Santa Barbara: 09/15/2006 Maryland, Mountaineers, Memories and Muckraking

Okay, lots to say and I'm on the clock, so let me get to it.

Congratulations to WVU for their thrashing of Maryland last night...not as close as the 45-24 score would indicate. They looked good, very good.

I watched it in a local sports bar because, as luck would have it, the hotel I am staying at is the one hotel in the all of Western Civilization that does not have ESPN. Two Spanish language sports channels, but no ESPN.

Someone the other day commented on my sudden blurting of withheld emotions before a trip or separation. It is an impulse based on a very real event in my life.

When I was in high school, at Morgantown High, there was this girl (note how all my great stories open with that line?) named Margie. We teased and taunted each other a great deal, but there was definitely a connection there...

At graduation I ran into her as we were organizing to march onto the field (Morgantown High School, Class of 1973, representin') and I took her hands and we spoke for a moment and I almost...almost...almost said something. And didn't.

And aside from an awkward moment passing in a shopping mall a few years later, that was my last chance.

I hate the notion of going away and people falling out of my life or dying or vanishing and I never get the chance to speak unspoken truths. It is one of the fires that forged my soul as a poet, unspoken truths. We all have them, we are just cowards. We are so busy hiding behind our comfortable knowns that we daren't launch ourselves into the possibilities beyond our our screen doors.

That having been said, I think Morgantown is in for a shock. I am back on my feet. I have tasted the winds. I have accepted the badge of the ronin. I am my own man, again. There will be some changes made.

Now, for a trivial gripe. When I changed planes in Minneapolis, I stopped at a kiosk to use the internet. The charge was $5.00 for 15 minutes, then $1.00 each additional minute. The problem was in the interface was so sloppy and unstable that I think I managed to get one email off, and the 8 seconds that put me into the bonus charge arena was due to my spending almost a full minute leaving them a message about how bad their service was.

My receipt says that the service is provided by Concourse Communications, from Chicago. If you encounter them, I'd give them a wide berth. I was very unhappy with the service.