As I mentioned last night, my mom and I saw Julie & Julia last night. The movie was much better than the book, I think, largely because it was also based on Julia Child's "My Year In France". The movie blended scenes from Julia's life with scenes from Julie's. It was funny and charming and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Watching the movie, several things occurred to me.
Julia had a pen pal. She wrote the wife of a man who wrote an article in a magazine that Julia wrote a letter to. They wrote to each other for years before they ever met in person. Julia wrote to her sister and her husband wrote to his brother. Of course, this was before email and computers. So letters were the way people communicated long distance. I miss letters. To this day, among my most cherished possessions, are letters friends wrote me over the years. I miss ink on paper. I miss the permanence of committing thoughts to paper. Yes, my words exist here, in cyberspace. But the nature of the internet seems so not permanent to me. I miss the formality of writings letters. I don't write letters often any more. Email is immediate and I type so much faster than I write. But I still miss pen and paper. I miss getting cards and letters from people.
Julie's friends in the book and movie are not my favorite people. But there was a line where she and a girlfriend were talking and the girlfriend said something about hating her friends. Julie's husband piped up and said he liked his friends. Julie's friend said that they weren't talking about men. Which, of course got me thinking. I have always said that I, for the most part, prefer male friends. Mostly because they are not catty and back-stabbing like a lot of women are. That having been said, most of my female friends are not like that. But I have found lately, the I do know some women who were like Julie's friends in the movie. Her friends were kind of superficial and self-involved. I know people like that. Some of them I knew were self-involved and superficial immediately. Some of them have surprised me. I thought they were one way and turned out to be another way. But that happens in life. I am lucky to have friends who check in with me and tell me that they care. I love that I'm lucky enough to have people around me who are smart, kind, caring, genuine, and good people.
Julia's husband, Paul, was a diplomat. They met when they worked for the government. And they were truly, deeply in love with each other. They had the kind of caring, loving relationship that most people strive for but probably don't really achieve. They were a good fit for each other. As Paul said to Julia, "You are the butter to my bread." Julie's husband should be sainted for putting up with her crazy project. He, too was a really nice guy. He was loving and supportive. They were high school sweethearts - something rare in this day and age - and they had been together a long time. Through the book and movie, they seemed to really love each other. This got me thinking about Michael, who is in Texas. I miss him terribly. I have never missed anyone like I miss Michael. He is a genuinely nice person. He does nice things for me. And for the first time in my life, I'm truly in love with someone. I miss him and can't wait for him to get home tomorrow. We haven't been dating long enough for me to say that he's my Paul, but I would like to take enough time to find out.
The backdrop of the movie, is of course, the food. I will say right now that I'm not a fan of French food. Patrick and I had an interesting conversation about that yesterday. He was asking me what I ate in France. Truthfully, I don't remember much about the food in France. Mostly because it was at the end of my trip and I was getting sick. (I got a really nasty sinus infection that took a long time to get rid of. I attributed it to people smoking all the time.) It was also hot - mid 90s - and there is a shocking lack of air conditioning in some restaurants. It's hard to eat foods that are bathed in butter and cream when it's that hot out. I don't really remember what I ate in France. I do, however, remember what I ate in Germany and Italy, two of the best food places on the planet. While French food is not my favorite, now I can appreciate what goes into making it. When I went on my trip to Europe, I didn't cook. At all. So I'm sure if I went now, I would have a much better appreciation of the food than I did back then.
I love to cook. But Mastering The Art Of French Cooking is not among the cookbooks I own. I'm not that interested in French cooking. I love butter and cream and am not afraid to cook with them. I am not, however, a fan of aspic or some of the other things that are in Julia's cookbook. I prefer to cook food that is comforting to me. But I can appreciate what Julie accomplished. It's quite a feat to cook from an entire cookbook. I don't think I own a cookbook in which every recipe interests me. And I'm a picky enough eater that there are just some things I won't cook.
What I can appreciate is that Julia Child was 37 - my age - when she attended the Cordon Bleu. She was the only female in the professional class. She insisted on taking the test to graduate. She was spunky and I like that about her. I like that she found her passion in life - food - and managed to make a career out of it at a time when women didn't make a career out of food.
I really love any movie that gets me thinking about so many different things on so many different levels. I felt just okay about the book, so the movie was a wonderful surprise. It was a nice evening and I'm glad my mom and I got a chance to do something.
