"Hey, buddy! You like The Dead?"

I looked up. A tall, lanky black man with an itty bitty ponytail and an untucked white collared shirt was standing in front of me.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Your shirt, man!"

I looked down and remembered I wore my tie-dyed Alice in Wonderland shirt for the big day.

"Oh, yeah."

He made some more small talk, called me "buddy" a lot, and then finally popped the question.

"Say, buddy, you wanna buy some weed?"

My brain raced. I had money. I was in San Francisco. I was on a freedom binge. I looked up and said one of the stupidest things of my entire life.

"Sure!"