This is not my blog.

In popular culture there is a notion that we are all six degrees of separation from each other. However, I think that in West Virginia that process is somewhat shortened. Growing up here I remember how everyone seems to know everyone else and a social guy like me was likely to run into someone that I knew, or who knew someone else that I knew, no matter where I seemed to go in the state (something that used to annoy JDB endlessly). Last night ended up being no exception when I went out with part of the new Scrabble crowd that I've fallen in with. From talking to Tina, Scrabble player extraordinaire, I've figured out that we had some common links so she invited me to her birthday party and I accepted. We went to Fazio's and from there went to Sam's on Capitol Street. Yes, it was a bit odd being invited to a birthday party of someone who I've just met, but I'm glad that I went, she, her husband, and her friends were all very cool people!

Connection number one ... one of her best friends is a previous holder of my office ... not my job ... my actual office. As we discussed things we figured out that she used to have the office space that I have when she worked for the Public Defender here in Kanawha County. Consequently, she knew many people who I work with now and we shared stories and found even more connections in the process. Then I met her husband who went to high school in Morgantown with one of my good friends back when I was in the WVU Marching Band and he explained to her how she knew the same friend through another series of connections ... it was a very funny moment.

Connection number two ... I ended up meeting Anna Sale from West Virginia Public Radio who I have had a pseudo connection with from when she and I both ran the Charleston Distance Run for our first times in 2005 B.B. (before blog). I started in the back of the pack like she did (she remembered it well) and I ran along watching her be cute and full of energy with a group of her friends till I lost them on the 3 miles of hill. I tend to look up people who I run around to see how they finished and so her name had stuck out in my head until I saw it again when some of my fellow WV bloggers started talking about this great new reporter on WVPR by the same name (I was still an honorary WV blogger at the time but now I wake up hearing her voice on my clock radio in the mornings). I have wondered if it was the same person and now I have confirmation that it is. It was so cool to meet her and her husband (a public interest lawyer) and to hear her voice outside of the radio context. I spent part of my evening recounting the 2005 race with her and trying to convince her and her husband to come out to the Scrabble club (because they are both fans of Scrabble and play all the time she said). In fact, they were both quite amused to hear my story of the "naughty words" that were purged from the Official Scrabble dictionary but are still hanging around at tournaments (and the flap from the 2004 tourney)! :-)

Various other connections ... there was another blogger present (the shy type so I won't reveal who) as well as a closet reader of my blog who promised to start commenting from time to time when I expressed wonderment that she had read so long without doing so. Of course, this whole connection to the WV Scrabble Club was from one of the Scrabble gang spotting me on the street and telling me about it in the first place. I think that it is working out pretty well so far! :-) We had a nice dinner where the various folks exchanged lines and jokes from The Princess Bride, South Park and various other things and then we enjoyed hanging out at Sam's. I haven't had that much fun for a long time! Next time I want to bring Kay along and kept telling people about how she was at home with a very sick daughter ... who has the flu ... the actual put-you-on-your-back-for-a-week flu.

Check out all of my Scrabble posts here or from my blog's sidebar.

Labels: radio, scrabble, stories