The Woods

Sometimes you just need a good sweat to cleanse the body. Today, I'm pretty sure the whole crew of Homeland was detoxified as we spent the day tromping around in the woods. It was sticky, sweat and buggy. Within the first 30 minutes of being in the woods I felt as though I needed a bath. The air was hot and damp and the sweat just oozed out of you. I could feel all the impurities seeping out of me. Days like this are just draining. I really sometimes wonder how the heck I came about to have the job I do. I am not a morning person yet I sometimes have to be at work as early as 6am. I hate the cold yet sometimes I spend 12 hours outside at night in the dead of winter. And I hate being sweaty unless I'm sitting a few steps away from a pool or body of water, yet filming in the south during the summer is the sweatiest mess I've ever seen. Still, most days I really enjoy what I am doing. The only thing I would enjoy more is being payed to write. If only.

So for now, I grin and bear the sweat and hope that the 100 degree temperatures make themselves scarce this summer in Charlotte, NC. I could hardly wait to get home and take a shower. My only saving grace was I was probably the least sweaty of everyone out there in the woods today. Most of the guys were drenched from head to toe within the first 30 minutes. I, however, just had a slight glisten. After you get used to the dampness and stickiness, you actually begin to rather enjoy yourself. It was a bit like we were just camping. The woods are actually pretty and I don't think I would be spending time in the woods if it weren't for work. There's a lot of places and things I get to do that I would never do if I didn't work in the film business. I used to love the woods as a child - exploring, pretending, or just traipsing through them. I don't ever remember being sweaty and sticky in them as a child. I guess as a child you don't really care about things like that. I thought about Marshall today sitting in the woods and how he had said he wanted Nolan to play in the woods like he had done when he was a child. Marshall felt it was important that our children have those experiences. He said if the only way to make sure Nolan was safe in the woods was to go with him then Marshall would pick up a stick and go play in the woods with him. I hope one day we have a child that Marshall can go play in the woods with and enjoy being a kid again.