Thursday, Jan. 11th

[bestlifeldms]

Good Morning,

Mike, just read yesterday's post. Congratulations on both your new job and home. Much happiness. Big changes for you and both at once! That's more than I would care to handle at one time! LOL! Good Luck!

15th day of sobriety for me. Everything is good. I too am working on a new project. Our company is starting a new business. Manufacturing. I am the project co-ordinator, with lots of good help. Operations began Jan. 2. It has been very exciting! It has been especially good to be busy with this and the holidays to keep my mind occupied.

My office now is actually one half mile from home. But I will begin driving to the new location on a daily basis, Mon. Jan. 15th. It is a 30 minute drive- one way. Not bad, but must say I was a little spoiled. Especially with the snow we are bound to get eventually. We have been lucky so far with very mild weather this winter.

I must say, things are rather quiet in my life. My motto has always been, "Boring is Good!". So, with that, I will say - Happy Jan. 11th to all!

Hugs, :l

Sherry

[mikeupnorth]

Thursday, Jan. 11th

Good morning, Sherry, and thanks for getting a thread started for today. I like having a place to post every day, even if it's just to check in and say hi.

A 30-minute drive to work sounds like a lot to me.... I could drive anywhere in town in 30 minutes even when there's "traffic." But I've lived in larger cities before where I spent 30 or 45 minutes each way commuting to work.... it can be a positive for you in that you can mentally prepare yourself each morning and then sort of mentally "unpack" on the way home.

Something just occurred to me as I looked around the room. I've spent so much time painting recently that I can't help but assess rooms wherever I go, and notice the paint -- and admire whoever painted them and how difficult a job it must have been. All the edges, all the corners, all the trim... who knew it was so much work??

Something similar happens to us, I think, when we start to live our lives sober. We start to notice all kinds of things that we took for granted while drinking, or that we were just too numb to deal with. All the feelings, all the complex interactions with others, all the intricate negotiations of life... they all take attention and patience and persistence, just like painting a room. When I was drinking I just didn't notice or didn't care, but now that I'm sober nearly four months I'm feeling and seeing where I fit in relation to those around me. I'm also recognizing just how much I've isolated myself over the last few years due to my drinking. I have to make a conscious effort to do what seems to come naturally to so many non-alcoholic people: get up, go to work, deal with people, not get too upset or upset anyone else, eat right, sleep at reasonable times, maintain contact with people who are important to me, etc. In other words, I'm learning and practicing how to live my life, and it doesn't feel completely natural to me yet -- because I'm doing it all without alcohol for the first time in my adult life. So I notice how other people do these things the same way I notice how rooms are painted. I watch with admiration when people do it well, or I see sometimes when they are rushing through and taking shortcuts and not doing so good a job of it.

Anyway I'm rambling on so I better get going....

Mike

[Popeye]

Thursday, Jan. 11th

Hello Best and Mike.
Just popped in to say hello again

bestlifedms wrote: My motto has always been, "Boring is Good!".

I heartily agree. Being bored isn't so good, but appearing to be boring....I can live with that

[Guest]

Thursday, Jan. 11th

Just a hi from me today. I'm processing a bit too much to post about here... but I'm ok.
Brigid

[xtexan]

Thursday, Jan. 11th

Howdy, howdy:

A short drop in.

Mike: can definitely identify. At the nine month mark of AF, a major transition occurred. The rebirth of Neil. One encouraging thing I can tell you, is that those feelings of being the sober "alien" on this planet will begin to wane. I had to relearn how to be a sober human, and I have just begun. I wrote earlier about how that nine month mark seems to have some significance for others too. IT WILL PASS! So have faith. Anyway, thanks for the info on the land prices. The "ice fog" you described seems both mysterious and brutal.

Sherry: Project coordinator in manufacturing eh? Without giving out too much info, lets just say I have been involved in that sort of thing for many, many moons. Core manufacturing industry has been my career for a long time. I've done few other things, and I always came back to mass production of technical goods from raw materials. It has it's own satisfaction, that no other work has I must say. It also drives a great many folks into the bottle for some reason (at least where I work at). Congrats on those 15 days!!

Paul: Glad to see you hanging in there for sure. We need more folks down here in long term!

Brigid: Hope you are not getting overloaded on the internal work. I learned the hard way to just address one internal issue at a time. I think there is a good word for doing too much at once. I got "discombobulated"! Most unpleasant.

Gotta go. Everyone stay sharp.

Neil