Julie & Julia & Me

My husband and I see movies all the time, often apart from one another. Today I went to see Julie & Julia because as he said, he "had no interest, zero interest, absolutely no interest" in seeing the film. It's too bad he missed this one because I think he might've had some insight into my inner crazy.

Everyone talks about the food in Julie & Julia. The food is amazing, there's no doubt about that. But the movie is about two women who get to a point in their lives when they are lost. They feel they have no purpose, Julia the wife of a diplomat in Paris and Julie working in a thankless job for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

I know that feeling because that is exactly where I am right now. I'm writing but are you really a writer when you're just a blogger or a copywriter? People ask, "What do you write?" And I correct them saying, "Oh, I"m not a writer writer."

It took me nearly three months to start this new blog after the demise of my old blog. In that time, granted, I've been living in a cloud of plaster dust and silt. But I stopped writing long enough to figure out that when I stopped, I got rusty.

With Julie & Julia, both women whole-heartedly throw themselves into a writing project. The difference between me and them is they don't give up. They keep going. I thought my three year screenplay project was a record-breaker until I learned Mastering the Art of French Cooking took eight years to produce. Julie Powell blogged in relative obscurity for a year before being "discovered" by The New York Times.

I dream about being discovered by The New York Times, or High Times for that matter. But I'm still out here blogging in obscurity. The truth is I don't deserve to be discovered at this point. I give up at the drop of a hat, just because it's hot or my house is a disaster or whatever the raison du jour.

I lived in Paris like Julia. I'm from Texas like Julie. But I don't have their stamina. Yet. Wish me luck finding my way. The writer's way. A writer writer.