walk out of the doctors office with one prescription in hand, codeine cough syrup, very lovely, anything sounds good if it will stop the rattling and the feeling that my ribs will soon snap.

head next door to friend's record shop and purchase one black heart procession record (appropriate for the occasion) and one von bondies/soledad bros 7 inch.

wait for the bus. wait in safeway for them to pour the lovely clear pink liquid into a bottle for me, with my name, to call my name. everyone is like the walking dead in safeway. people smell like piss. their teeth are rotting. everyone shuffling, pushing baskets full of nothing but meat, clutching coupons that are falling onto the floor. boys returning michelob light bottles. old ladies trying to cut in front of me in line. i am starting to panic. because i didn't get to take a lunch in order to leave (and haven't eaten all day. to get the lovely pink medicine). because everyone in here is old and dying and sad and i can't get outside fast enough.