(Editor’s Note: Without much to say at the moment—been putting together the new apartment in anticipation of the numerous visitors arriving, beginning this weekend—I thought I’d just recount this story from my commute the other day. I’d thought of using it as the beginning to a story, and still might, but for the moment, this will do.)

I was jammed into the eastern bay doors of a northbound blue line train, reading. It’s standard practice. Evening commute, the train gets so packed that you just lean against the door and read your book and about 10 people crush against you and there’s not much you can do about it. Public transportation is a wonderful thing, and you can’t complain that everyone wants to use it.

So I’m reading for a good 15 minutes with this guy standing right next to me. There’s room between us, I’d guess about a foot or so (not good at judging distances, even small ones). He’s probably 40 and looks like an engineer, listening to his iPod, which makes me wonder if I’m the last person on earth who has no desire for one. And this guy, with whom I’ve shared this space for 15 minutes with no change in position or posture, suddenly looks me in the eye and shouts:

“Hey, hey hey! (Points at my book) That’s pretty close to my eye!”

I look down at my book, and while I’m not good at judging distances, I’d say it’s a solid two feet from his face, and not in any danger of suddenly shooting out of my hands and into his eye. It’s just not that type of book.

So I say, “Okay,” and move it to the other side of my body, another 18 inches or so away from his eye. Another minute passes. I can feel him staring at me out of his precious eye. Finally I give in and look at him.

“You know!” he yells. “Safety!”

“I get it!” I say, trying not to get into a shouting match with this guy over book vs. eye safety. And then I look down and see two teenagers giggling at the crazy nerds getting into a shouting match over book vs. eye safety and realize that the battle is already lost.

I was hoping that the month of July was going to be a breeze. It hasn’t been. Here’s some stuff that’s been going on, bulleted because no one wants to read about all of these things in detail:

• My move from Wicker Park to Logan Square is in media res. I’ve been trying to make it as affordable and green as possible, so I’ve been moving via iGo car share, both for transporting stuff from my apartment to the new place and running various Craiglist errands. That’s the green side. The affordable side is that I’m doing the move largely after midnight but before 6am, because the car I use is free then. By the time the move is all done, I will have done about 95% of it by myself, via car sharing and after midnight. I was up until 4am this morning moving. I’m an idiot savant.

• I sold off my beloved Dipsy Doodle pinball machine, the first piece of “furniture” I bought in Chicago. Parting was such sweet sorrow.

• I have almost the entire tour booked at this point. Looks like there are just two or three holes left to fill. If you’re in Montreal, Baltimore or Chapel Hill and you want to hang out, shoot me an e-mail about a good place to read in your town. We will hang out there.

• I saw Jim Munroe the other day, which is always nice and inspiring.

• Printers’ Ball is tonight. If you haven’t seen it, check out the website. You can download the program there, which is designed as a Featherproof mini-book and contains the first half of the second story in Hiding Out, “Bicycle Kick.”

• “After Another Bomb Dropped” was recorded for Chicago Public Radio’s Vocalo.

• Lots of stuff over at the Time Out Chicago Books section.

• Paul Hornschemeier challenged me to a fight. I hope his mother doesn’t love him, because he’s going to get ended.

• Actually, I didn’t mean that. Check it out: He’s profiled in the Trib and Spin in the same week for different things. Everything’s coming up Hornschemeier. Including pregnancy tests, from what I hear.

• See you at the Printers’ Ball tonight, maybe? Free hand-screened featherproof tees, after all.

I have a story up on the Same Title, Different Story podcast today in the “To Have and Have Not” category. This is a slightly modified version of the story “Winged Attack” that’ll be in Hiding Out come October. There’s some cool stuff on Same Title, Different Story. I particularly recommend Ed Illades’ “Time Lords” contribution.

Been busy this last week, working with Molly, our new Featherproof publicist, rolling out the big campaign. And I’ve been working hard on booking an East Coast Hiding Out tour, which has to be the least fun aspect of running a press. Feels very much like being a sales guy.

I figured I’d give a shout-out to a few who have made my life easier by being so nice, welcoming and agreeable to my demands:

• Suzanne at Mac’s Backs in Cleveland
• Larry at Robin’s in Philadelphia
• Jennifer up in Ottawa
• Sara at Lorem Ipsum Books in Cambridge (I likely won’t be reading there, but Sara graciously chatted with me for a while about better venues)

And finally, on a lighter note, check out the blog started by my pal Abraham’s band, Baby Teeth. They’re recording a demo a week for a year. The first two are up now, and I dig them both. A few of you who are Dollar Store regulars may know Abe as the new co-host/house band, and know he’s pretty much the most talented man with whom you’ve shared a room.

Today, Featherproof takes the “fine” out of the great fine arts podcast Bad at Sports. Two of the Bad Athletes stopped by our Printers Row table for an interview. We had a blast.

We start up around 36 minutes in, but I recommend listening to the whole thing, the interview with photographer Jeff Wall is fairly badass:

Give it a listen.