AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

[retteacher]

Hi Everyone:

I hope all is well. I've been doing fine, keeping busy & staying abs. We haven't had any social events during the recent past but do have a few coming up. I KNOW I must be on my guard. I'll read the toolbox thread, & I have some literature here at home that gives strategies. I actually know all the strategies. I must just use them.

My alcoholism is coming out a little at a time as I go to AA meetings. It is a huge relief to me, as I kept it a deep, dark secret for so long. "You're only as sick as your secrets" is a truism that definitely applies to me. I can see now that when I began drinking alone, that was the end of my social drinking & the beginning of my alcoholic drinking.

I'm almost grateful for that awful incident in February for bringing the whole thing out in the open.

Love, Mary

[Kirova]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Mary, you are so wise...so strong...and so right! Looking back, I too can see that drinking alone led to my down spiral. That deep dark secret overshadows so much good. Everything out in the open lets the sun in. I don't mean to talk in metaphors, but dang -- the sun is shining and I'm up for a great day. Hope you all are, too! :h

[retteacher]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Kirova: I don't feel very wise. And, I'm still struggling w/drinking thoughts, but I'm working through them. I think that the AA meetings help, because I can't go under the influence. The AA members would know instantaneously! Today, I'm going to really focus on the gratitude I feel for my sobriety. I've had so many awful incidents that it's not something to take for granted. Mary

[retteacher]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Kirova: Thank you for your kind words. M

[Kirova]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

That's what I mean about being wise, Mary...I know you're struggling, but you recognize your situation for what it is and you ARE working through it. And so many have benefited (myself included) from your insights and outreach. Thank you.

[Cinders]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Good Morning Mary, Kirova and all to come,

I had my headache yesterday and ended up just giving up at 6:30 last night and went to bed. I slept until 6:00 a.m. Unheard of for me!!

I have to hustle this morning and get dressed. I have a 10:00 a.m. meeting.

Love to all and I hope today brings happiness!!
Cindi

[retteacher]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Cindi: You did what you needed to do last night. Your body was telling you something...you must have needed those almost 12 hours of sleep. Think about how awful you'd feel today if you had put an alcoholic remedy on that headache. Be grateful you didn't do that. I hope you have a wonderful meeting. Around here, the AM meetings are at 7 AM, which is way too early for a night person like me. I'll go tonight. Love, Mary

[Tom 4.0]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Welcome to the Weekend everyone!

Belated Happy Birthday! to Ms Doggy! Thanks for all you bring to our little Band of Abbers. Prayers and Best Wishes to you. :h

Yes, age is just a number recording the passing of time; right NOW and sober, I feel younger than I did at 29 and pickled.

[spedteach]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Good morning everyone. Day 8 for me. Its 8 in the morning and I've had way too much coffee! But getting ready to get going and start my weekend. Go for a walk/run. Go to a meeting at noon. I'm going to 2 meetings a day, these days. Mary, you're right. It keeps me sober, I won't drink if I know I have to show up at a meeting. Plus isolation is the kiss of death/addiction for me. I've been away from people in a closet with my drugs and al for years. It's scary for me to go to meetings but I know it's gonna help and that I'll feel better afterwards.
Love and happy Saturday to all,
spedteach

[Mohun]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Good morning everyone. Happy hangover free Saturday.

A close call for me last night. My FIL and I were renovating my kitchen. A lot of hard work. Then we put some steak on the BBQ and had a great dinner. Everyone else had wine and liquor. It was one of those situations where I felt like I deserved a drink for all of my hard work. Anyway, the feeling passed and I didn't drink.

Lots of work ahead today. Time to prune the fruit trees.

Good luck to all today. :goodjob:

Mo.

[spedteach]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Mohun,
I'm spedteach, on day 8. Just wanted to congratulate you. After a hard day's work, you got exactly what you deserve...to go to bed sober, wake up hang over free and ready to go at those fruit trees. I used to always say I worked so hard, I deserve a drink. Now I realize I'm worth way more than that. Plus ONE drink was never just ONE drink..a thousand never enough.
Good luck with those trees.
spedteach

[Doggygirl]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Good morning Ablanders! Mary, thank you for starting us off today - and with some very wise words. I love your honesty. No matter what you tried to hide about drinking in your "3D" life, you have always told the truth here. It must feel SO liberating to be expanding your truth into the world around you at home. "You are only as sick as your secrets." I LOVE THAT! Haven't heard that one before and it's a keeper.

Kirova, I'm with you and Mary that drinking alone was a HUGE sign of the depth of my alcohol problem. And when I really think about it, I was more than ready to drink alone pretty early in my life. When I was a sophmore in college, there were times when I would go to "happy hour" early - well before my friends were ready to go. I would bring books with me and sit at a table alone and drink and "study" until my friends arrived. Then I would just put away the books and carry on with the drinking. I was at NIU at the time living out on Greek row (in a Greek row poor house LOL!). I believe it was the Red Lion Inn - the nearest bar at that time. Wonder if it's still there.

Cinders, like Mary said I think it's great that you listened to your body and gave it a bunch of rest. I've thought about that sort of thing and I think I got into a HUGE habit of *fighting* my body, mainly by pushing through hangovers every day. So *fighting* my body just became normal and I would reject rest all the time. No wonder I looked like such crap on my 29th birthday last year!

Tom3.1, thank you SO much for the birthday wishes!! I completely and totally agree. 29 and sober feels SO much better than 29 and pickled like last year.

spedteach, congrats on Day 8!!! :yougo::yougo: That deserves TWO cheerleaders from my smilie ration. (OK, 3) I am glad you are getting out there amongst the land of the living instead of sitting home alone. That is another big benefit I'm getting from AA meetings. Any social type stuff I've done before usually means there is also the ever present danger of alcohol, so I can never really relax if I go at all. After about 5 weeks of going to AA every day, I'm getting pretty comfortable with a lot of the people and I enjoy being in their company each day, and I'm also looking forward to some upcoming social activites. This is quite an ecclectic bunch and I'm guessing they will be a hoot - no buzz required.

Mo!!! :yougo::yougo: congrats for resisting temptation last night! (you get the remains of my smilie rations!!) I'm sure that wasn't easy, especially when you were not in a position to "leave early" which is a very important strategy in my bag of tricks. When I can't, it's stressful. Have fun with tree pruning today!

I hope I got everyone! And hello to all yet to come - TG, Marshy, Sausage, LVT, AFM and the WHOLE gang. I hope you are all out having a good day.

I've been to AA and Curves and the grocery store already, and now I'm getting ready to leave to go to the farm where I bought a Community Support Agriculture share for produce this year. We are meeting to do field cleanup and prep for planting. I hope I can learn a lot this summer that will help me with whatever gardening things I'm brave enough to try at home this year. I am happy and grateful to be sober and "unhung" today. And I'm happy to *see* all of you here.

Have a wonderful day!

DG

[speedster]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Happy Spring Day! It's lovely out. So happy to see trees showing buds and flowers blooming.

I need to have some down time this weekend. I have a big week ahead of me and feel vulnerable when stressed. Being AF is the only way to handle stress but thoughts of AL rise up when I'm stressed.

Mohun -- High Five, man! You can wake up in the morning and enjoy that remodeled kitchen hangover free! How's that adorable pup doing? Growing like a weed?

TG - good to see you posting. You sound like your making good progress.

Hello to all that follow. I'm going to go chill out.

[Doggygirl]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

Hi speedster! Yes - get some rest and de-stress. I probably missed a post along the way so I'm sorry if you posted and I missed it. But how did the agility trial go? I hope you had tons of fun and doing well would just be icing on the cake. In our dog sport our trainer always says "keep smiling at your dog even if you don't pass the trial. The dogs don't know if they passed or failed - only if YOU are happy with their work. And if you failed, it's your fault anyway not the dog's." (if you train under him, you don't enter any trials unless he is sure you are ready)

My back will be a hurtin' tomorrow after pulling out all the dead stuff from the field at the CSA today. It's amazing how fast that work goes though with that many people there. Funny - it's just like Curves. Some people exercise their muscles and some people exercise their mouths. :H Can't WAIT for garden fress stuff!

DG

[Miss Behaving]

AF Daily - Sat. - March 21

hi to my ab-friends!

having a lovely (sunday) morning here ... Uncle Mame is out doing something for one of his clients and I have the house to myself which has been a bit rare over recent times! I've been out for a walk, made some vegetable soup, cleaned out the office and just been catching up on some posts from the week.

So nice to hear everyone feeling spring-like!

Mo - great stuff on your resolve!

Cinders - I think of you often. So glad you got a good sleep and hope you schedule in many more of them. I've been incredibly lucky to have been sleeping really well ......... it is so healing!! So I hope you get lots more.

DG - interested in your community agriculture scheme .... how does it work? Community land and sweat equity? (these may be local terms, but you know what I mean?) There is a Transition Town (google it!) initiative locally which I have got really interested in, but it seems like a big commitment. Realistically I know that I cant expect to benefit without putting something in .... but my past experience is that I start out enthusiastic and then it wanes a little ... and then I feel guilty!

mary, tom, TG, sausage, A4M, LVT, speedster, spedteach, hulagirl, kirova ..... and anyone else who might be lurking :wavin:

Got to go and clean out the garage ....... The Archies (kitten litter) are ready to be adopted out and so time to get them all ready and recover ping-pong balls from behind the nooks and crannies that they have been sent into! We have had to seperate them from Sugar (mum cat) over the last 2 days ....... she is having surgery this week and is on a very restricted diet. Poor old puss has had a terrible life - it has become clear that her blindness is from a relatively recent injury (probably a kick to the head) and also that she probably has a number of other neurological problems (we have had lots of behavioural issues!)

Must go!