Our Ring Weekend started with one of the best nights I've ever spent in NYC. We visited several fun stores like the huge Toys R Us and American Girl Place, then went to dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant, saw The Producers, and then hit the bar scene down on Bleeker Street. This pic is from that last leg of the evening, when we met up with some of the infamous Bandit Brew Crew.
**note: Ziga's company at West Point is B3 and their mascots are "the Bandits" (as in cowboys). Ziga and about 18 of his classmates formed a little drinking club they like to call the Bandit Brew Crew. They have their own chants and little hand signals, they are a very tight group. Chalk it up to "male bonding."**
We spent the night in the city at the Belvedere Hotel, then dragged ourselves out of bed to make it upstate in time for my obscenely early hair appointment. That left us a nice morning to lounge around my place before trooping over to West Point for the Ring Ceremony. This is how it looked - parents and dates scattered everywhere, crowded around the cadets standing in formation at Trophy Point.
It was humid as all hell and shortly after this picture I gave up trying to see anything and laid myself down in the grass. Luckily I had opted not to wear my evening gown to the ceremony. Others were not so wise. After some important speech-making and singing the rings were handed out (at the time it seemed endless but now I realize it was quite quick considering a thousand rings were distributed) and then the command was given for the cadets to "don their rings." At which point we all cheered because there was finally hope of removal to a less oppressively humid location.
I ran my little tush right into the sea of white uniforms and found the Bandits in this characteristically crazy pose, already gloating over their rings. Don't even bother looking for Ziga, I can't even find him myself, although he assures me he was there. (Don't they look great in those India Whites?)
We were both in a bit of shock - for him, shock at actually having the ring he'd looked at and respected for three years - for me, heat shock. We were sticky, tired **cough hungover cough** and completely elated to be where we were.
While waiting for the dates to peel off their sweat-soaked sundresses, the boys took some pictures outside the barracks. This is Ziga and one of his roommates from last year, who is now graduated and currently holding the rank of a 2nd Lieutenant (thus the different uniform).
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the evening gown - Next Page
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