This Amazing Life

On Friday night, Mr. Mustard and I nestled in and watched Julie & Julia...you know, the movie about Julia Child and the woman who blogged about her for a year (Julie Powell).

The movie hit close to home. For a lot of reasons.

First, it's a movie about bloggers. I started blogging back in 2002, when Julie Powell started her blog. I didn't blog on this blog- it was a different blog, an anonymous blog, mostly about being a law student. It's lost somewhere in the internet ether (probably for the best) and I don't even know how to find it! But back then, I became a blogger. And then, of course, I started blogging here almost 4 years ago. And it's been like a little home away from home for me.

So, Mr. Mustard and I were laughing about all the blog stuff in the movie- like when the husband says, "Don't write about that on your blog!" We have those moments in our house, too! ;-)

The second reason it hit close to home is that Amy Adams is in the movie and she plays one of the leads. As some people know, Amy Adams lived next door to me for the first few years I moved to Los Angeles. Our apartments shared a wall, and she was often in my apartment, hanging out with my roommate, Kevin. She was just as beautiful then, and if I hadn't been so busy hanging out with Mr. Mustard and going to school, we probably would have been better friends. She was always such a light (if that's even the right word). I moved out after a few years to go to Berkeley for law school. From what I've heard, she stayed in her same apartment until after she shot the movie Enchanted.

I have this one vivid memory of her in my kitchen. We were talking about the movie Catch Me If You Can, which she had just shot. She was so upset because Stephen Spielberg had made her cut her hair for the role and she thought it looked awful. Well, if you've seen Julie and Julia, you know that even a hideous mullet cannot make her look awful. Seeing her in Julia and Julia, cooking in that tiny apartment kitchen, with that awful hair reminded me of my days back in Weho in our tiny apartment kitchen and how life is sometimes stranger than fiction.

But then things started to get even more familiar and even closer to home.

The movie mentions that Julia Child grew up in Pasadena, which is our current home. Mr. Mustard and I got curious about where Julia Child grew up, so we turned to Google and searched a bit...

and then our jaws hit the freaking floor.

Third up for strange parallels is that when we first moved back to Pasadena, we attended a party at that house...you know, Julia Child's childhood home...ONE block away from our house!

I opened a bottle of wine in the kitchen. Paprika played with other kids on the back lawn, just as Julia Child might have done.

It was an amazing feeling- all of these coincidences coming together- and it made me realize how incredible this life is. How connected we all are.

It also made me so nostalgic for a place we are probably going to leave soon. We moved back into our home here (after a two year hiatus) when Paprika was Ginger's age. Almost three years ago. I know the moment is coming for us to move soon. There is a laundry list of reasons, the biggest one is that the public schools here in Pasadena are terrible now. But wouldn't you know it, even back then, Julia Child went to private school...the one we were considering for Paprika.

One of the most amazing things about this life is that if you open yourself up to the possibilities of it, life can be truly incredible and spectacular. Heartbreaking, yes. Tragic, sometimes. But also so interesting and varied and beautiful.

xoxo,
Erika