He was sitting on a street corner smoking a cigarette, with a few possessions at his feet. He asked me for some change and I told him about the $2 Portrait project. He perked up, smiled (revealing a lot of missing teeth) and readily agreed. He chuckled and said his old joke is that his name is Two Dollar Bill and he always comes up a dollar short. <br><br>Marcus is 57 years old and is from Santa Rosa, CA. He&#39;s been in San Diego since 2004; the penal system brought him here. Said he got strung out on rock cocaine and spent 30 months in prison. He&#39;s now out on parole and is trying to stay clean. He said San Diego is a nice place to be so he hasn&#39;t left. I asked him what kind of work he used to do and he seemed very proud that he&#39;s a certified botanist and horticulturist with over 3000 hours of some type of training. When I then asked him if he&#39;s tried to find work in his field, he said &quot;… can&#39;t start a new career at my age and besides who&#39;s going to hire me…I messed around with drugs too long…&quot;.<br><br>Really being out of $2 Portrait practice, I failed to ask him about family and other storylines I like to explore. I gave Marcus $2 and wished him good luck. He thanked me and said now he can get some breakfast.<br><br>Taken 4/29/12 in the San Diego Gaslamp area.