Brian left this afternoon for San Francisco, where he’ll be spending the next few days on business. I briefly thought of jetting out to meet him this weekend, but decided I’d rather use my frequent flyer miles and money to go to the Piedmont Triad instead. Though when I think about him having his dinner tonight at Chow, I get choked with jealousy.

We decided to eat out last night, to have a date together before he left, and we went to Sushi Neko, a fab little sushi place in Crown Heights. It was a beautiful autumn night and we asked to be seated outside. The hostess walked us along a long row of empty tables before seating us at the very last one, where we promptly ordered cans of Sapporo and sat, waiting for our food.

I was feeling all down and sad, because here my boyfriend’s going away most of the week, when who should pull up in a little Prius than Wayne Coyne and his wife? Wayne was wearing green pants, and he looked at us for a second, like, "Why are they sitting all the way over there?" Then they went inside.

A little kerfluffle erupted, as the gays love to eat at Sushi Neko, but I’ve found that as a rule? The gays in Oklahoma City haven’t Clue #1 who the Flaming Lips are, which is something I’m hoping to change. But they know fame when they hear other people talk about it, so no less than three gay guys flittered outside on their cell phones, all like, "Oh my God, do you know who the Flaming Lips are? They’re this band. This totally famous band. I don’t know what songs they sing! But they’re totally famous! I heard Alyssa Milano likes them!"

It was a wonderful moment. We ordered second and third helpings of Sapporo, just kind of sitting there, waiting, me thinking vaguely I might offer a "Hey, Wayne!" as he walked out, but he did, and I didn’t. I was going to be like, "I’m in yer DVD!" but that sounded desperate. So I just shut up, and let him and his wife get back in their Prius.

In college I worked with the concert crew and we got to meet a lot of famous people, and as a rule I believe in just kind of leaving people alone. A notable exception is the time that my friend Jelisa and I got to hang with Darrell Hammond while he finished off a pack of cigarettes, but we left him to his own devices when rabid fans began approaching, desperately needing to share the jokes they’d written. Experiences like that taught me that the famous are better left alone, lest the situation become awkward.

So, I said nothing to Wayne. Still, after they left, Brian looked at me and said, "You know, every time someone gives us grief for living in Oklahoma City, I’m going to look them square in the eye and say, ‘Fuck you. Nowhere else would you run into Wayne Coyne while you’re out eating sushi on a Monday night.’" 

Oh, incidentally, the Lips have some great new singles out on the soundtracks of various movies. My favorite is "I Was Zapped By the Super Lucky Rainbow."