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“Julie & Julia” – my first artist date in a while…

A Valentine Days card from Julia & Paul Child! How erotica and innocent at the same time! Who woulda thunk it?

A Valentine Day's card from Julia & Paul Child! How erotic and innocent at the same time! Who woulda thunk it?

Hello World!!!

So a few posts back, I lamented over the fact that I had writer’s block and couldn’t think of a thing to blog about. I also wrote about the fact that I have neglected one of the two basic tools that I learned about when I took a class on The Artist’s Way some years ago. The basic tool that I am referring to is the artist date. An artist date is a “block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.” And as a rule, you must be alone with “your artist” on the date – that means no boyfriends, children, etc.  According to the principles of the “The Artist’s Way, ” a book written by Julia Cameron, you can actually “hear” solutions to problems that your inner artist may have considering…

So all of that to say, my artist and I (read Jackie by her lonesome) decided to see the movie “Julie & Julia” Saturday night. We LOVED it!!! This movie is about Julie Powell’s quest to discover herself as she approaches her thirtieth birthday (I cannot believe I will be 36 years old in a few weeks…GULP).  The frustrated writer, at the suggestion of her so supportive husband, decides to start blogging.  (Something sounds sooo familiar…) Unsure of what to blog about, she decides to blog about her quest to cook her way through Julia Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”  She decides she will cook all of the recipes in a year! A gutsy and innovative task to say the least!

There were so many aspects of the film that captured me. First of all, as someone who really enjoys eating, I was enthralled with that aspect of the movie…I think it is entirely possible to experience heaven in your mouth!  I also know what it’s like to feel frustrated as a writer. While I have wanted to be a “writer” since I was six years old, I still don’t feel quite successful…Yes, I have written for magazines, newspapers, Web sites, etc., but I have yet to achieve my ultimate dream of becoming a published book author. (Yes, I know I can self publish…I don’t wanna – read: whine, whine, rant, rant.) I was especially encouraged that Julia’s blogging eventually resulted in a book deal! (Oh God, please let happen to me…) But I was most captivated by the illumination of Julia Child’s marriage in the movie.

While Julie’s blogging provided the framework for the movie, the movie was also a biography of Julia Child’s life and went back and forth between the lives of the two women. The marriages of both women were explored in the movie, but Julia Child’s marriage was most surprising…I don’t think I ever tried to watch Julia Child on television but I do vaguely remember seeing her on television and seeing others imitate her as well. Remember when Cliff Huxtable imitated her on “The Cosby Show?” With her weird voice, box-shaped body, looming height and boring hairstyle, one would have guessed that she wasn’t married…Or at least I did.

But not only was she married, Julia and her husband Paul Child had a hot and sweaty love life…(Sidebar: Have I mentioned Meryl Streep yet? She is my favorite actress at this point! She literally becomes each character that she plays. Her depiction of Julia Child is brilliant.)  Apparently, the two married when she was in her mid ’30s…They lived in Paris for a while as her husband was stationed there as an employee of the U.S. Department of State. While in Paris, Julia attended the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and subsequently decided to write a French cooking book in English. Her maddening struggle to write the book and find a publisher for the book also resonated with me.

By the end of the movie, my artist was very happy. From the movie, I learned that it is possible to get a book deal from a blog(oh pleazz, God!), one does not always have to be a frustrated writer, there is somebody out there for everyone even those that society may deem weird or unattractive and that I have no desire to cook an entree with more than 10 ingredients and or steps.

Finally, I bought yet another relationship book on Saturday night….(ugh!) According to this latest book, I am a latent commitment phobe – go figure…that does it! I have now bought my last relationship book….For some reason, over the past six years or so, I have become obsessed with relationship books…how to catch a man, keep a man, etc…I am so over it at this point.

Maybe if I get married, I will buy another one…but as a single woman, I am done with the relationship books. In fact, I told a friend last night that I may box them up and give them away. She said that she wants to look through them

As alluring as this book sounds, I will not be buying this book or any other relationship books anymore!

As alluring as this book sounds, I will not be buying this book or any other relationship books anymore!

first…Aaah, I may not be ready to box them up yet, but I won’t be buying them anymore. This reminds of the time that I gave away my calorie counting books in my ’20s. I finally surrended my weight to God back then, and I haven’t looked back…(And if you are wondering, I didn’t get fat!) Maybe this is what my latest declaration is about…I’ll let you know. 🙂

Any thoughts?

Julia Child making an omelette…I think I can handle it…DKW doesn’t think so… 🙂

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I’m Gonna Make You My Wife…

My Mom & Dad...

My Mom & Dad...

Hello World!!!

As of this Friday, August 14, my parents will have been married for 38 years!!! Congratulations to my dear ole Mom & Dad!!!

As the creator of this blog, I don’t mind sharing some personal details about myself but as a courtesy to my friends and family I don’t share much about them without their permission. However, I will say this: the stability of my parents’ long-term marriage has always been my safe haven. When the world has wronged me and I don’t know what to do, I go to my Mom & Dad’s house. They may not always know how to comfort me, but just their presence alone is like a balm for the weary soul. I thank God that He put my Mom & Dad together…

Sadly, from everything I’ve read and what I have witnessed around me, marriage is becoming a rarity in the black community. I think marriage is becoming more difficult for all races according to what I’ve read, but for today’s post, I will focus on marriage in the black community. In fact, this issue was highlighted on CNN’s “Black in America 2” which aired last month. Soledad O’Brien, the host of the program, interviewed Nisa Muhammad about her organization, the Wedded Bliss Foundation, which was created to save  and encourage black marriage. Some grim statistics were shared on the program. In 1963, married couples headed 60 percent of black families, but that number has dwindled to half.

O’Brien was able to follow one couple, James and Tina Barnes, who were considering divorce after 21 years of marriage. The couple enrolled in the foundation’s eight-week Basic Training for Couples and were able to address their issues and remain married. I was especially touched by the couple’s eldest daughter Jameeca, a college student, who admitted that her grades were being affected by her parents’ marital problems. I don’t know her but I would guess it was the lack of stability that affected her the most. From what I have witnessed, marriage offers stability to children that enables them to explore the world around them but still have a safe haven.

Former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court Leah Ward Sears wrote a heartfelt column about her plight to end disposable marriage in the wake of her brother’s suicide. She felt her brother commited suicide due to the frustration he experienced in trying to parent his two children after a bitter divorce. Read an excerpt below.

Tommy’s loss has catapulted me even farther down a path I was already on. This may sound like heresy, but I believe the United States and a host of Western democracies are engaged in an unintended campaign to diminish the importance of marriage and fatherhood. By refusing to do everything we can to stem the rising rate of divorce and unwed childbearing, our country often isolates fathers (and sometimes mothers) from their children and their families.

…

Removing no-fault divorce as a legal option may not be the right way to move forward, and the solutions we need may not be entirely legal in nature. But answers must be found. The coupling and uncoupling we’ve become accustomed to undermines our democracy, destroys our families and devastates the lives of our children, who are not as resilient as we may wish to think. The one-parent norm, which is necessary and successful in many cases, nevertheless often creates a host of other problems, from poverty to crime, teen pregnancy and drug abuse.

Actor and writer Hill Harper (isn’t that a great name?) is also tackling the topic of black marriage in his latest book The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships which will be released next month. On his Web site, Harper states that 34 percent of black children are raised in two-parent households when that number was 85 percent in 1966. (Hmm, the stats cited on CNN’s program and in Harper’s book don’t seem to match, but the message is still clear.) Through his book, Harper hopes to address issues that may have contributed to this troubling statistic. I heard Harper talk about his book on a radio program earlier this week. I was tempted to switch the radio station until I heard Harper, who is single, admit that he may be a part of the problem.

Harper plans to host free town hall meetings throughout the country for people to discuss the issues that are presented in the book and is looking for corporate sponsors. As a result, he is asking people to pre-order his book so that he can prove to prospective sponsors that this issue is important to many.

If you are in the Atlanta area and are looking for tips on how to attract and keep a good man or woman, you may want to check out this event…

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Any thoughts?

P.S. I love this song by The Whispers…They don’t make them like this anymore…Maybe a part of the problem is popular music…Somehow songs like “Birthday Sex” don’t make me think about marriage and family…

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Friends & Financial Compatibility: Is There Such a Thing?

Hello World!!!

For the past two weekends, I have been hanging out with the girls celebrating birthdays, popping bottles, donning funky platform shoes, eating appetizers and spending money…

And if you read a previous post on my financial state, you know that I am trying to “save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off.” (Clark Howard’s motto) Per my financial coach, I am curtailing my spending money to $100 a month for a while to help pay down some debt and add more to my savings…and it’s working…but $100 isn’t a lot of money it seems…And my eating out money is supposed to come from that $100 according to my financial coach…So when some friends and I decided to celebrate another friend’s birthday by taking her out to eat about a week ago, I made a game plan…And let me backtrack a little…these particular friends are fabulous and don’t mind spending a pretty penny and more on food, drinks and good times…So I made a game plan because with these friends, I’m liable to have more than my share of alcoholic beverages and then be mad the next day when I’m looking over the bill and wondering how I could have drank all of that cash the night before…

So the birthday girl, knowing my cheap nature, started off the dinner saying that she was contributing to the bill. Obviously, that was her way of saying, “I know you’re cheap, and I don’t want you to worry about paying for my meal because I want to eat and drink what I want…” And I appreciated that…(It is typically my friends’ policy to pay for the meal of the birthday girl we are celebrating.) But at the end of the night, some five to six hours later, as I was putting gas in my car at a deserted gas station and looking around for potential carjackers, I realized that I spent $20 more than what I budgeted for.  But hey I decided to chalk that one up to the game…You win some…You lose some…It could have been worse…

So Friday night, when I received a near midnight text that the girls and their men wanted to spend Saturday evening at the Hotel Palomar, I knew that it would be yet another temptation to go outside of my budget…But like a kid following the siren song of the Pied Piper, I went along…and we had fun…and the bill was nearly $500 when DKW and I left…

Before you get me wrong, this is not a criticism of my fabulous friends…If you have the money and want to spend it, that’s your business. But it does bring a larger question into focus…is there such a thing as a financial compatibility? Do you have to hang around people who have the same spending habits that you have? I enjoy having friends of various spending sensibilities. DKW and I are cheap…We get excited about coupons and free events…But I also enjoy hanging out with my fabulous friends when I want to spend literally and figuratively a night on the town…And the Hotel Palomar is a fabulous place to spend a summer evening…The beautiful lounge is atop the hotel. As I sipped my breakfast caipiriha, felt the breeze in my locks and gazed at the twinkling city lights, I almost felt like I was at the beach…(My financial coach and I agreed that I would not take any trips until at least December so I imagine I won’t see the beach again until next year, God willing…)

We have all heard that money issues can be the death of a marriage but what about your friendships? As I said, I think it’s possible to have friends of all types.

Any thoughts?