DJ Pileggi

San Francisco 2010, my father and my brothers came to visit and we dined at a restaurant with fancy things like charcuterie, and we all ordered cocktails because we all drank then and before the end of the meal I snuck off and paid the $500 bill with my student loans, and my dad seemed pissed, and my brothers said “Thanks,” and it’s 2021, and my dad’s dead and my loans aren’t paid off, so I’m paying 6.5% interest on our dinner like it never ended and he never died and we’re all still there adding to the bill, laughing.

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DJ Pileggi is a father and a writer in recovery. He has been paid both to dose antibiotics for septic shock, as well as install cast iron plumbing at Harvard University, in that order. He grew up outside of Chicago, has lived on both coasts, and currently resides in Massachusetts.