Newbies Nest

[Lavande]

Good evening Nesters,

We had a wonderful day, delicious dinner & everyone has gone home except my oldest grandson. He's in a turkey coma, zonked out on the sofa, ha ha!! I guess he'll be fine there overnight.

Mr G, thank you for the beautiful music! Congrats on your awesome 96 AF days, good job!!!

Byrdie, your family is lucky to have you

Wishing everyone a safe & cozy night in the nest!

Lav

[lifechange]

Good day, Nesters!

G-Man. I LOVE 96 days.. what a beautiful song.. and so nice to listen to while reading here. perfect.. thanks for sharing and well done! Looking forward to the 100 day party that's gonna be going on here..

Lady Liberty, Welcome! I hope you'll make yourself cozy here in the Nest and get the support you need to become free.. How are you doing?

Don't have so much to say.. just wanted to check in and say hi! Hi!
See you all later and wishing you all a lovely Friday.. an easy Friday. For anyone lurking or struggling, post, post, post here! Share what's going on, bothering you, stressing you, whatever. I find that posting and connecting with people here is my number 1 "tool" for staying sober.. really!

[Eloise]

And when thinks go wrong you do not second guess as much if somehow you are to blame.
If i had of been drinking, even 1/2 as much as usual, i would have blamed my accident on slow reflexes, alcohol brain.
After 18 months I know this was not the case.
Knda glad I am not blaming myself and feeling guilty.
Rather a good thing to remember!

[LilBit]

Waking up the day after a major holiday feeling great is just amazing. It seems like such a simple thing, but I went so many years without experiencing this sensation that I'm just marveling at it, now.

In years past, yesterday would have been a 2-3 bottle day. I would have approached the holiday with the AL Chip on my shoulder. You know the Chip -- it's the one that says things like, "You've been working so hard lately, you deserve ____." "Your family has to be the most intolerable group of dysfunctional people this side of Jerry Springer, so you deserve____." Here's my favorite: "You've been drinking way less than usual lately, so you deserve ____."

Oh yes, the "you deserves" and overblown holiday expectations would have come calling early and I would have started with "morning drinks" and progressed my way to midday "wine with dinner," followed by the post-party relaxation drinks after everyone left. The worst part is that none of those drinks would have actually made me feel that elusive relaxo-euphoria I was chasing and as the day wore on, a growing and gnawing dread would begin to creep in. By then, my resistance and good judgment would have been out the window so I'd have dealt with the anxiety beast by---well, you guessed it.

Inevitably, I'd have passed out and then awakened at 2-3 am covered in sweat, which I blamed on "female trouble." Then, this morning, I'd have dragged myself out of bed, feeling rather like the lumps in Crazy Ivan's litter box. And the worst part? I'd have started the whole insane routine all over again.

Not today! Not this lucky, blessed, stable, peaceful, happy, energetic LilBit. Here's the kicker, though: none of the outward circumstances in my life have really changed all that much. I still have the same busy job; the same cuckoo family, etc. But I have been transformed. I no longer drink. And that makes all the difference in the world.

[kuya]

Awesome post Lilbit....and so very true.

My favourite time is going to bed sober at the end of a 'party' night knowing how good I will feel tomorrow

[Lavande]

Good Black Friday morning Nesters

Tis the day after Thansksgiving & I'm feeling grateful to be feeling so wonderful. Calm, happy & definitely unhung, ha ha!

I feel so good I'm heading out to Curves to get this day going in the right direction.
Have a wonderful AF Friday ine & all.

Lav

[idefineme]

Mr G, that is some beautiful music! :love: You're a very talented man, and muchas gracias for sharing that talent with us lucky people!

My initial goal was to go 30 days AF for the month of November. I've had a bit of a bumpy start so far and didn't make that goal. But I'm not going to beat myself up for it, like I would in the past. I'm not going to look back with regret. I'm going to stay positive and learn something new from each bad choice I make. I've had a number of day ones this month, but the thing that is different in me, thanks in HUGE part to hanging close here, is that after each bad choice I make, I dust myself off and jump back on for another go. I really think this place is finally starting to rub off on me. I read here every day, and I post something on some thread or another most days.

Yesterday was another Day 1 for me, I hope the LAST day one. I still lack full confidence in myself in doing this, but my confidence is definitely growing and I have MWO and all of you amazingly lovely people to thank. :heartbeat: I know I'll still hit roadblocks and that life won't always be roses and I'll struggle. That's just the way life is for everybody! But what I've seen here is that if we stick together and stay focused and vigilant, we can beat this addiction (I really wanted to swear for that last word, but it wouldn't have been pretty)!

I just want to thank each and every one of you. This place means so much to me, and I look forward to sticking around and making more and stronger connections with the lovelies here. Have an excellent day, everybody! :love:

[abcowboy]

MAE everyone! I post most of the time in the Club and Café and on a few other threads from time to time, anyway the other day I posted in the Café about sobriety being contagious. LC asked if I might post it here as well as she thought the Newbie's might get something from it...

I got to thinking this morning after reading through the threads, sobriety is contagious! Not in the true sense of the word but contagious none the less! Someone asked me about how it was for me when I first joined MWO. I thought about it last night, and this morning again. And I realized, sobriety is contagious!

I don’t think I’ve missed one day of logging in since I’ve joined, not one day! And sure, in the beginning I logged on and said things while I was drinking, even a few times when I was drunk. Those times it was my AV lashing out, trying to keep me away from the place that was going to help rid me of it! But as I kept reading and listening, the idea was planted that I wanted what the long-termers had. If they could do it, so could I. The seed of hope was planted and over the months it grew, till it was no longer hope, but courage, strength, and love. I caught the sobriety bug that some of the members have! And I’m grateful to them for passing it on to me! So if you doubt that this works, read back through my posts since I’ve joined, see where slowly my way of thinking changed and my AV was silenced. The long-termers did it, I did it, and you can do it too!

Hope it helps someone out there who reads it, remember, just keep coming back!

[j-vo]

Good morning!
Great post Lil! I concur, and couldn't have said it better.

Friday morning here, and was up early feeling rested. Turkey day was great, lazy evening. Perfect! Have a good friday.

[Byrdlady]

Morning, all!
I'm off work today! Bwahahah! I am so happy about that! Fixing to decorate for Christmas. I know I seem the type who would like to fuss about and decorate but I dont. I keep my tree decorated from one year to the next, so I just take the plastic off. I believe Christmas tree lights contributed to the demise of my first marriage .......
LilBit, I had to chuckle with your comment about family. Oddly enough, NONE of mine drink, but they are carriers! Instead of Typhoid Mary, we have Hangover Harry! They CAUSE drinking in others! Bah!

So glad to see everyone checking in, did we lose anyone??? Hope everyone has a peaceful day! Byrdie

[NoSugar]

Bill White has written about this, Cowboy. We can all be Recovery Carriers:

http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/2012%20Recovery%20Carriers.pdf

[Mr Vervill]

GMAE all, Feeling good as well, sober Thanksgiving. I was almost taken off guard while out side deep frying a turkey, I was handed a beer when, a newcomer arrived with a twelve back in tow. I just handed it back, saying I'm not ready for one right now, and took my place at the carving station, while everyone else started poring wine, or not. A big gathering, 3 turkeys were cooking, one traditional roasted, one smoked, and one fried!

Great tunes, G, thanks for sharing. The tuning on 96 days reminds me of David Gilmour. Is that you on mandolin as well?

El, how's your thumb doing? So sorry about what's going down in your life right now, but you sound like you're handling it the right way.

Welcome Lady Liberty

[FreeFly]

Evening nesters, think I'll pull up a twig, grab some velcro and hang out here for the weekend if that's ok. Witching hour approaching. Enjoying your posts.

[Pavati]

Hi, all:

Happy UN HUNG day after Thanksgiving.

My story is that I was watching the cook make gravy and just before she took it off the stove she put in a giant glug of wine. Giant. And then took it off the heat. I am sure it would have been fine for me to have, but most certainly it didn't cook long enough for the alcohol to be gone. I LOVE gravy, so this was a catastrophe for me. Fortunately, she realized what she had done and made a "kid's" gravy, so I was saved. Not too dramatic, but dramatic enough as I thought I was going to have to endure dinner with no gravy.

I am so grateful to be awake, alert and ready to face the day - the GSR brothers are gone from my life.

G - FABULOUS music. Thanks so much for sharing.

Happy day after, Nest. A hungry child just woke up and is cooking for himself. I like to supervise for a bit.

Pav

And HI, FreeFly.

[Hypernova]

Well made it through yesterday which to me is a big achievement. Not just b/c it is a day of celebration which always in the past included alcohol but it is a tough time of year. I have lost so many family members to death and some how this time of year just finds me depressed and sad (more so than usual). The family became polarized from all the death and illness and I always tried to hold things together. I pretended to be fine so as not to cause any more pain for my family. Didn't realize how hopeless and destructive this was. I have drank my way through the years to obliterate a good part of the pain. Never really worked through anything. Always thought things would just work out sooner or later. Didn't realize how alcohol was keeping me depressed and anxious. I always thought of it as my silent partner who was always there to help me as I wandered through life with everyone including myself thinking I was fine. I was a controlled drinker. What a scam. Truth is I was just capable of drinking huge amounts of alcohol w/o appearing intoxicated . Now I am making an attempt to face things w/o the use of alcohol. Been here before and failed. Don't know where this leads me but most of the time feel like I am one step away from falling in a hole. I will keep on with my AF plan knowing it will not kill me as alcohol surely will if I allow it to. ~ Tough to look at my repressed pain. ~ Thanks for the opportunity to express myself. Peace to everyone.