Airport Adventures

So during the little fiasco of sending me to South Carolina by mistake after leaving Ft. Sill, I was finally on my way to Virginia Beach. Once I arrived, I went to go pick up my luggage. This consisted of: One very large military green duffel bag (50 lbs), National Guard backpack (20 lbs), pink backpack (10 ish lbs), and my purse (stuffed to capacity. And then some.) I joke that the final test of a soldier is to see if they can manage to carry all their luggage with them out of training through the airport by themselves. It was quite a gamble! My plan of action: back-load the big, monster duffel, front-load the National Guard backpack to even things out a bit so I don't tip over backwards, sling my purse over my shoulder as best I could, then carry my pink backpack in my hand. I'm sure I was quite a sight.
Anyway, when I went to go get my luggage, I discovered that although my pink backpack was there, my green duffel was missing. GREAT. However, there was another identical duffel sitting with my pink backpack, so I figured some other serviceman thought my bag was theirs and ran off with it. Sure enough, that's what happened. After talking to some people at the airport and a few phone calls, we were able to track down my bag and the trade was successful. I felt bad for the Marine who ran off with it, because mine was TWICE as heavy as his!! After giving myself a quick pep-talk of "I am an American Soldier. I am disciplined, physically and mentally TOUGH. I CAN DO ANYTHING.", I began my attempts to lift my duffel. I got it onto my back in one motion; too easy. I was feeling pretty good and all sorts of Army-strong. I looked up and saw some punk kid in cut-off jeans, a wife-beater tank, and baseball cap on backwards watching me. He saw I was looking, gave me the COMPLETE up-down, looked at me like I was insane, then said "You are too cute to be in the Army!" I smiled at him, said "Thank you!" and just walked away (blushing furiously). Made my day, and carrying all those bags just a little bit easier ;)