November 2002: Meet The Plug. Have no recollection how. Over the internet? Something to do with Jason Royal. You know how it is.

January 2003: The Plug sends me a comic book in the mail. It comes in an envelope that reads BE CAREFUL IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL YOU MIGHT GO BLIND. I repay The Plug by calling him after coming home from the bar at 2:00 a.m. and playing my slide whistle over the phone. The Plug later affects that this was a pain in the ass, but in real life, The Plug was overjoyed. If The Plug tells you any differently, The Plug is lying.

February 2003: Funny story. I fly to Atlanta, Georgia. Jason Royal and I go to meet The Plug at his apartment after work on Valentine’s Day. The Plug gets out of his car, we hug, go inside, have cream soda, and then I punch The Plug in the face, thereby delivering the most scheduled black eye in history. The next night we all go dancing.

Spring 2003: The Plug and I inaugurate Listening Fridays, wherein we both bring copies of albums that we both own to work on a Friday and coordinate listening to them. We get on instant messenger and actually say, “Okay, 1, 2, 3, go!” to start the CDs.

Summer 2003: I make a cover for a mix CD for The Plug. I never get around to making the actual CD, and only find the cover when I am packing up my apartment to move. I think, “I bet The Plug would get a kick out me just sending the cover artwork,” and then I immediately put it in a box and put that box in storage.

November 2003: The Plug and The Plug’s girlfriend come to New York. We spend an afternoon drinking bubble tea and looking through record stores. The Plug’s girlfriend tried on a really awesome orange and white dress.

November 2004: To this day, my favorite thing about The Plug is when we first began talking, I told him I’d never had a nickname. The Plug said “I will give you a nickname, right now!” He did, and God bless The Plug’s heart, but not an email or phone call goes by when The Plug doesn’t call me Rims. That’s something right there.