Time Gets Away From Us!

Last post was in May, and it's now August 1. Holy Smokes, time really does have wings!
So what's happened lately? I suppose the biggest news is that Pete's gone to Basic Camp at Ft. Benning. I can't believe how much I miss him! He left on Tuesday 7/21. He wasn't supposed to leave 'til Wednesday, and he had everything planned out. Going-away party Monday night, Tuesday would be spent with his friends that couldn't make it to the party, Tuesday night would be with us and his girlfriend,Cat, on Beale St in Memphis, then he'd leave Wed. I'd go to work as planned Wed morning so I woulnd't make a fool of myself, and Patrick would drive him to the Recruiting Center.
Then he got the call Monday, in typical Army fashion, that he had to leave Tuesday afternoon. Pete tracked me down at work and he was so upset; we both cried over his plans gone awry. I stayed teary-eyed all day long, my heart breaking because he wasn't going to see some of his friends as planned.
We had the party Monday night as planned, and it was well-attended. Pete's got TONS of friends and they can all eat TONS! In the first 1/2 hour we'd gone through 25 pounds of hamburgers!!!! Evidently Pete was expecting them all to eat tons, though, because I made the mistake of sending him to the store to buy the food. I gave him a list and said, "Add whatever else you want." Tip for the future: don't ever say those words to a teen! The boy ended up getting 2 huge containers of mustard, 2 huge bottles of ketchup, and a GALLON of pickles, as well as a 5 lb bag of mini Reese's and a 5 lb bag of M&Ms. I had "chips & dip" on the list, so he got the dip and about 8 containers of various flavors of Pringles. Ok, son.....Pringles aren't exactly the kind of "dippin' chips" I had in mind, but since I didn't specify I'll take the hit! LOL
The party "ended" at 10, at least at our house. They carried it to Huddle House 'til around 2am. Lucky folks at Huddle House! :)
Tuesday morning we took him (with Cat) to Huddle House for brunch. I'm pretty sure we were better behaved than Pete & his buddies the night before! Around 11, I decided to take the cowardly way out, though, and Mabry and I left them to go shopping. I just couldn't sit there and pretend life was just ducky anymore, and I didn't wanna make a blubblering idiot out of myself in public! So we said our goodbyes at Huddle House, and I haven't seen him since.
He doesn't have an address yet, but we did get a letter from him earlier this week. His letter sounded upbeat, and it almost sounds like he finds his Drill Instructors amusing. He's been "smoked" twice, and in the telling of it he made it sound pretty funny. He's such a great writer, and I can't wait to hear from him again. Of course, Cat has had THREE letters (that I'm aware of) and one phone call (which she missed). I told Pete before he left that if time would only allow him to call one person, he should call Cat if that's who he wants to call. Then Cat is to call me and let me know how he is. I remember what it's like to be the girlfriend! :)
One thing we did at his party was have everyone write him a note/letter in a notebook. MY plan was to mail him one every day (which would kinda take the heat off of me in figuring out what to write him!). But the boy found the notebook, took all the letters out and took them with him. Now I'm glad he did that, as I imagine they're getting him through these first couple weeks while he waits to get an address.
So...now we wait to hear from him. Hopefully he'll call soon with an address so we can start writing him. I'll let everyone know when we hear in case anyone else is interested in writing him! :)