One Picture From CVW Stopped Me In My Tracks

I haven’t written about Mid Sib’s official weekend at the Naval Academy. For one, it has been crazier than usual since Labor Day weekend. The other is, honestly, I want to stop the clock.

We had a great weekend, don’t get me wrong, and she did, too. But her brother added an image to his Instagram story that absolutely stopped me in my tracks.

I saw it. And it hit me. Both my kids will be sleeping in Bancroft Hall tonight.

Wait, what?

Both kids. Sleeping in Bancroft. Tonight.

Maybe I should have figured it out sooner. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal. But I just kind of froze for a few moments.

Mid Sib had spent a few days at the Air Force Academy and, honestly, I didn’t feel all that strange about leaving her there. But somehow, seeing that picture of the Mid and the Mid Sib made it real – both of them would be out of the house by this time next year.

We don’t know where Mid Sib will land. She so badly wants to attend one of the academies. But she’s zeroing in on Plan B, too, prepping ROTC applications and narrowing her field of civilian schools, with a strong ROTC program serving as a key filter.

By the time we were all together again, I had buried those thoughts and just enjoyed the limited time we had. I suspect I’ll be mulling a lot of that over in the weeks to come, but for now, well, I’ll just leave it there.

A few random thoughts on that weekend:

• We were able to check out our house for Commissioning Week and I’m still pretty stoked about it. Mid Mom was pretty happy – she hadn’t seen it yet – and we’re really looking forward to a great week.
• Spent some relaxed time in DTA, which we haven’t done much of since Induction Day – of course, we hit the Iron Rooster (our favorite), but also found a Mexican restaurant that will surely become a staple.  It’s easy to forget how cool of a town Annapolis is – and how that really separates USNA from the other academies. 
• Didn’t get to spend much time with the Mid. He had some sort of company obligation, so we had a meal or two with him and spent a quarter or so of the football game with him, but that was about it. It occurred to me that two years ago, I would have been baffled by this, but now I just shrug my shoulders and thing, “N*ot College.”
• We stayed at Hotel Annapolis, which is our go-to place and I’ve always been a vocal advocate. As they make the transition to a new name – Graduate Hotel Annapolis – we had our first not-so-pleasant experience. I will say this, I had a heart-to-heart with the manager the morning we left and he tried to make it right. We have reservations in a couple of weeks and it’ll be interesting to see if they get it right or if the negative trend continues.
• As we were pulling out of the hotel, who do I run into but Grant Vermeer. Yes, he of Academy Insider fame. Got to meet his amazing father and sister, too. What are the odds? Hoping to do some cool stuff with Grant in the future, but it felt great to shake his hand.