You loved Shakespeare and Sinead O’Connor. We acted out scenes from Macbeth, Buried Child, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.  You convinced me to dye my hair purple.

In those days, the seventh grade boys of Oak Lawn, Illinois, were expected to get at least to second base if not farther, and if they didn’t then they were marked as the biggest pansy-asses in Simmons Middle School.

In the rain, the dogcarries a dead birdfrom one end of the parking lotto the other.

By three o’clock the dirt field in front of the main stage is the world’s largest convection oven. Nobody’s had water in over an hour. Joe says, “Are we dying?”