January 14th, 2000 at 8:14 PM

Fact: today at 4 pm we ate baked beans and ghetto peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while sitting on cinder blocks at the edge of a parking lot, 25 feet from a dumpster and a strip club, staring at a 30-year-old van that doesn't work, waiting for the towing company, as my friend writhed in pain, barefoot in saggy-baggy hospital pants, hoping that the narcotics would kick in.

I'm still smiling...