Julie and Julia: or, I blog for no reason.

Thor and I went to the movies tonight, to see Julie and Julia. I love to go to the movies... I don't know why we don't go more often! Well, actually I do know. It's because it cost $25. $10 each to get in and $5 for the candy. I love candy. I never get popcorn.

So that's probably why I don't get to the movies more often. Too much money. But I do intend to go back soon, when the Time Traveler's Wife comes out. I've gotta see that one, I loved the book.

But anyway, back to the Julie and Julia movie.

(Spoiler alert: Hey, if you can't figure out how this movie goes just by looking at the commercials, you probably don't want to read this. I don't give away some big ending, but... go see it. Make your own opinions.)

As you can probably imagine,I went because of the blogging, and dragged Thor because of the cooking. It was a pretty good movie. Thor said he liked it too. By "liking" it, I don't get the feeling he LOVED it, but he enjoyed it well enough... I'm glad I went to see it. I did really like it. But it did make me feel a little... uncomfortable....

The movie held up a mirror to me and my blogging, and I fell way short. For one thing, the Julie in the movie is really cute and young, and she's having a bit of stress because she's turning 30 and she hasn't accomplished anything "big".

I've turned 40, many years ago, and I haven't accomplished much of anything. And I'm not even young and skinny and cute anymore. :p

So she decides to blog, to give her life a sense of purpose, and to accomplish something.

Me too. I guess. I'm still not even really sure WHY I blog.

She has a purpose. Her blog is to record her cooking every one of Julia Child's recipes in one year.

I don't have much of a purpose. Back to that whole "why" I blog thing that I haven't figured out.

She blogs, but she also cooks, so even though her husband gets cranky about her blogging, he also gets to eat some amazing stuff. Thor, on the other hand, doesn't have that benefit. He just has to deal with the aggravation of me blogging with no fancy french cooking to make up for it.

Her blog becomes extremely popular, with tons of readers, attracts national attention, and she lives happily ever after.

I continue to blog in relative obscurity. Although I still intend to live happily ever after.

I guess the big issue here is "purpose" to my blogging. And I don't think my purpose is actually to attract an audience, or to accomplish anything big, or to get national attention. I guess my real purpose is to just write. Like a diary, except I know I do have SOME readers.

Maybe I should find a goal?

Probably not.

But it was a very nice movie. It didn't make me want to cook. I did come straight home and blog.

I survived!

 

Surprisingly!

The backpacking trip was... unique. I am proud to have survived, considering how out of shape I am. It was very challenging, and very much a learning experience.

I learned that I'm getting old, and I learned that my son Nick has become a man. I'm calling him Mr. Muscles, because he could run up the hills with all of the gear, smiling, and I walked at a turtle's pace, red in the face and with my heart pounding.

I learned that the part of backpacking that I like is a very small part of what backpacking is actually about.
I like the part about packing the gear, figuring out what I need to survive, figuring out how to be comfortable with what I can bring, and how to bring practically nothing and still live well.
I also like the part about seeing so much nature -- beautiful scenery, beautiful flowers, plants, trees, turtles, stuff like that.
And I like the time to be alone with my thoughts, in the peace.

I learned that the part of backpacking I don't really like, but which may be the most character building, seems now to be the real nature of backpacking, which seems to me now to be all about endurance and determination. And I'm not overly determined. It seems like it's mainly about being determined to make it up that next mountain, and dragging my sorry butt up that trail in spite of the fact that I'm really tired and can't go any further. Now I think it's more about making the trip, one step at a time. In spite of the fact that the turtles really could have passed me if they were headed in the same direction.

I learned that when I make decisions, I almost always err on the side of being way too cautious. But I really don't think that I can help that, and I'm not sure how to tell if it's a bad thing.

I already knew that I'm a control freak... I learned that if I let someone else be in control, and they do something differently than the way I want to, it isn't the end of the world. I can get over it, and a lot of times it really doesn't make the slightest difference anyway. It might even be way better than my ideas. Or maybe not, but it doesn't matter either way. (I learned this lesson in politics a long time ago, you'd think I would have been able to apply it to life.)

I posted a few more pictures, but it's REALLY late now. So I might write more about the trip tomorrow. Like about the pouring rain, and the mud, and the middle of the night one mile evacuation hike away from the storm that never happened.

Or I might not; it really depends.