Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

DG: I'm actually enjoying being around people who drink normally, because it underscores how wrong, wrong, wrong I drank. And yes, I would have been so unavailable had I been drinking through the whole think in FL.

Just an aside: I was w/a cousin of mine in FL. She was talking about dining out, & that when she does so, she & her boyfriend SHARE a glass of wine. All they want is a taste to go w/the meal. I couldn't get over it...share a glass (not bottle) of wine? Unthinkable to an alcoholic like me.


Mary

[momof3]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

Hello Again to All,

DG and Mary---MA/Cowgal is in the hospital in very serious condition from a deadly mixture of prescription medication and alcohol. There is a Cowgal update in the Introduction and General Discussion area.

And, Mary, I quite agree with you about being around people who drink normally. It amazes me that they can only have 1 or 2 drinks that last a very loooooooong time. How do they do that? I and it seems so very boring so why bother?

But still, I do not allow for any unopened bottle of wine to be in the house. If we have guests over, the bottle gets emptied out at the end of the night. We have some unopened bottles of wine/liquor but I don't feel like those are of danger to me.

DG, I chuckled when I read about the friend of drinking friends who think that AA is for losers. Today, a good friend of mine, who lives across the street from a church, said she was curious what goes on at the church on Tuesday evenings when the parking lot is jammed. She found out it was an AA meeting and was surprised that these folks had such expensive fancy cars! Most folks have a very strong stereotype of what an alcoholic is/looks like!

M3

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

Mom3: I do the same thing w/wine. No unopened bottles at all. Either the guest takes it home or we pour it out. Mary

[Doggygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

retteacher;793921 wrote: Just an aside: I was w/a cousin of mine in FL. She was talking about dining out, & that when she does so, she & her boyfriend SHARE a glass of wine. All they want is a taste to go w/the meal. I couldn't get over it...share a glass (not bottle) of wine? Unthinkable to an alcoholic like me.


Mary

Unthinkable to this alcoholic as well! :H SHARE?? "A" glass of wine??? Never.

M3, the stereotype really is off the mark. Alcohol touches the full cross section of society. Well, and when we stop throwing away our lives and our $$ on AL, I guess we can afford nicer cars, eh?? :H I still cannot believe that a nun is my sponsor, and now becoming a dear friend. (I am not Catholic and have never been a church goer of any kind since childhood!) Recovery makes for strange, but wonderful "bedfellows" I guess!

DG

[momof3]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

DG

I was raised Catholic and I know lots of nuns and former nuns. Nuns rock! You are in good hands.

M3

[cpn1004]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

SHARE A GLASS OF WINE!!!!
What? What is the point of that???
Of course I don't get it.

oh I went to an ALANO Club here in Bakersfield that started in 1948! Isn't that amazing?
I've been to 3 meetings out here, all of them great.
Finally head to Texas tomorrow morning.

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

Getting back into a meeting after my father's death was just what I needed. Last night's meeting was step 6. I was able to share (it's a very large meeting) about finally living an honest, straight-forward life after years of hidden drunkenness. I didn't realize the damage years of lying & subterfuge did to me.

I was also able to share my experience of my father's death & aftermath...finally experiencing something like that completely sober. There was no guilt or shame lurking in the background. I could feel genuine feelings instead of having my drinking & residual anxiety & guilt dominate.


Mary

[Doggygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

Phil - Wow. 1948. Those walls have heard some stories I bet. The club I go to is not over 60 years old, it just seems like it. :H:H (we do our best to keep it up but it's nothing fancy!)

Mary, I bet it felt really good to share your experience, strength and hope at the meeting last night. I bet your words helped others - probably more than you will ever know.

Cowgal has been on my mind a lot since yesterday. I keep thinking about the saying I hear so often around the tables... "I know for sure I have another drunk in me, but I don't know if I have another recovery in me." I hope Cowgal gets another shot at recovery.

I didn't get to the meeting yesterday due to ice and never go on Friday due to other business stuff. I am not tempted to drink at all, but I miss the fellowship. I'm looking forward to Big Book Study in the morning. I might also go to a meeting tomorrow night as one of my friends is the speaker. He has been sober 16 years and has been speaker many times at open speaker meetings. But his wife has never heard him speak. She is planning to be there tomorrow night! He is very involved in the maintenance of the Alano Club and "keeping the doors open" and she is very involved in Alanon there. I'm sure attendance will be high and there probably won't be a dry eye in the house. I feel a need to stay close to my program right now, and remember how precious my life and my sobriety are. And how easily ONE lapse in judgement under the influence can change everything.

Love to you my friends,

DG

[dancelot]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

Hi, everyone -

I have made 4 meetings this week, and get so much positive from each one. With what's going on with Cowgal, I am grateful to have live people to talk to. Interestingly, someone brought up their overwhelming feelings of depression and despair that came on at certain points early in their sobriety. This individual was kind enough to have a conversation with me after the meeting, and that meant a lot.

Being able to share our fears live and in person with understanding people who know what we're going through, is invaluable. I do love the support we all find at MWO, but something about live people is even better. Someone on another thread was talking about this - she couldn't really openly discuss the effect it was having on her (other than with her husband) and really felt she needed to.

I kind of feel about AA like it's having a good solid floor under me that hasn't always been there. Now even if the rug is pulled out from under me, I'll still be standing. I'm not likely to drop 5 floors or end up in the basement.

Oky - I'm glad you are back on track. I'm glad there is a way, and supportive folks to help get you there. It gives me hope should that ever happen to me.

Mary - I'm glad you made it through sober and strong. After both my parents deaths I know I drank a lot (not that I didn't anyway). That's a pretty strong test, probably the strongest in my opinion.

Also, what is the Alano Club?

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Jan. 17 to Jan. 23

I do love MWO. I came here in Apr. 07 & didn't even know I was an alcoholic. I just knew my drinking was a problem that I couldn't solve myself. I also began a series of abstinent periods through MWO that made me realize that I NEEDED to stop drinking. However, all those abstinent periods came to end end, & I couldn't understand why. Then I hit bottom

Joining AA has been the single most important thing I've done in my adult life. I needed to get sober & needed a community, a fellowship to support me in that endeavor. I'm still working on solidifying my connections w/the people in AA. I know that I must continue to work the 12 steps in order to stay sober today & all the todays to come. Drinking is not an option for me. I have to keep sobriety as my #1 priority in life, because nothing else will work out for me wo/it.

Tonight I went to my regular Fri. night BB meeting. It was so great seeing my friends: all those tough guys who treat me w/such respect. It's incredibly heart-warming.

Mary