On leftover symptoms

The Phantoms left Philadelphia after the 2008-09 season. While I can *hardly* say I took their departure well -- far, far from it, to put it mildly -- I have been able to move forward from the grief of losing my team to a city 300 miles away. (Their alleged move to Allentown, two seasons from now, is small comfort, at best, as I still won't be able to attend every game anymore, as I did when they were where they belong: in the Philly area.)

However, to my surprise, in the past few weeks. I've been having some serious "I miss my team" spells. Again. I thought I'd processed the grief and moved forward, but here it was coming back again, and I wasn't sure why. When the grief is connected to a loss like that of a loved one, sometimes the sadness will make a resurgence at times like the anniversary of their birth or passing. But the Phantoms' departure anniversary isn't until the middle of April, so what was up with these feelings *now*?

Then I realized. It's because the impending opening of the Spectrum-killing abomination, Xf*n*ty L*ve, has been widely publicized in recent weeks. My normal reaction, on the sight of the logo or hearing of the name, has been to hiss at it. But unbeknownst to me, all those sightings of the logo, and all those hearings of the name, apparently were digging away at some remaining, buried remnants of sadness that I've been unwittingly carrying around for the past three years. And finally, in the past couple of weeks, they've finally reached the surface.

Today is the opening of the abomination. So it's *really* all over the freaking news. Ugh. Guess I'll have to dodge the local news channels for a day or two, until the hubbub dies down. They won't be seeing any of MY money, not in that location nor in any other location that's affiliated with the Spectrum-killing Cordish brothers (of which I've already boycotted the ones in Baltimore, Atlantic City, and Louisville).

I have to say... there is not ONE FREAKING THING that was in their original plan that's currently in place on their site. Luxury hotel? None. Not any kind of hotel, in fact. Boutiques? None. Outlet stores? Nada. Theater? Nope. The only thing that they did that was on the original plan was tear down the Spectrum. B@st@rds.