Thank you, Julie Powell

My daughter went to a birthday party tonight at Build-a-Bear. There are only so many opportunities to go on an actual date with my husband, Chris, and not have to pay a babysitter. The night didn't get off to a very good start. There was some miscommunication in two women trying so very hard not to inconvenience one another and we were standing in the Build-a-Bear with all of the fur-lined backpacks and sparkly Hannah Montana flip flops with a lady who called herself "Grandma" saying, "Why don't you and your husband join the party?"

Lady -- I don't want to join the party, I want to go to dinner with my husband and get to "Julie and Julia" by 6:40 p.m. She was insistent and her dentures kept clicking, punctuating her invitation. Well, I'm a Taurus with a Leo ascension. Guess who won?

Chris and I ended up at Boston Pizza anyway waiting for the child's mother to arrive so we could politely ask her to completely abandon our child to her care while we trotted off to hold hands in the dark. She said, "Yes!" Halle-freakin'-lujah.

I didn't really know what to expect of the movie. I saw the trailers and laughed at the high-pitched whine of Meryl's Streep's Julia Child. I love Amy Adams in anything and the scene where she's on the floor having a tantrum was adorable.

What I didn't count on was the writer's voice in that movie. Nora Ephron did an impeccable job blending the two stories -- but it was Julie's story that caught and held my attention. Here is this woman working listening to people's troubles after 9/11 and you can tell she's trying her very best to do a good job, be attentive and caring... and they don't care who she is or how hard she's trying. Of course they don't, they have problems a lot larger and more important. Doesn't everyone? And she's struggling and trying to find what it is about her that is going to make a difference at all. Of course I'm making all of these teenage wistful assumptions based solely on the movie -- but that's what caught me. Someone who really wanted to make a difference and found a way to do it.

Julia Child's husband told her at one point in the movie, "Your book will be published and it will be something that changes the world." Oh, how I wish... how I wish.

I've begun my blog at www.blogger.com. I'm giving it the same title that I gave my book. Warning: I don't always write about happy things. I am the Janis Ian of blogging, I'm certain. I do write honestly, however, and I write with humor even when discussing morbid obesity. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you enjoy it so much that I get published and my book changes the world.

Thank you, Julie Powell... you gave me hope. You did it!

http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/