Iotie and Iota

If someone had said to me “Write down a list of all the issues that are playing out in your life at the moment, and we’ll weave them together into a story for a movie. Choose one of your favorite actresses, and we’ll get her to play the lead. Oh, and pick a European capital you like, and we’ll throw some luscious shots of that in too”, then Julie and Julia would have been the result. I saw that film over the week-end, and I loved it. It was all there for me: a good story, two good stories actually, a clutch of well-drawn characters, a bit of romance/relationships, some clever moments, some funny moments, some emotional moments. It was a bit clunky in places, but mostly, a thoroughly good watch. For me, there was more to it than just a good movie, though. I connected with it deeply.

As for that list of issues, it would go like this: blogging and whether there’s any point to it, being a trailing spouse and whether there’s any point to it, writing a book and whether there’s any point to it (and whether it’s remotely possible), the different feel that living in Europe has to living in America and whether that matters, how to stir up your mojo when your life feels full of nothing. As I wrote that, I realised that ‘dealing with the emotional aftermath of being treated for cancer’ doesn’t feature, but I’m thinking that the more perceptive among you will possibly spot subtle elements of it between the lines. The rest of you will probably think ‘denial’. (Denial? Me? Never.) There was something about cookery in the film too, but that’s not on my list of life issues, as it happens.

Julie and Julia, at different times, in different places, and for different reasons, each added purpose and oomph to her life, by adopting a project and getting on with it. As a result of watching Julie and Julia, I have decided to publish a blog post every day, for a month. That is my project. I was going to wait till 1st October to start, to make it tidy. I was also sneakily thinking I could use the intervening time to write a little advance stock of posts. But that isn’t the right spirit for the challenge, is it? So I’m going to start tomorrow. Watch this space.

I’ve also dug out a tapestry, which Husband gave me the first Christmas we were married. That was 13 years ago. I’ve done about one square inch in those 13 years, but I’m determined to finish it now. To keep me up to the mark, I have bought 5-yo a tapestry kit too. I pictured us sitting next to each other, companionably stitching. Of course I hugely underestimated how many minutes (seconds, sometimes) a 5 year old can manage on her own, before reaching the end of a row, or needing to change color, or getting into a muddle. If I’m going to make any progress on my own tapestry, I’ll need to do so in solitary sessions. I think it’s a good project, though.

Incidentally, what happened to the word cookery? Everyone says cooking these days. Even cookery books have become cookbooks. It's a shame. Cookery is a great word. We should have a word bloggery as well, and why not tapestryery while we're about it?