If Only I Was

This Monday is SO much cooler and pleasant than last Monday that I wish today was Labor Day. I almost called in sick this morning because it's so nice outside and I only have a little hacking cough left from the cold and my bedroom is clean and I could have stayed in bed for anther three hours I think. But. That would have been a lie and so here I am at the office piddling around not doing anything but dreaming about what I would have done if I had stayed home. Conscience: friend or foe? Discuss.
So I'm reading this book, "GRANIA: She-King of the Irish Sea" about Grainne Ni Mhaille, Grania, or Grace, O'Malley of Ireland. It is a good book, very compelling in that I don't want to stop reading to sleep or work. Grania was the daughter of an Irish clan chieftain. Having been indulged by her father, she grew up on his ship, learning to lead the men and being accepted as one of them. When her father died he named her as successor, making her the first female chieftain and sea captain. She lived roughly the same years as Elizabeth I and they were adversaries as Grania was a pirate as well as sea captain. The meetings between the two women were detailed and part of English and Irish history alike. If this sounds in any way familiar it's because my latest obsession, The Pirate Queen, was based on the Irish legend. (The Pirate Queen, starring Stephanie J. Block, Hadley Fraser and Marcus Chait, that opened and closed on Broadway before I got to see it. But I'm not bitter, no sir.) I like the musical for many reasons, not the least of which is that my heritage is Irish on my dad's side and all the fabulous talent that was in the show. Also, I like entertainment taken from real life.
So. I'm reading the book that the musical was quasi-based on and I am really impressed at the talent and vision of other people. How anyone could read this book and decide, 'hey - this would make a really great musical!' - I'm sure I don't know. It's a rough, dirty and brutal kind of story. Granted, it was a rough, dirty and brutal time in the world's history too, but to read the book and see in it a glorious, romantic, musical play takes a brilliance that I just do not have. I felt the same way when I read "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West". Surely you know how much I love that musical. But the book is not at all pretty, romantic or inclined to musical accompaniment. Yet someone read the book and thought it would make a great Broadway show. And it did! How does one make that sort of jump? I do not begrudge the screenwriters or stage playwrights ANY money that they get from the shows and the royalties that come afterwards from soundtracks or swag or whatever. These peeps are talented.

This is me, in awe.