Thank you Kenny Loggins.... thank you

So let's start with a little background information: I arrived in Pensacola, FL on September 7, 2007 to chase the dream that I had as a little 5 year-old when Mom, not knowing the gravity of what she was about to do, brought home a movie. That movie pretty much started it all. It showed me a world where guys could push the envelope, go Mach 2 with their hair on fire and relax with a good game of beach volleyball all while listening to the rocking tunes of Kenny Loggins.
I saw fast planes, I saw helicopters, I saw explosions, hot civilian flight instructors and weeks on the beach in Southern California. Over the rest of my childhood I went from playing "fighter pilot" in the sandbox (I literally dug out a "cockpit" in the sand) to building F-14 models to taking flight lessons in high school and later in college.
So I went to the Naval Academy, spent 4 years by the Chesapeake Bay, graduated, did some cool stuff, met some cool people and now here I am in Pensacola, Florida.
I've been here 3 and a half weeks and it's not half bad. For the first 2 weeks the Blue Angels would practice almost every morning. It's fun, they're loud. I would go and workout at the track on the NAS and see jets circling above me, which was a better movtivation to keep running than anything I could remember at 5am in Annapolis.
As for the town... for those of you who know, think the Post Road in Norwalk, CT... but everywhere except the very center of town. For those of you non-Connecticutians... it's a typical Southern city/town. The roads are wide and the lights are long. The people can't drive but they don't pay the cops. The food is fast and the Waffle Houses are many. The beaches are long and white, the waves are short and few... I could go all day, but you get the idea.
I sometimes wonder what Faulkner would think of this place... it's not exactly his Mississippi, but geographically and probably in other ways, it's not that far off.
Anyways, I'm here, and this is where I start.