Death By Powerpoint and a Mini-Vacation

This weekend the Army paid for Jason, Alyssa and myself to travel to LA for some meetings. I wasn't sure what to expect but must admit I was pleasantly surprised. We flew in early on Friday morning. (Alyssa was SO excited to fly.) Since our meetings weren't until Saturday we rented a car and drove up to Hollywood. There we walked around the walk of fame and went to a museum. After a bit of sight-seeing in Hollywood we took Santa Monica Blvd. out to the Santa Monica Pier/beach. Alyssa was so excited to play in the sand. When we landed in LA it was pouring rain. By the time we made it to the beach it had cleared up, but wasn't (in my opinion) warm enough to swim at the beach. Instead we waded in the water and walked along the beach. Then we went over to the pier and rode the Farris wheel. Then we headed back to the hotel and returned our rental car. I am so puzzled how anyone lives there. The traffic was a mess, no matter where we went or what time of day it was.

Then on Saturday we attended the "Yellow Ribbon Re-Integration Program." It is a multi-phase program centering around pre-deployment, during deployment, and post-deployment. This is actually only the second time they have done this new program. We attended phase 2, pre-deployment. They provided childcare for Alyssa during the day (Ian stayed home with my parents, and honestly, probably had more fun with them.) They also provided our accomodations and all our meals. I must say that I thought this was extremely helpful. I liked that Jason and I were together and hearing the same inforamation. We learned about resources available to us, legal information, what to expect regarding Jason's civilian job while he's gone and when he returns, things to expect emotionally, insurance, veterans benefits, etc. Not only did I learn some new things which I totally plan on using, but I am also glad that we learned about it together. Jason can leave knowing that we are on the same page about all this military stuff. Not to mention, one of the best things was that we were able to make connections with other families in his unit. We were able to meet some new people and also meet the families of people Jason already knew. So, back to the title of this post, "Death By Powerpoint" um, yeah, I think after watching powerpoint for nearly 8 hours straight on Saturday, I've had my fill for a while. All in all though, I think this program was well worth it and honestly, the military should have been doing something like this a long time ago. Even though I'm sure there was considerable cost involved, I can only consider all the cost/crisis that may be avoided in the future as families are better informed of their responsibilities, benefits and available resources.