ODAT - Saturday

[universal]

Well......

I had a hell of a week.......which seems to be common for me this January......

Over 100 people got laid off at my company - apparently I'm safe (for now........) hope that lasts........they are apparently going to do another round in April.

Kind of crazy, did not do so well on the AF front, only one Af day this week. I am committed to an AF february though, my friend who I know i can tell anything to and who will support me is coming down next weekend, so that will help.

Hope all my ODATERS are doing well, love you guys.
Uni

[Blanchieboo]

ODAT - Saturday

I did not have a good week either. I am commited to AF today and I will take it one day at a time from there.
Happy Saturday all you ODATERS!

[rustop61]

ODAT - Saturday

Hi ODAT'rs

Wow Uni, you are really having a hard time. It never rains but it pours. Remember though we are striving for progress not perfection. We are all doing better than before joining MWO so keep going ODAT.

Have a great week-end everyone

Rustop

[Captnjack]

ODAT - Saturday

Shit uni hope things work out and thinking of you . Me BLAAA I got the X and lucy visiting me on the boat for a sail tommorrow. cleaning up the size of a six foot cell should be easy working out how not to go to jail while I convince lucy the only way to get that fish ( shark) is to dangel mummy over the side ( ONLY joshin not serious ok!!!!!!) on a serious note I have been invited back to the house and we shall begin counselling again I have agreeded to this but I think the jigg is up !!!! a few days in a semi leaky boat has a way of focusing the mind!!!!! All the best to those to come and have passed
Love Cap

[dill]

ODAT - Saturday

Cap, I sure hope things work out for you and your family. Counselling is a good step.
Uni, Rusty, Blanchie, I blew it yesterday, on day 4, yet again. I'm disgusted and angry with myself. But, all I can do is get back at it today. Today will be AF for me. I hope the same for all of you.
All to come: Have a great AF day!

[greeneyes]

ODAT - Saturday

ODATERS!!!!

Hi uni, blanchi, dill, rustop. all to come!

Todayis a good day to be AF! Just think, Today and tomorrow AF and you'll be feeling rarin' to go on Monday! Finish off January AF! Keep making progress.

Uni, the job security thing is a fright, is it not? Mine is REAL insecure. Ugh!

Capt'n, where'd your post go? I didn't see it but apparently you were here. Are you OK? I missed you lately & know you've been down a bit after moving out. What's up?

Everybody have a good day!

[universal]

ODAT - Saturday

Yes Rustop - you are right.........progress, not perfection - thanks for that reminder, made me feel better this morning.

Off to go house hunting with the BF! maybe not the best idea when economic times are tough but I'm still pretty darn happy about it....

[savon19]

ODAT - Saturday

WOW - Apparently I'm not the only one who didn't do too well this week! Must've been something in the stars or something...

I mentioned this new boyfriend (who lives 3 hrs. away & who I went to Disney w/on my BD on Mon.)... well, he's coming here tomorrow - and I KNOW I'll drink with him. Mainly because I'm still in the "nervous" stage with him. (Yes, I'm like a little schoolgirl about him... :H)

So I guess my goal will be to drink Just to be relaxed - NOT drunk!!

Not that we will be drinking the whole time he's here - we're planning to do a lot of things together. Probably mainly that first night...

[time2live]

ODAT - Saturday

Hi all,
Just had my first alcohol free night last night and am going to try to do this one day at a time. I had six days alcohol free in November but slipped up and it's taken me this long to get my resolve up again. Last time I was over-confident I think, and I didn't post or come on this site very often. I'm not going to let that happen this time.
This site is so great in that a person can be completely honest and know that others understand. I can be totally honest and I will be. Here's to a good weekend for all of us.

[ProjectileVomit]

ODAT - Saturday

Not a bad effort from me today I thought. 1 beer! Is it cheating to call that an AF day? :P

[KateH1]

ODAT - Saturday

AF is "no alcohol"...we can call it anything we want, of course, but one of the most important steps in truly beating this thing is honesty, it begins with honesty with ourselves.

The thing about alcohol, is that everytime we pick up a glass, even after a few days AF, our urges and cravings go back to square one! It really sucks, but that is how it is. Drinking prolongs the agoning of quitting. When I first came here, I would go a few days, perhaps a week without AL...then have a couple of drinks, or a bottle of wine and find myself right back where I started, depressed, worn out, hopeless etc etc etc.....it was agony. It also seems that everytime we give ourselves permission to drink, we take away a little more of our resolve.

This may sound crazy....but, after many false starts.......I finally set a quit date......then, I decided that until that date, I would drink anytime that I wanted to...anytime that the old excuses came up....too much stress, too much joy....etc etc etc......On my quit date, I stopped....no trumped up reasons and no excuses. Guess What! It worked!

I truly hope that you all find your way out!

[Boss.man]

ODAT - Saturday

House hunting is so much fun. I moved back to Portland seven years ago, and after living here a couple years, and getting a new relationship I decided to sell my Southern Oregon house 300 miles away and buy one here. The old house was in a rural town where average time on the market was often 100-300 days, so I knew it would take some time. So we got to look at houses, and look, and look. We started by choosing a neighborhood. Then every Sunday would walk through 8-10 open houses, often a 2-3 mile walk to see them. It was our Sunday exercise combined with seeing what is available.

What we got over a bit was an eclectic list; I like one thing, my fiance like another. My fiance wanted a front porch to sit on in the summer, I wanted enough yard so we didn't look into a neighbor window from the side. We wanted quirky nooks to read in and write in, which we learned defined a house pre 1915 because after that time houses became more "efficient" and have fewer window benches, cupolas, bay windows and other quirky spots.

One day I got an offer on my Southern Oregon house, and so I hit the lists with renewed energy. The next day I found a house -outside our area- that fit the lists. We went to see it. It had everything on our list, but DOUBLE! Two front porches, 6 quirky spots, the biggest lot in the neighborhood, and three more bedrooms than we needed. It had cosmetics problems and the neighborhood was lower price, so the price was just barely within our reach. We bought it, and we've enjoyed our place five years now. My avatar shows my rose garden with the porch in the background. This house was built in 1904 as a boarding house and just full of Victorian and craftsman detail. We've subsequently restored much of the house to period detail (hint-no light switches) so it's a bit like living in a comfortable museum.

I'm not sure if we had not toured 100 houses together whether we would have recognized this was such a great place. It was the shared experience to "house hunt" and chatter over six months that gave us a great understanding of the details that were important. It's amazing what people do to kitchens, and how they live with bathrooms, and it's worthwhile to get a good perspective on the possibilities before you plunk your own money down. .

Day 12 for me. Got past Friday night mostly by getting to bed early and reading for a bit. I wish I didn't have to fight myself like this, but I'm going to keep going. Tonight should be easier and I don't have a big problem during the week. My mood is still slowly lifting. I'm hoping in just a week or to I'll hit a normal mood baseline and no longer have my moments of anxiety and depression caused by long term AL use. It's getting light now. Time to start my day. Good luck everyone with moving towards your goals.

[Boss.man]

ODAT - Saturday

ProjectileVomit;528208 wrote: Not a bad effort from me today I thought. 1 beer! Is it cheating to call that an AF day? :P

AF is different for all of us. If you are headed to your goal, then that's a victory day. Our only true measurer is ourselves, and part of this process is to re-learn how to be honest with ourselves. Please call it AF and if you can stick to that plan, then it's your goal, then so be it.

[matthen]

ODAT - Saturday

Uni Good luck on the job front. And to all who are getting by ODAT good luck and God bless. Some wisdom on the thread today. Like every time we pick up a drink, the process seems to go back to square one and drinking goes out of control. Never able to have "just one". At least I can't. After struggling for years to moderate -- well, I just had to admit that I can never drink just one. And if ever I did for some weird reason, I was so uncomfortable that I was jumping out of my skin till I could get someplace where I could get another drink in me. AL is the enemy, which we all know. Have a great weekend all ODATimers!!

[ProjectileVomit]

ODAT - Saturday

Boss.man;528235 wrote: AF is different for all of us. If you are headed to your goal, then that's a victory day. Our only true measurer is ourselves, and part of this process is to re-learn how to be honest with ourselves. Please call it AF and if you can stick to that plan, then it's your goal, then so be it.

Yes all our goals are different I guess. My goal is not to be a non-drinker, it's to basically detox for a couple of months and try to break the cycle of drinking beer every waking hour that I'm not at work. I'm definitely making decent progress considering the state I was in this time last week, I actually even find the challenge kind of 'fun'. Sick I know :H