January 20, 2009 cannot come soon enough.

I've already said goodbye to my brother (twice) before he deploys to Iraq for the next 18 months. Except, he hasn't yet left. He leaves on Monday.

But does his still being stateside make me feel better? Nope, not even a little bit. I still don't get to see him again until my 2 year old son is 4 and I have a new job (which won't be new anymore) and hopefully a new house.

My dad came through Champaign yesterday on his way to Ft Bragg to bid his only son farewell.

War sucks. Memorial Day in our house means watching the ENTIRE "Band of Brothers" series, so I have a healthy perspective of how much less sucky this war is compared to wars of the past. Relative to many of the military families in the US, we have it quite good. Patrick enlisted during wartime, so we knew he would be going overseas (unlike some of the folks in the Reserves who have been away from their families and jobs for 3 of the last 5 years...or more). And also, Patrick's job really is quite safe so we have a great chance of getting him home safely. Patrick isn't married and doesn't have any children, so less people have to miss him while he's gone. Even with all of that, war still sucks!

Patrick was the boy who got homesick (I mean really sick) at sleep away camp until he was a teen. When he was a teen he began to grow an intense network of friends and I am convinced they saved his life. His family is more important to him than any other 20 year old, strike that, any other person I know. And now he has to be many thousands of miles away from all of it.

So, this weekend I will be consumed with thoughts of Patrick's last days and hours stateside with his dad, girlfriend and 3 of his tricking friends, wishing desperately I could be there too. Then we will all wait until he gets to a computer to let us know that he arrived safe. It could be this week, it could be next month. The army isn't very helpful with all of that.

I can't wait until we have a new president...