Marie: […] I read it in a magazine.
Jess: I wrote that.
Marie: Get out of here.
Jess: I did.

Nora Ephron, thank you for all of your movies. I have honestly watched Julie and Julia, You’ve Got Mail, and When Harry Met Sally within the last month. The last two are my rainy day movies. They are the only two “chick flicks” that show up in my pie chart of movies I have wasted hundreds of hours rewatching.

That chart pretty much sums up my life. I’m a Doomsday Romantic. And considering that my wedding will take place on the last day of the world, I feel like that is a solid assessment.

What I am trying to say is that when I heard Nora Ephron died today I was unusually upset. It was unsettling because I’m not one to dwell on a celebrity death (if you want to call her that). Whitney Houston, Davy Jones, Dick Clark… Sure I felt a pang of loss for SOMEBODY THAT I UUUSED TO KNOOOOW! But I didn’t actually know them. They influenced me but they weren’t a big part of my life. Nora Ephron though? She managed to root herself into my brain. The kind of writer I wanted to be. Being the catalyst for some of my favorite movies. While not perfect, a female role model I respected. Today, I was frantically trying to find someone within my immediate area to feel feelings with me. I found no one. I was just sitting there with brewing sadness.

She was a woman who made me wanna write with all her movies. I want someone to quote my work back to me. I want to write an inspiring, albeit haughty, article to try and rally a community around a local store. I want to write a blog people want to read, to have that blog turn into a book, to turn into a movie and for that movie to star Meryl Streep. I want to go visit fat John Travolta and write country songs about my failed relationships.

When I have writers block I turn to her movies. For better or for worse I get through it. Or sometimes I just find myself next to the stove stirring a pot boeuf bourguignon. Whether she meant to or not she inspired me to write and sometimes cook. Recently she inspired me to read. Namely, I was moved to read Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher.

So, in a moment of genuine honesty, thank you Nora Ephron. You will continue to inspire my need to write for many, many years. You will be missed.

Kathleen Kelly: The odd thing about this form of communication is that you’re more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.