Maybe I’m a dork (okay, no maybe), but after reading an interview that Brian Bendis did with author Brad Meltzer, where he talks about writing (specifically the 24 rejection letters he got for his first novel, which went on to be published and rocket up the NYT bestseller list) I felt better about my own rejection at just one place. I guess I just need to send it out to 23 more places and…wait, I guess it doesn’t work that way. But anyway, I wrote Brad an email (I call him “Brad” because he’s my friend on MySpace, which we all know translates into a deep, meaningful, long lasting friendship) telling him how much I enjoyed the interview, how much I enjoy his comics and how the story of his trials getting his book published were helpful to me in my struggles to publish mine. He wrote me back a quick email thanking me for reading and telling me that he is in fact cheering for me. It’s nice because sometimes you wonder if there’s just a room of Illuminati types watching you on a wall of monitors going “Fail! Fail! Fail! Wait…I think he’s going to spill his drink…maybe…yes!!! All over the clean shirt!” And then they high five and go back to running Fox news. Or something.

Kenzie and I went up to Columbus to see Sonic Youth and Flaming Lips, which was fun until it really became un-fun. Like when Sonic Youth started playing, and all the latecomers from the back forced their way up front past everyone like us who waited patiently on line. Like when a mosh pit broke out two feet away from us. Like when very large dudes kept bouncing off Kenzie and I and my foot. Needless to say I started getting wicked pissed, which is not a great thing to do in a hot, sweaty crowd of people in the sporadic rain, because then I start acting tough and over protective and voila!, I end up almost getting into a fight with two random dudes.

It’s weird because in my adult life I’ve never had an instance like that, and yet, here I am, just shy of the ol 30th birthday, and I’m staring down some shirtless ponytail who’s threatening to “be an asshole for the next 20 minutes.” I don’t even know what that *means!* After being told by Kenzie that if he wants to mosh he should stay over there, he comes back with “I’ll just do what I want,” which makes me unhappy. Then, scant moments later, his friend is returning with drinks and he’s threatening everyone to get the fuck out of his friends’ way. Naturally, I tell him he could “be fucking polite” and it turns into a “what are you going to do about it thing” and the aforementioned “I can be an asshole for the next 20 minutes.” Then we start staring at each other. Y’know, that crazy guy shit where no one wants to back down and you’re just staring to establish dominence. I’m not sure if I won, but I do know he blinked far more time than I did (which was none, thank you middle school staring contests) and he did look away first, although I did talk first “Why don’t you just turn the fuck around?” after his friends were trying to get him to turn around and leave us alone.

Ahhh, thrilling tales of masculinity. We ended up leaving early because man, it was fucking hot, we’d been standing for several hours at this point and I didn’t want to get beaten up or go to jail, because honestly, that’s where it was heading. Not even the calming music of the Flaming Lips could soothe this savage beast.

Chris is arriving tomorrow to hang out for the weekend, which is cool because he’s never been outt his way before to visit, so I get to show him my new hood and he gets to meet Kenzie. On Sunday we’re all going down to Portsmouth to look at wedding/reception places so we can finally get some plans nailed down. Y’know, like the date, so we can start sending out invitations and find out how many are acutally coming.

It’s those little details that are important.