julian sands and my first love...

I’m not sure which movie I saw Julian Sands in first. It was either Oxford Blues or A Room with a View. In Oxford Blues he played an elite rower and was Rob Lowe’s main competition until they had to compete together. In A Room with a View, he played George, Lucy’s love interest. He was a romantic poet and took my breath away. I fell in love instantly and as all young fourteen year old girls do, I hung pictures of him on my wall.

A few years later when I was seventeen, I joined our school’s crew team. We were a public school and rowed with the Everett High School to afford the extreme costs of the sport. It was there I met my first love, Stuart. It was love at first sight. He looked exactly like Julian Sands and he rowed just like Julian Sands did in Oxford Blues. It took a couple months for us to get together but once we did, I was complete. I was truly, madly, and deeply in love with him. We were both virgins but not for long.  Our relationship didn't last long but we kept in contact throughout the years.

In 1991 I was doing an internship in Seattle at The Empty Space Theater. One day at lunch, I was looking for a place to eat when I glanced across the street and saw Stuart. My heart raced, I quickened my step to cross the street and meet him at the corner. I crossed the street and ran up to him to discover it wasn’t Stuart, it was Julian Sands. My heart stopped and I almost fainted. Can you imagine, “Oh, Sorry Julian I thought you were my first love!” –too funny. Julian was shooting Crazy in Love in Seattle that summer.

Several years later when I was thirty, I took an Iyengar yoga workshop in LA with Manouso Manos, a senior Iyengar teacher. I was waiting to go into the studio when Julian Sands walks through the front door. I started to shake and walked into one of the dressing rooms to pull myself together. I didn’t know how I was going to focus on class. Of all the famous people, Julian is probably the only one that would stir such emotion in me. Manouso was a very tough teacher so I got focused very quickly and Julian was a very serious student.

A few months later, I did another workshop with Manouso and put my mat right next to Julian’s so I could accidently touch him in poses. And yes, I did touch him, a few times throughout class. This was also the weekend I became pregnant with Cole.

Since then I’ve seen Julian Sands on my hikes up Runyon. I believe he lives in the house right next to the park.  I've lost touched with Stuart.