Home again, home again...

We spent the weekend in St. George, The Man of the House, The Small One and I.  It was lovely.  St. George makes me happy, for a number of reasons.  And there is something about driving into the area that just boosts my mood.  The drive, itself, is not my favourite.  In fact, I think it's kind of beastly.  I've done that drive so many times and it just gets a bit old.  It takes about 5 hours when you have a kid, although, this time it took a bit longer, because TMOTH was driving Bruce (his work truck) and Bruce doesn't like either the heat or the long drive.  Or going fast.  Basically, The Small One and I were following him down.
Anyway, back to the story.  The Small One and I drove down in my car, and the drive was boring, as usual, although we were listening to a nice lecture on the American Civil War.  As we came down the hill from Leeds, I rolled down my window.  It was hot.  Deliciously hot.  And there is a certain smell that hits at the same time as the heat.  Is it a good smell?  I don't know.  I think it's a lovely smell.  It smells of dampness and mold and dryness and dust and weeds (not weed).  And it makes me happy.  I have written before about the way smells can conjure up memories and emotions.  And the memories and emotions conjured up by that moldy, dusty smell are very pleasant ones.
For those of you who don't know, I spent a few summers living down in St. George, working at a very large outdoor theatre near there.  Live theatre, not movie theatre.  Summer theatre is hard, stressful and so much fun.  Everything at the beginning of the build seems easy and fun, and by the end of the six weeks it is neither easy or fun.  It's hard.  It's A LOT of work.  But the tightness of the schedule, which brings out the best and the worst in people, also brings people really close together, which I consider a good thing.
And once the build is over and the run of the show starts, things get even more fun.  As the wardrobe manager and head dresser, I would go to work around 6 pm for an 8 pm show.  Get to work, sort and fold and finish the laundry.  Do any repairs that needed doing.  My crew would arrive shortly after I did and get to work on any ironing that needed doing, returning socks and undershirts and tights to the various actor's makeup mirrors in the dressing rooms and generally get things ready for the show.  Then the actors would arrive and there would be a lot of rushing about as people got dressed and makeup and wigs on, dressers helping as needed.
Then, the presets for quick changes would go out 5 minutes before the house opened, and then the show.  It's funny.  I sat through 70 odd performances of the varying shows, but I still don't know all of the music to each show.  You would think that I would, but, one's mind has a way of tuning out what one hears night after night after night.  I got to a point where I didn't really hear any of it, except for the bars leading up to my quick change cue.
A great deal of time was spent sitting backstage, doing any small mending that needed to be done, taking care of minor injuries and chatting quietly.  I may have gotten in trouble with the stage manager for talking too much, once in a great while.  ;)
Then, after the show ended, costumes were checked back in, a couple of loads of laundry started and we headed out.  We usually got out between 12 and 1 am, then headed somewhere to get dinner or play for a while.  Then home around 3 or 4 and to bed, then up at 11 or so, doing the things normal people do after work.  Laundry, clean house, that sort of thing.
All in all, a great time.  We had some bizarre occurrences, like a crazy pervert who kept breaking into our apartment.  Good times, y'all.
Anyway, driving down from Leeds and hitting that wall of heat and scent brings back all of these memories.  Lovely people, lovely times.  I met TMOTH down there, you know.
The Small One absolutely loves to go down there.  She, being a skinny wee thing, loves the heat.  LOVES IT.  She plays outside, non-stop, running about and generally enjoying herself.  This time, her cousin was there the whole time we were, so she had the pleasure of running about with her, which is also a pleasure for me.  Left me free to do some shopping, which I do love doing in St. George.  Also, they have a fabulous splash park in St. George, which The Small One would probably never leave if she didn't have to.  I wish we had one up here, although, I think the children down there are rather more well behaved than they are up here.  We have been to the splash park many times, and only once have I noticed the bigger kids not paying attention and running over smaller kids.  Up here, that sort of thing happens all the time.  Not so much down there.  They seem to be much more aware of the littles down there.  I wonder why that is.
Poor TMOTH didn't have much fun.  He had to replace the windows in his parents house, and it was somewhere near the same temperature as the sun outside during the day.  Blech.