Under the Broadway Bridge: Part One

I came to my first closed meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous because I didn't want to die drunk. That was on September 29, 1987, the day of my thirty-fifth birthday. I was 6" 2" and weighted 140 pounds. My eyes were red, and I couldn't control when or where I went to the bathroom. I was wearing all the clothes I owned: jeans with holes in the knees, a T-shirt that had once been white, a jean jacket, and running shoes with holes in the bottom. I didn't own socks or underwear.