On the black sand beaches of Maui, during the trip to Hawaii that Fudge and I took together in January 2000. We were days away from meeting the Jersey Girls. This was a pretty tough year for Fudge--all kinds of weirdness went on. The spillover made waves in a lot of other lives, too. If you had walked up to me on the beach and told me that in a few months, I'd be moving out of the Fort and Fudge and I would go from close pals to distant acquaintances, I wouldn't have believed you.