"It's a story of hope."

The past two weekends I have been on the road - 3 hours (one way) to Nashville and 6 to the coast. I spent those 18 hours listening to audio books, which I downloaded on iTunes and played on my iPod.

I selected Julie Powell's book Jule & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen because I had started seeing the commercials for the movie and it had me completely enchanted. (Oh wow. I totally just went there, didn't I? I'm sorry Amy.) Chip said to me, "Well of course you'd like that: it's about food." But let's get something straight here: Just because I work for professional foodies does not make me one. At all. In case you're new here, let me catch you up: I don't cook; I don't particularly even enjoy food. So clearly that was not what enticed me.

Julie Powell is one of those lucky bloggers who became so popular that CBS News and the New York Times did stories on her, and the next thing you know she scores a book deal. Now, I never read Julie's blog. I'd never even heard of Julie Powell until I went to iTunes and saw that hers was one of the top downloaded audiobooks. I have read a couple of bloggers who got book deals though - Jen Lancaster, Heather Armstrong - and their writing is good. Really good. They're not handing out these book deals to just anyone, yo.

And Julie's book did not disappoint. She is funny and talented and her story is good. It's a story of hope. It's about setting a goal and achieving it, but more than that, it's about knowing there's something better for you out there, and making it happen for yourself. And that's the ultimate "feel-good" story as far as I'm concerned.

And, at the risk of sounding a bit presumptuous, she writes like me. I mean - I like to think that my writing style might be similar to someone like Ms. Lancaster's, someone I admire, someone whose writing I admire. But seriously, as I was listening to Julie & Julia in the car, through the stereo speakers, as I roadtripped alone, I can't tell you how many times I finished her sentences. So that totally means we write like each other, don't you think??

There were three life events that brought Julie Powell to create the Julie/Julia Project. First, she was about to turn 30, and she was pretty freaked out by that. Probably because, secondly, she had been diagnosed with some sort of female syndrome that meant that she may not be able to have children. Thirdly, she was working in a horrible bureaucratic job as a secretary, a temp job that she had reluctantly let become a full-time position.

And who of us hasn't been there? Birthdays don't really upset me, at least they haven't so far. We'll see what happens when I hit 50. But I've experienced that feeling of "Is this all there is?" I've had the torturous job that I was forced to take for the money or the benefits. I've shared that sense that my life's path had wandered into a dead end. And then I stood there and turned around in circles trying to find my way out until I eventually fell over, disoriented and confused. And then when my husband tried to to help me up I insisted, "No. Just leave me here to die."

But that would be a slow, painful death, so eventually we have to find our way out. For Julie, it was the Julie/Julia Project. It was cooking her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I'm not sure I've found the project to save my life yet. Sometimes I think I'm still wandering. But Julie's story of hope inspires me. Her ultimate goal was to be a writer. She didn't take on the Project as a means to that end, but that's what it ended up being for her. The lesson here? Take the small steps and see where they lead you. It may be the destination you were looking for all along.