Saw "Julie & Julia" last night and it was everything that I had hoped it would be. Truly wonderful. There were many things that I connected to in the film, the food was at the top of the list, naturally. But I also really felt close to the Julie character, as she was writing her blog in NYC at the very same time that I was living there in 2002. Many themes overlapped my life, loneliness, isolation, a lack of direction and a need to advance my life in a certain direction. But she had/has a husband who was a rock and a driving force, much like my Gabe. My husband got a job writing for David Letterman (which moved us out to NYC in the first place) and worked long hours. I had recently moved out from LA, after having wrapped a show and was not sure if I was going to try an build contacts and reform my career in NYC. There were several months were I bounced around, with thoughts of trying to interview for a job at Martha Stewart Living and feeling torn between my "new life" and the career that I had worked hard to achieve in LA. All of my East coast friends were insanely busy and I never got to see them. I walked all over the city, day after day. I went to every museum, ate at tons of restaurants, shopped at the great food markets and made a point of walking through Central Park, almost every single day. It was marvelous, magical but also really sad in a weird way. It was also a year after 9/11 and the city was still recovering which was like a cloud that was hard to escape, particularly in the fall. I tried my hand at volunteer work and was quite unsuccessful. There were waiting lists for people to WORK the soup kitchens. Talk about not feeling wanted!
And then I got a call from a friend back in LA offering me a job that I could not refuse. It was something that I could research in NYC before beginning it a few months later in LA. I left my husband and returned to our home on the West Coast. We somehow managed a long distance relationship for the first 2 years of our marriage. It was madness, zig zagging back and forth across the country twice a month. As hard as it was, it was an experience that I would never trade for the world and I am eternally grateful for the love and support of those closest to me.
So when I saw this movie, it brought so much back to life for me and it meant so much. As a side note, there is a clock that is used as set dressing in the film (next to Julie's bed). It is from Pottery Barn and we had the exact same one next to our bed. We also visited the Smithsonian in Washington D. C. that same year and saw Julia Child's kitchen.
And now that I have embraced blogging, it had added meaning. And Nora Ephron? Come on! She is so talented and fabulous! Totally worth a watch! Check it out if you get a chance...
