Awwww...

How far away is Illinois from where you are now?

Halfway across the country. I live in North Carolina, which is on the East Coast. She will be somewhere near Chicago (the Navy does basic training near the Great Lakes.)

When he is done with school he could possibly be stationed in Norfolk, which only a few hours away in Virginia.

I have a son in Colorado so I am used to my offspring growing up and moving away, but being a grandma throws a bit of a wrench into one's composure.

It was always so hard to say goodbye to my mom. My parents would see me off at the airport shuttle depot when I'd return to college in Michigan and I'd sit balling my eyes out on the bus. They always waited until the bus pulled out before they left, and I'd crane my neck to watch them walk back to the car. I remained homesick like crazy when I lived in Ohio and Florida, too. I used to go to the mall in Ohio and pine after older women who resembled my mom (short and cute, with cauliflower hair). I'm a sad case.

We were watching the goodbye episode of All in the Family late last night, where Gloria and Mike move away to California with Joey, and I was ballin'.

I guess I'm not a good example.

Pips, I don't think you mean ballin', I think you mean "bawlin'."

Ballin' would involve Jon.

Great Lakes? That's up in the northern suburbs and it is huge. When I worked at Copley I used to do ads for the Navy Exchange and the Great Lakes MWR Dept. They were very nice people.

Specklet: oops. *looks sheepish* : /

(that definitely would've made the trip to the airport more fun)

I hear you loud and clear Pips, on the homesickness. If I ain't where I wanna be, I don't stay there long. I hated college (all of school, really) from day 1, and it was only 30 miles down the road.

My sister used to work at Great Lakes as a civilian. It's about 45 minutes to an hour away from Chicago and 20 minutes from Wisconsin. I used to live north of there in Waukegan and my dad still lives up there.

Are they going to be living on base? My dad rents apartments outside the base to navy personnel. I don't know if he has anything open now, but I can check if you need me to. Since I lived near there I can help them find things too if they need me to.

Just look at it this way - you can come visit and then we can have another Chicago meetup! The train that goes into/out of the city with a stop closest to my house goes through the station across the street from the base. And I happen to know where to get some really great pizza and cheap beer in Waukegan too. :)

Hey, thanks! I'll tell her what you said. I'm assuming she's gonna try to get to stay on base but it's always good to keep one's options open.

I'm wondering how things will go for them up there considering they are a mixed race couple. Here, not that big a deal-Fort Bragg has lots of mixed race families-but I don't know how it is in other parts of the country. I assume the military in general is more enlightened about these things, so maybe I'm worrying about nothing.

Bummers.

I think you'll find acceptance of that couple is predictive based on this map.

I grew up around Great Lakes. My sister-in-law works there. Yeah, my old stomping grounds. I applied there for a warehouse job, but they didn't take too kindly (I assume) to my "Fuck the police" t-shirt I was wearing when I submitted my application.

Makes sense.