somersaults, and my mind would easily wander to wonderland just by reading the word "rabbit". It was that bad. Thankfully, at 25, I finally took myself to a psychiatrist and was like "what's up with me??" After a couple tests, she said I was textbook ADD. No wonder! Sadly, I still find I will buy a bunch of books (from used bookstores of course) based on what I read on the back cover, which can be quite a convincing little paragraph, only to let them morbidly collect dust. Well not with Julie and Julia. I was enthralled.

The movie was even better. Obvi, it was Nora, so I knew it would be great. Add in Meryl and Stanley and hello, Oscar. (It's a shame they didn't win anything, it really is a shame.)

You have two very different settings in New York City in the 2000s and Paris in I think the 1960s? Talk about opposite worlds. It would be hard for me to portray that. Not for Nora. She segues from Paris to NYC and back again, over and over so perfectly, interspersing pearls and letters, and lots of Boeuf Bourguignon, so that Julie (Amy Adams) can adequately imitate Julia in her mastering of French cooking pursuit.

Julie's idea for the blog was inspired by Julia Child. And her task, if you haven't heard, was to make her way through Julia's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. "365 days, 524 recipes". Well, she did it, lobster-killing and all. My favorite scene is when Chris Messina, who plays Eric Powell, Julie's hubby, keeps whispering "lobster killer...lobster killer" while the Talking Heads' "Psycho killer" plays in the not-so-distant background. I mean, inspired.

In case we were wondering, Nora's done it again. The woman's still got it.

But I was feeling rather un-inspired last night. With my boss, with my job (we won't go there), with the fact that I have a very difficultly-earned college degree in English, and I'm not using it. I feel like I've wasted my twenties (I'm still in the middle of them, but they feel OVER) and I'm so not ready for thirty. There were so many goals I wanted to accomplish by age thirty. It's less than 4 years away, and the days go by so fast. And I haven't really anything to show for it..well, this is the way I was feeling last night. Gloomy and downtrodden and a real head case to be around. So I crawled into bed and logged into Netflix, clicked on Watch Instant, clicked on Starz Play, and literally tossed my popcorn up in the air when I realized Julie & Julia was featured. Feeling a little less depressed, because Nora always has the right words to say, I watched it.

And today, after work, I baked a beautiful apple pie. My first apple pie. Homemade. And it was wonderful.

Be merry,
Shannon