SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: REPORTER LEAVING FOR THE FLORIDA SUNSHINE AND HOME

Don't cry for me Cape Girardeau -- the truth is I've never really been here.

It's a poor paraphrase of Evita, but what the heck, it's my last column.

I'm moving. I've landed a job back home in Florida and I leave Oct. 15. I'll be home in time for the second-half of the Florida Gators's football season and the beginning of the much-ballyhooed Florida winter.

Tell you the truth, I didn't think I would be even the least bit upset about leaving. It's not because Southeast Missouri is a bad place, I'm just homesick. But once I actually formed the words and accepted the job, a kind of sudden weight fell on my shoulders.

That very day I began telling some of the people I work with outside the newspaper, like Police Chief Rick Hetzel, Sgt. Carl Kinnison and Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle, that they would have to deal with yet another police-beat reporter. Such gracious people, they really made me feel like I was appreciated.

That's the thing I'm going to miss most about this place -- the people. I've been fortunate to be able to form good working relationships with a number of outstanding people in your community. To be a good reporter you have to form these kinds of relationships. But most of these people I truly respect and I'm going to miss working with such consummate professionals.

I'm also going to miss the Scott City Council and envy the next reporter that gets to cover it. Normally, city council meetings are dry, lifeless affairs where it's difficult to stay awake, let alone concentrate. But there's something about Scott City's council that makes every other Monday a bright spot on my calendar. I can say unreservedly that I've never covered such an unpredictable group of people.

I'll also miss some people from the Missourian. Tamara Buck has quickly become a good friend of mine. She and I have established a communication that is both enlightening and refreshing. Oh, if you haven't heard Jackson USA reporter Mike Wells do his version of Elvis singing Whitney Houston songs -- you have not lived.

My new job is as a police-beat reporter for the Panama City News Herald. A bigger paper and bigger community, the editor there tells me the police beat is one of the most active on the paper. I'm looking forward to being busy.

When I went down for two-days of interviewing and one day of sunbathing, I got to experience some of the things I'll be living with again. Beautiful, peaceful sunsets, clear emerald-green water, suntanned women and fresh seafood. I'm planning on buying a windsurfer and teaching myself how to work it. That should take endless hours of practice out in the Florida sun and on Panama City's wonderful beaches. I understand that girls love clumsy, fat guys who fall off windsurfers a lot.

It's hard to describe how I've felt the last 18 months here. There have been some good times, some wild times, some good stories and a parade of really annoying women. That's one thing I'm not going to miss. There's something in the water here that makes single women lose their minds.

But like I said, it's hard to describe how I've felt: reserved, out-of-sorts, not quite all here. I'm hoping that's going to change.

I'm going home.

David Angier is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.