Whiskey and cigarettes

My husband and I are currently halfway through Season Five of Mad Men.  The thought that we are almost at the end is filling me with great sorrow.  We discovered this show a few months ago, and have ravenously watched it from the first season, some evenings watching two or three episodes in a row.  I am bereft at the thought that we only have a few episodes to go.  I don’t know what we will do when we are finished.  I don’t remember what we did before Mad Men.  I’m adrift, people. 

I know I’m late in the game to watching this, but the writing is so fabulous.  My favourite Don Draper lines are as follows:

Bohemian guy: How do you sleep at night?
Don: On a bed made of money.

Betty’s dad: You people.  You think money is going to solve all your problems.
Don: Well, it’s going to solve THIS particular problem.

Peggy: You never say thank you!
Don: That’s what the money is for!

Oh, Don.  You mercenary rascal.  I do wonder if all the actors are required to be smokers for the show, or if they had to learn to smoke, or if they are now addicted to cigarettes because of all the smoking, or if they had to sign a waiver about cancer risks and smoking before taking on the roles.  Also, do they need to shower after work?  Because you would think they would be pretty stinky and smoky after shooting scenes.  I find myself becoming obsessed with those little details, the same way I obsess about sexy scenes: did the guy get a boner when he shot those scenes?  Or would he be too nervous to in front of the camera crew?  Is that girl really naked?  Because she looks naked.  That would be weird, to be shooting a sexy scene while naked. 

Anyone who has any acting/tv/movie knowledge, feel free to answer my questions.  Otherwise, I’m going to keep wondering.

I do remember, when I first started working, that some people smoked in their offices.  I remember a professor of mine telling me that he used to smoke while teaching.  This seems so strange now, doesn’t it, given that the last time I tried to buy a lighter – to light birthday candles with – that the grocery store I frequent does not sell them because it is illegal to sell smoking paraphernalia in a location where pharmaceuticals are also for sale.  I just wanted to buy a damn lighter for the birthday cake.  Also, if Mad Men is to be believed an accurate timepiece, and I think it is, everyone must have been drunk half the time.  I wondered aloud to my husband what whiskey tastes like, which filled him with surprise that I had never had a whiskey.  Really, is that so surprising?  Whiskey is not a huge drink for the ladies nowadays.  In any case he pulled out a bottle of whiskey – we have whiskey in the house, how or why I do not know – and I will say this: it’s nasty. 

The thing I love most about Mad Men, other than the writing and the plot and all the awesomeness, is the clothes.  I covet Megan Draper’s entire wardrobe.  I find myself mentally trying on her cute little dresses, not that I have reason to have such little dresses, but they are adorable.  The dress that she wears to sing “Zou Bisou Bisou” is especially awesome:

I think this dress would look great on me.  I suggested to my husband that I could get something similar for his office Christmas party, a statement which was met with dissention.

Sigh.  I probably don’t need to think about shopping right now anyway, since I was rearranging my dresser last weekend, and the pile of sweaters on the bed led to a tense conversation about how many black sweaters are too many black sweaters.  And that conversation was before my husband discovered the piles of sweaters on the kids’ beds, because I had run out of room on our bed.  What?  I like sweaters.  I saw this sweater today and I did NOT buy it, which feels to me like a massive display of self control:

Looking at that now, I cannot believe myself!  I didn’t buy it!  It is a perfect black sweater!  I have enormous self-restraint!  Unfortunately I have no room in my dresser.

I did really need to reorganize my dresser, apparently, since I found at the very bottom of the very bottom drawer not only my old compression stockings and the bra and panty combination I wore to my wedding, but a pair of size large maternity pantyhose.