Hotlanta

This past weekend was my brother's graduation from AIT with the army. On Wednesday, I left Columbus, Ohio at 10 am, and did not leave the Atlanta, GA airport until almost 8 pm. Gersh, that was a long day! Wednesday night was spent with my mother. She cracks me up. To me, she is a sign of strength, beauty and...comical relief. Honestly, I am hard pressed to think of someone I laugh so hard with on a consistent basis.

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Thursday morning we left our hotel at the ungodly hour of 7 am (ok, I'm not a morning person). We had to go back to the airport, rent a car, and then make the drive down to Columbus, GA. This was rather confusing for someone that comes from Columbus, especially so early in the morning..... "Where are we going?", "Columbus", "But I just came from there!"

Thursday morning was a briefing, or de-briefing, or whatever. The sergeant reminded us that they were reLEASING the soldiers to their families. They want the boys back, they say. grr. The Turning Blue ceremony followed. I took approximately a million pictures. My brother looks so absolutely proud; it made me cry. The boys were released for several hours before they were asked to go back to base for one last night.

My mother, making my brother Turn Blue.

Friday morning was another early morning. There were demonstrations, speeches (which reminded me of Full Metal Jacket, made me giggle), and singing. If you have never experienced hundreds of boys, dressed in camo, singing, you have not lived. That was funnier than words. After the ceremony, we went shopping and saw M:I III (enough said there) and then hung out in the hotel. There was consumption of alcohol. It eased the loss of the Cavs. And then there was sleeping.

This is the demo. Todd is the one on the left with the big gun on his back.

A picture of half the soldiers that graduated on May 19th, 2006.Shopping for goofy hats. He did this voluntarily.
Saturday we woke up at 4:30. That's in the a.m. folks. "It does exsist." We had to drive back to Atlanta, drop off the rented car, and do all the fun check into the airport stuff. Even though I was not allowed to be co-pilot, I still had to stay up and keep my momma from not sleeping while driving. That was fun. There may have been some car dancing and poking of people while they were sleeping involved. We had breakfast at the airport and then mom and Todd left me. It wasn't so bad on Saturday because I was coming back to some guests here in Columbus.

Eating breakfast in the Atlanta airport.

Now I miss them terribly. Hopefully I will have that much fun again soon.