Newbies Nest

[Byrdlady]

Re: Newbies Nest

Slo, then don’t go. If it’s going to be a booze fest, bow out of it. If I were on a strict diet, I sure would not go to an all you can eat buffet where I would be miserable and resentful. The show will go on. This was something that was difficult for me, I thought EVERYONE would be disappointed if I didn’t go...well guess what, they weren’t. .
Now, lets think about gratitude for a second....if you are like me, you are very proud of your quit. We have a lot to be proud of! AL is poison to us. It’s poison to everyone. There will always be people who can do things I can’t. Accepting that goes a long way in every aspect of my life.
Dont give way, we are fighting for our lives. AL is out to kill us. It’s the people and experiences in life that give it meaning, not what’s in our glass.
Stay strong, no matter what and no matter who. Byrdie

[Slo]

Re: Newbies Nest

Thanks, Byrdie. Thanks for your truth-filled pep talk. I’m feeling more ready now. But, I’ve decided to take my own car and get there an hour later; miss most of “happy hour” that way.

[available]

Re: Newbies Nest

Morning nesters

Happy easter to everyone, No chocolate passed these lips, i had enough crap food for my birthday.

Slo, i used to dread those gatherings but you have done so much sober, whats one more event to get through and to come out sober the next day. You are so close to a year now, nothing or no one is worth drinking at or for. Im sure you will be fine.

Yesterday i had a neck and shoulder massage so now i am sore from that and the gym. who would have thought getting fit could be so painful. I know it will get better. 3 weeks no smokes and feeling great. Its amazing what a change of attitude can do.

Terrible news about the bombings in Sri Lanka, the world is a scary place.

Take care xxx

[KENSHO]

Re: Newbies Nest

Happy bday LAV!! Hope it was lovely! A neck and shoulder massage sounds divine! Way to go on 3 weeks!!!

PAV, I admire your service commitment so much. That’s missing from my life - must get more involved in helping others.

Slo, we went to my step-sister’s today. Long history and weird feelings there too. No one offered me a drink - I think someone said something before we arrived. Not a bad mid-day. I hope your visit was good as well, and that you avoided most of the alcohol craziness.

I’m sitting down to do some billing on Sunday. Not my favorite thing, but I’ll feel so good if I can get it done - so that’s what I’m focusing on - how good it will feel!

Chocolate was definitely my friend today. I’ve found some great dairy-free, GF cocoa-treats, and they are a better reward than alcohol ever was!

To a brand new week…

[Guitarista]

Re: Newbies Nest

Hola friends,

Friend Kensho, GF dairy free chocolate! yes, i may've found some without sugar overload....i.e. stevia. Bought a bar, haven't tried it yet. Dark choc is milk free i'm told?

Slo, arrive late. good job - exit plan! Arrive late, leave early with our own transport. We have control. Or, as Byrdy suggests - don't go, coz the world won't stop. Hope you're ok there. I will ruthlessly leave early after slugging it out at such events for at least an hour. I try to stay for say at least 2 hrs. I also try to turn it into an interesting time where possible.

Hope all are having a relaxing weekend. Noice day off here at last after a super busy (for me) but pleasurable week of day work and night gigs.

[Lavande]

Re: Newbies Nest

Happy Easter Nesters!

We had a beautiful day, blue skies, no rain, awesome. My son & his family came over for dinner, that was fun. I don't offer alcohol to anyone anymore so they know to bring it if they want it, LOL. I still haven't broken my vow of 10 years to never step foot in a state store again (we still have state stores here in PA).

I had a bit of dairy free chocolate myself today & it was good We actually have a Swiss chocolatier here in our tiny town & he makes awesome dark chocolate, yum.

I hope everyone survived their holiday gatherings. They get easier as you go along, promise!

Wishing everyone a safe night in the nest!

Lav

[New Sunrise]

Re: Newbies Nest

Good Morning All!

Slo, I hope that your Easter went well. I know that during my last quit no body really noticed when I didn't drink but they were not family. I am lucky that my ex's family did not drink in the open and so family events were always sobering, I mean sober ones.

This was a nice Easter for daughter and I, though we missed hubby terribly. I didn't fix a lot and it was all what the two of us liked, I mean the 3 of us. Our kitty enjoyed his first Easter with us! We got it at a rescue shelter last Sept. and I don't know where he really came from but it has taken him a long time to fully adopt us. He picked hubby and then became almost imprinted on daughter with hubby traveling so much. I am not a bad person now either. I do control his food choices. He got half a can of tuna for breakfast, aka kitty crack. Then I fixed a small turkey breast for my daughter and I, he has discover that turkey is almost as good as tuna. We sat down and ate and he sat next to hubby's chair and ate his slice of turkey, hubby is always the first to feed him from the table. He did realize that hubby was not with us and got sad, really he did! He started looking for hubby in the living room, in his office and then settled on top of hubby's suit case in our room. We have a bench that holds a large suit case and a small one, depending on how long his trip will be and our baby just laid on the small one all night. He is part of our family now.

The good thing about Easter was no wine at the table. We sat down with our ice teas and for a moment it hit me, a holiday meal and no wine! It was kind of a cool feeling. I am getting there! I really am.

Tomorrow is my doc appt. Physical time. I have not dropped the weight that I have hoped to drop, but it is what it is. I am slowing down on the sugar, so that is good. Sugar has helped me get through some hard moments in these past weeks so I am not going to feel too bad about the weight.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

[wagmor]

Re: Newbies Nest

Slo - hope your family gathering went better than expected. Great job developing a plan for your own success though - a lot of us have found that driving ourselves, arriving late, leaving early are all things that can help preserve a quit and also just make it more tolerable to put in an appearance.

Sunrise - hope the physical goes/went well!

Ava - happy belated birthday! Sounds like a lovely day with your kids. And yes, getting back in shape helps you find muscles (through aching) that you didn't remember you had.

Nar - sorry the job didn't pan out but surely something better will come along. Sounds like you're in a good head space with all of that.

LC - special hellos to you friend. Thinking of you and miss you :heartbeat:


Hellos and waves to everyone stopping by the nest today. Hope your weeks start off wonderfully!

[Pavati]

Re: Newbies Nest

Hi, All:

Sounds like everyone survived... SLO, I know that feeling so well. I dread "having" to go to certain parties. I say no more often, and I always have my own transportation. One time I made the mistake of not taking my own car, and an hour away from home I had to stick around at a brew pub after a work event. I was feeling pretty down, and I remember going into the bathroom and contacting some friends here to talk me through it. I do think conjuring gratitude, no matter how trite that may seem, really helps. I hope it all went ok.

Lav, that is a feat to stay out of the state store for 10 years. My husband drinks, so we always have something, although wine drinkers are on their own... I try not to buy it, but I have. I will eternally be working toward developing a stronger Lav-ittude.

Ava - I am inspired by your gym workouts.

I didn't get enough sleep this weekend - I feel puffy from too much food (more savory carbs than sugar, but plenty of that, too - I made a cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream). The weather is nice now, so I hope I can get out to walk after work more. I also have a pile (a high pile) of work to do this week, and I don't really count enough hours to be able to get it done. We'll see... I AM grateful for actually having a job that I love (most of the time), and for the beautiful weather we had this weekend.

Ok, enough rambling. Happy UN HUNG Monday,

Pav

[Slo]

Re: Newbies Nest

Thanks for your stories & strategies, everyone. It helps to know that you all can sometimes find it difficult to cope in these situations too, and need to use protective strategies as well. I just...needed a quick way to relax yesterday, but knew I couldn’t use that quick easy way that everyone else could. Turns out I blew it all out of proportion: it ended up being a very small gathering of only a dozen people, and, get this: five of us weren’t drinking! -one underage one and three seniors plus me. And no wine was even opened, which is so completely unusual there! So just gin & tonics with no fancy fixings and some beer. I did have NA beer, and indulged in the amaretto cake, which gave me that dangerous “Ah, this is what I’m missing!” feeling.

My scalloped pineapple dish was a big hit! Thanks, No Sugar! Although the example recipe that NoSugar posted calls for way, way too much sugar (oh the irony!), and it was plenty sweet with half that amount.

New Sun, your story of your kitty was so very sweet! And it inspires me to share tuna & turkey with our cat more often. And that’s cool how you got involved with your new community and hosted an Easter egg hunt! Fun -if you can ignore the “competing women” aspect of it! The teacher in you probably loved being around all the kids again.

Lav, did your son BYOB to Easter? Do the grandsons hunt for candy eggs in the yard, or are they feeling too old for that?

Kensho, hope you got into the flow with your billing and it went more smoothly than expected.
Good luck with your heavy workload this week, Pav.
Happy Monday to all! (Unless it’s already Tuesday where you are!)

[narilly]

Re: Newbies Nest

Happy Easter everyone.

Yeah Pav, that is great you love your job. Not a lot of people can say that.
I ate way too much yesterday and had 2 pieces of carrot cake. I eat sugar like an alike, I swear it effects me the same way as alcohol. Once I start it’s hard to stop.
That scalloped pineapple dish sounds so good. New Sunrise, I bet you will be making that again.

Thanks for the good wishes on the job front.

Have a great sober day.

[Lavande]

Re: Newbies Nest

Good evening Nesters,

We had another beautiful dry day here, I'm grateful. I actually got out & planted my butterfly garden, a collection of 3 different seeds that produce lots of interest for our pollinator friends. Next is the hummingbird garden, same deal with 3 different flower seeds. I'm waiting for someone to till up a spot for me, haha! I'm way too chicken to mess around with motorized sharp objects

Slo, glad everything went OK for you. We do tend to overinflate those situations but that's normal I guess.
My son will usually bring beer over for a cookout, otherwise he drinks water & coffee for the most part. So we had a completely AF Easter meal.

Pav, my husband only drinks beer & very little of it any more. He probably has some in his garage fridge but I never go in there, Lol
I tried to not eat too much this weekend but I can't swear I was successful, haha!

Hello to wags, New Sunrise, Narilly & everyone!

Wishing a safe night in the nest for everyone.
Lav

[lifechange]

Re: Newbies Nest

Good Morning Nesters,
it's been quite a struggle for me to get back here. I started reading back a couple days ago and appreciate so much all of the friendship and love sent my way. I know that I don't have to be perfect to post or to be part of this group, but for me, I have to have the will to be sober. I have to think that I can and I have to want it. After weeks of promising myself, I got a good day one in yesterday because I really wanted it. It was hard which is what I've been afraid of.. failing again, letting myself down again. But my mind was/is in the right place and I could fight for it.. locked myself in the flat. My strong intent today is not to drink no matter what and no matter who. Thank you.:hug:

[lifechange]

Re: Newbies Nest

p.s. Kensho (and Lav).. yesterday morning I remembered I had the MWO hypno cd's and listened to the clearing one.. it was nice. I had listened to one a couple of months ago online that I also liked.. a good way to relax.xx

[Guitarista]

Re: Newbies Nest

Yay! Good to see you LC. Take care of yourself my friend.

I'm just trying to finalise my airfares/prices/destinations within budget. Bloody PITA! But what a problem to have eh? Got a few days off at last so i can chill and get a few things done. Big waves to evabody.