At 23 I showed up to my sister’s 19th birthday party with a six-pack of shitty beer

I opened one in the kitchen and started drinking it, and my mother looked at me like she wanted to kill me

She said a less cool version of the phrase “You can’t take this life straight, can you?”

I can’t remember what I said in return, maybe just “no” . . . but I do remember getting in my car and driving to a park where I used to hide when I skipped class in high school

And finding an empty picnic table there I drank the rest of those beers way too fast