On Musketeers and Jammies

The other night, the Gentleman Caller and I went to see The Three Musketeers --  in 3-D. I have to say, it was dreadful. The dialogue, the direction, the mangling of the story; but, more than that, the total defiance of logic, physics and history. Versailles fully constructed before Louis XIII? A "zeppelin" impaled on Notre Dame? A "zeppelin" in the seventeenth century? Trying to shoot down the "zeppelin" and not shooting the balloon part first? A woman surviving a drop from the "zeppelin" into the English Channel (Mythbusters proved that couldn't happen -- I saw that episode a few weeks ago)?Stupid, stupid, stupid.

What did we expect, right? Alas, we did expect the stupid, the incredibly stupid, and the unbelievably stupid. We were not disappointed. We were, however, surprised at the acting, which was acutally quite good. We went to see Titus Pullo -- the Irish actor Ray Stevenson, who played Titus Pullo so deliciously in the miniseries Rome and played Porthos in this -- but we were pleasantly delighted by Matthew McFayden, who played Arthur Clennam in the latest BBC version of Little Dorrit and was Athos in this. That man can act! I don't know who the actor was who played Aramis, but the three of them managed to make all three characters distinctive without verging into caricature. The real revelation was Orlando Bloom. My goodness, but he was fabulous, having a great time playing Buckingham! There was definitely not enough of him on screen. All in all, the four of them made up for the pain of the rest of the film. At least I had my knitting and got a significant chunk of my leg warmers knitted.

Yes, I said "leg warmers." It's cold and wet here, and my socks are nice and thick, but they don't go up far enough to keep my calves warm and dry, so I'm knitting leg warmers to wear under my pants and when I go out to jog. I've also knitted a scarf, and I have some neat, netting stuff to make another scarf that will look like a ruff.

But what I really need, what I really really need and cannot kint, are more jammies. Generally, I don't think about jammies. I just put them on and sleep, and sometimes on the weekends  wear them for most of the day. They are usually cast off bits of workout wear, like warm-ups pants and sweatshirts, because I know how to bring the sexy into bed, let me tell ya. Usually, I don't have too many pairs because they are jammies. For some odd reason, the types of clothes that I wear the most -- jammies and workout clothes -- I put the least amount of thought into, own the fewest number of outfits, and wear until they are shameful rags.

I normally don't notice this situation because I normally I also wear regular clothes, and I'm usually asleep in the jammies. Well, now? Now, I wear jammies for the bulk of the day.

Don't hate me!

O.k., you can hate me because I would probably hate me too. Still, nice work if you can get it.

I wake up, I drink my coffee, and then I write. I don't bother to get out of my jammies until I'm done writing and change into workout clothes. After the workout, I change into jeans and a sweater, but a few hours later, I'm back in my jammies. I have far more regular clothes, and even uniform clothes, than I need and not near enough of workout clothes or jammies.

Ah, the tragedy!

So, I need more jammies. I also need more sweatshirts and warm-up pants. My workouts take place outside and, just as I got used to cloudy weather in the 60s, the temperature drops to cloudy weather in the 50s. Once you get moving, it isn't so bad, and the cooler air is actually quite energizing; but you still need a few more layers than I anticipated when I packed. So, I shall be making a stop at a resale shop sometime soon.

Alas, the troubles of the kept woman!

Anyway, I'm just jabbering here to warm up. I have two warm ups for writing. One is this blog, which simply shakes the words loose and sweeps out some of the clutter in my brain. The other is a Big Guy journal, which focuses my thoughts on him. Sometimes, what I write about here accomplishes that task, as well. Other times, the warm-up includes what I call a "combing through" of what I have written the day before. That's actually a good thing to do because I can hop back onto that train of thought while also untangling my prose from the end of the previous day.

Today, I'm a little at a loss. I finished the shitty first draft of the most recent paper. The first part is not so bad, but the last part -- what I wrote yesterday -- is pretty darn shitty. I want it to stew for a day, and then I will look at it tomorrow. Today, I think I will do two things that aren't exactly writing. First, I'll begin an outline of yet a third paper that I have agreed to do -- asked by the Grand Dame who has been very supportive of my work since my first book and whose own work I have always admired.

Then, I will hop on Ancestry.com and see what I can find in their recently added Irish records about some anti-slavery people here as prelude to visiting the Quaker library sometime in the next few weeks. I should also, at some point, contact the National Library. I'd hate to waste the potential resources here, so I have to work in both writing mode and research mode. Usually, I don't do that. So, this shall be a learning experience in stretching my abilities.

Later, the Gentleman Caller and I hope to visit the Pearse Museum south of the city. We might also get in a good walk, so that could organize some ideas, too.

Goodness! A Guarda car just went by with its siren on. It sounded not like an American siren, but like a torpedo.