"Ship was nice, food was good, everything was going great...and then somebody yelled out 'Iceberg!'..."

I keep trying to myself this was a good day, full far more of triumphs than missteps. But what a misstep. And, me being me, despite the fact it's the last thing that happened I get the feeling that's what's going to be on my mind tomorrow.

Work today was pretty jejune. I did, based on some smart Aussie advice, write out what it is I want Famous Woman Who I Meet At Comic-Con to say as the answering machine message and it went over huge with Ivan so I know it's good. I solidified a date on Sunday with Rebecca who I met at the Bitter End's Memorial Day eve party after some slight maniuplation on my part to get her attention. I went over to Fumari, where I proceeded to work Ivan over like Kunta Kinte in our game of superpowers/land/hot chicks poker (in public you can't play for cash in the City of San Diego™); he may've beaten me 6 times in two and a half hours. And Jen showed up again at Fumari from my Spanish class last year; the last time I'd went with Ivan she'd shown up out of the blue then, too. You say coincidence, I say the glass is half-full and I have a cute Asian stalker.

So this is all and well to the good, but now the inevitable fuckup.

So Liz walks over to Ivan to give him the Best Hot Chocolate in Town, and I ask her her top 5 music acts of all time. I say it's a simple question, and she says it's not. But she does in short order rattle off the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis, Unwritten Law (?!) and Aretha Franklin (!!!).

No, the fuckup is I didn't immediately jump in with "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me!" My list: the Zeppelin, Al Green, the Peppers, Parliament/Funkadelic, and, "of course", R.E.M.

It doesn't occur to me until 5 minutes after we leave I've forgotten the Clash.

It doesn't occur to me until 10 minutes after we leave I've forgotten Public Enemy.

And then...

B : See, I was knocking on the door, and now I fucked it all up. She was like "I was going to fuck him at some point, but I can't be with him now. He didn't even mention Nirvana!"

(beat)

(realization)

HOLY SHIT, I *DIDN'T* MENTION NIRVANA! Oh, son of a bitch! Well, that's it. Clearly, I'm going to have to go home and kill myself.

You know, only I have the idiot savant acumen and sharp timing to tell a joke and then have it almost on impact horribly blow up in my face. Sweet fucking Jesus. Clearly, we're never going to hook up now.

Brooks Was Here.

Current music: "Only U" by Ashanti