Jessica, this is all your fault.

I'm living in Norfolk, Virginia now and working on a destroyer (you know, because I'm in the Navy). I've been assigned to be the Visit, Boarding, Search and Seizure Officer on the ship. Which basically means I am in charge of the team that boards other ships, kicks ass and takes names. Other than that, I've been learning to do basic Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) things. Like driving the ship. I spent most of my first underway on the bridge learning the commands for steering the ship, memorizing all the 'rules of the road' in terms of what to do when another ship is close, and things like that.

My favorite experience is when we had man overboard drills. I was the conning officer at the time (the officer that gives the commands for the person physically steering the ship). I scanning the horizon when suddenly I hear someone yell "Man overboard, port side!" I had been practicing, so I called the commands to the helmsman as I to the left side of the ship on the bridge wing. The captain and the executive officer had come up to watch the drill, so I had the captain and the XO both standing on the side watching me execute a 360 degree turn going as fast as we could back to the floating life jacket in the water. As we got closer, the captain started helping me with the actual driving of the ship. It was an awesome experience to have the captain taking his time to help me perform my first man overboard drill. Especially since after my drill, he left and let the XO do the rest of the drills with the other junior officers.

Also, the stars are so bright when you are out to sea.

I started an experiment when I moved in to see how long I could go without repeating a shirt. I moved in August 3rd and yesterday was my last repeat free day. I obviously have wayyy to many shirts.

Four of July. A time where people can act like complete idiots with fire and explosives and no one thinks a second thing about it. Of course, my friends and I are no exception. Yesterday, after getting tired of blowing up flowers and throwing bottle rockets at each other, we decide to build a fire and toss the remaining 4 gross (app. 576) bottle rockets into the fire. And then not all of them go off, Kyle runs in, and shuffles them around while they shoot off at his head. It was truely entertaining.