Discovering my Inner Julia

I saw the movie Julie & Julia tonight. My first reaction when I learned the book was being turned into a movie was shock. This was one of the few books I could not finish. I can recall tossing it to the floor on a number of exasperating occasions. Then I heard Meryl Streep would be in the movie as Julia Child and I was intrigued.

Meryl Streep was wonderful as Julia Child. Her performance reminded me of being a little girl and sitting in my grandmother's kitchen watching her cooking show on the small black and white television. I had no idea what that strange woman was talking about most of the time but she seemed to be having so much fun that I was hooked, loving her exuberance as she grabbed pots and pans tossing food around to create these masterpieces.

My mother was a good cook but she was a utilitarian cook. She cooked not from pleasure but from necessity. Meat, vegetable and a starch- each kept in their own place on the plate. My aunt, my mother's sister and nemesis was more adventurous. When she retired she decided to learn how to make Chinese food. My mother wondered why anyone would want to learn how to make Chinese food when you could just buy it (the pragmatic utilitarian). She also learned how to make pizza, lasagna and to bake her own bread. Unfortunately my Aunt's Chinese food, pizza, and bread never left you wanting more. She was amazing with desserts but outside of desserts she cooked by the book, a slave to the recipe; never veering off track.

I'm more the exuberant Julia (that is, when I'm not being rushed). Although I do prefer to create alone. It's like writing for me- playing around with the ingredients to see just what will happen if I add a little more or less. Most of the time I wind up pleasantly surprised. Lately I haven't found much joy in cooking; it's yet another in the long list of chores. But tonight Julia awoke.

The first thing I did after the movie ended was to rush out to buy my own copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (I'm embarrassed to admit I've never owned a copy). Thankfully the bookstore did not have a copy or else I'd be up for most of the night cooking. It's impossible to see that movie and not want to race to the nearest kitchen. I have no plans to recreate the Julie/Julia project and cook every recipe in Mastering the Art. I'd just like to remember to let Julia out a little more often and have fun. Bon Appetit

Is it really summer?

It looks like summer- lush vegetation and flowers blooming (and my vegetable garden being choked by weeds). It sort of feels like summer save for the deliciously cool mornings and evenings with little or no humidity. I look up at the clear blue sky and I keep thinking I've fallen into September already.

All the standard hallmarks of summer are present- no school, charcoal grills, fireworks, days at the beach and picking berries but where are my friendly neighborhood wasps?

Wasps? I know. I know. Most people have a visceral reaction to these winged creatures of agony but I have rather a soft spot for them. Instead of running for the nearest insecticide when they begin building a nest, I watch them completely transfixed. If you're careful and gain their trust, they'll let you get fairly close to observe their rhythms. I guess you can call me the Wasp Whisperer.

Unfortunately, my summer has been waspless. Is it the cool weather (this morning was a nippy 53 degrees) that has tricked them into hibernation? Or is it something more ominous? I rather miss my wasp breaks during the day.

Project 365 #90

Incognito

Project 365 #89

A Dog's Life

Project 365 #88

Reach Up

The cloud formations have been stunning this strange cool summer. This photo looked as if the clouds were just within my reach.

New Starts

Is it possible that I haven't posted since June? I've been walking around with hundreds of blog posts playing around in my head but the rush of summer has kept me from the keyboard (the exception being to obsessively load albums on my brand new IPod). Tonight, I decided to stop thinking about posting and write. So while I'm on shuffle mode listening to the crazy mix of Yo Yo Ma, Santana, Frank Sinatra, Green Day and the other 80 albums I've loaded on so far, I'll write-- and maybe dance a bit when the mood hits.

Right now I'm still feeling the buzz of my swimming high. I'm taking swimming classes at the Y every Tuesday evening. I'm not afraid of the water. I just never got around to actually learning how to swim. Well, I did start taking classes ten years ago but three classes in I felt this tremendous urge to throw up in the pool and seemed unable to handle a simple task like holding my breath. A pregnancy test put my dreams of becoming a swimmer on hold. And I always meant to go back but excuses kept popping up to silence desire.

This summer I put an end to the excuses. Not only did I sign up for a swim class but I enrolled at the Y as a member. This after swearing I'd never belong to another gym again. Who needs a gym when I can lace up my running shoes and head outside? Of course come winter blizzards, sub-zero wind chills, thunderstorms, and allergy season, I'm pretty much out of commission. I'm left staring out the window longingly with the dog. Now I can head to the gym with the whole family (free childcare-yeah!) and work out or simply to indulge my steam room and sauna addiction.

In five weeks I'll officially be a swimmer and the week after that I'll officially be a college student. Years ago, I used to keep a MUST DO List. The top three slots were- 1) Learn to Drive (this was fairly easy once I moved from the city to the country where everything is at least 25 minutes away) 2) Learn to swim (working on this one) and 3) Go Back to School (I'm weeks away from subjecting myself to midterms, papers, finals and MATH which I haven't done since 1985).

2009 is turning out to be an interesting year.

Project 365 #87

Skyscrapers

When Georgie was little this is what he used to call the contrails left by airplanes. How perfect a word!