Soon, I'll be Mrs. Carrabba. Just don't tell my fiance. I think he'd be jealous.

I feel sorry for boys. I really do. Well, straight boys. Non-emo-loving boys.

See, one of my boyfriends is coming to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh to do an acoustic show. (By boyfriend, I mean "musician who doesn't know I'm alive.") Chris Carrabba. Mrs. Erin Carrabba .... Sigh.

Anyhow, as soon as I heard, I was already thinking about what I was going to wear. Was I going to go? Phhssfft. Not even a question in my mind. Of course I'm going. I have the press release hanging at my desk, as a "reasons to live" incentive.

On the other hand, as soon as one of the guys I hang out with heard, he was already snickering, casting nervous glances back and forth (over e-mail) and saying "I had no idea that you were one of those mopey, sensitive, emo-loving, self-mutilating, coffee-drinking, live-journal-writing, ironic-T-shirt-wearing, air-quote-abusing people."

Well, obviously he doesn't know me very well.

Kidding.

Boys just don't get how we, women, can love someone as -- yes, OK, I'll say it -- emo as Chris Carrabba. Um, hello? He's cute. He's singing about the best night ever, measuring minutes by a clock that's blinking 8s, and screaming infidelities. It doesn't get much more emo than that.

And he's coming to Oshkosh, to sing to me. Just me. Well, that's what everyone who goes will be thinking when they go.

Boys don't get that. Who do they have like that? Christina Aguilera? Hilary Duff? Yeah. They can't go to any of their shows without losing their precious street cred. Girls can like so-called crappy music and go to shows and feel "like, so on the same wavelength" when Chris Carrabba sheds tears during "Hands Down," and not lose any face.

They're so jealous, those boys. They've got Dashboard Confessional T-shirts in their closets, and they're sad they can only wear them under sweaters. Ha.

Chris Carrabba made up my entire junior year of college. I can't separate him from that psychology class I liked, or the linguistics class I went to that one time. He (and The Strokes, and The Killers, etc.) is the Independent Collegian. He was on "constant repeat" when I went to bed. He was my first date with my fiance (ha -- look where that took us), and he was the first 10 minutes on my drive to Wisconsin.

I don't wear a "emo girl" button on my shirt. But if push shoves Chris Carrabba, I'm pushin' back. What's up now, boys?