AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

[shueaddict]

Good glorious morning affies,

I feel fantastic after a weekend of being mostly horizontal, not really like me, but it was the peak of the heat wave and there was no point in me pushing it. Hubby nearly expired on the golf course, spent the rest of the day lying on the coach under a wet towel.

The French roast is brewing nicely, TND?s EVCO is on the side and I have a nice cup of tea with plenty of ?cheer up? mixed in for Pap to take into work ? Oh, and Sugar, do come and get your decaf, drop us a line, tell us how you?re doing.

This week I am not travelling ? hooray !!! But I do have plenty of stuff to do in work.
Sunni ? you seem to be a busy bee (loads of visitors too). So your horsey does not like his sleepover buddy. And your cats did not get along either ? hmmm?you?d think you had enough space for every one, but no, they have to get territorial.

Lav ? send some clouds this way too.

Lilly ? kudos for you for getting to the meetings, that was my initial idea when I was searching online for a place to help me. Sadly, where I live the ex-pat community is too small, they don?t have AA, instead they have WND meetings ( well known drunks). I get a lot out of MWO but I think many times that it would really help to have the personal interaction with other addicts.

? and on a different note, your upbringing ? you are so right .. I am reading Malcolm Gladwell?s ?Outliners? - where he points out just how much community and background comes into play to bring success. Who said life is fair?

Amazon.com: Outliers: The Story of Success (9780316017923): Malcolm Gladwell: Books

Pap ? so happy to hear about your dad. As for doggies, they have strong personalities, don?t they? I have spoken to Sam?s owner, he?s adjusted very well, it?s OK for me to come and visit now, which I will. Looking at the job you hate as nothing more than a paycheck is really the way. You?re strong and smart, something else will come along.

Mick ? I hope you wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed again, ready to take on the week.

TND, Saucy, Turn, Kas, Porqoui, Greenie, Lifechage - wish you all a fantastic week and ?

One thing?s for sure ?

[LillyE]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

I think I could use some of that coffee even though it's 5pm here. I'm trying to find the motivation to organise my tax stuff for my accountant but it's just not happening…

Shue, Well Known Drunk meetings? What? Really? Also, that's funny, I only recently finished Outliers. Interesting stuff isn't it? I'd like to read Blink and Tipping Point too. I do sometimes think that with my addictive history I probably would have fallen a lot further a lot faster had I not had those advantages of birth, class and education. And, when you fall, there's just far less of a safety net if you're already disadvantaged.

I read something on Spiritual River today about the power of "negative visualization" - that is, visualizing how much worse things could be as a tool for increasing gratitude in your life. It's so true - it's so easy to forget how good we have it in relative terms.

[lifechange]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

good morning!

Shue, it's so nice that you get up every morning to make such delicious coffee. and tea. i'm very happy to be sitting here drinking with you. i have some yummy peach cobbler to go with it, if anyone's interested. i also spent most of the weekend in a horizontal position. here it's been cold and raining cats and dogs the past 2 weeks. not the greatest weather for the summer break plans i'd had of being at the lake every day.
i felt very touched by all the warm welcomes yesterday. thank you so much. i have enjoyed immensely getting to know you all through reading this thread-- i've gone back quite far. also by reading doggygirl's story, i've been able to see how some of you started out. dg's story is quite long!! and so inspiring.

i feel quite exhausted this morning after having slept like a rock for the first time in a looong time.
but, hey look! the sun is shining --also for the first time in a looong time--so life is good.

[lifechange]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

ooops. pressed return too soon.
Lilly, i am happy to see you this morning-- i was a bit worried about you this weekend. it's great you were able to see past the wanting one drink. i've fallen for that a million times. no more, i say. i will be in the nest again---i just feel right now that i need some strength to follow through on the decision i've made to take alcohol completely off the table as an option. i've looked back on my life recently and i know i've been fooling myself. and i'm ready to take action on what i know to be the truth. that i can not ever drink again. so now i need to be in a place where others feel the same. i don't yet completely trust myself. but it will come.
i think you should keep looking for a good meeting that suits you. i've looked here and did find one i liked--but wasn't ready to fully make the comittment. i think i might try again.

Turn, i'm curious to know where in ak you are-- i lived in ketchikan as a very young girl for a couple of years--and then in anchorage a couple of times in elem. school and highschool. i miss it and would love to visit someday. your pics of the gc were gorgeous.

wishing you all a wonderful day..i'm so grateful to be here. and to have a few days off work. yaayyy!

[shueaddict]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Lilly, WND - just kidding, I have a friend who said he'd rather be a well known drunk than an anonymos alcoholic ( he meant closeted alcoholic). First I laughed, then it got me thinking.
I loooove "outliners" ... kind of more organized than Freakonomics.

Lifechange, I'll gracefully accept the peach cobbler, I actually need some sugar with my coffee, got a big report to finalize today and could use the extra energy boost. I hung around Newbies nest and "conquering day 1" + many "anyone for 30 days AF" threads for a long time. I got to the point where I just wanted to know that there is life after quitting drinking. And the good people here showed me how they do it. It is yet more complicated, more challenging, and once I opened my sober eyes I cannot say that I liked many things I then saw. I thought that if I quit drinking everything in my life would magically be super again. Yes ... but not that quick, and not without hard work.

But is is so worth it.

[Mick]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Hi Shue..yep we did it again..mind you what you type in 2 minutes would take me 2 hours! Well another af Monday..bring it on!!

[LillyE]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Shue, HA. I told you I need caffeine! I thought you were probably joking but I wasn't sure. I even googled 'Well Known Drunks' to see if I was missing some obvious reference - duh. That's pretty funny.

I totally know what you mean about needing to know there's life after quitting. I think it's probably telling I started posting here right after I felt this major shift in my commitment to REALLY quitting. (Not that I'm not still working - hard - on that but something has changed.) The Newbie Nest solidarity is great and I've come to know and care about people there, so want to keep cheering them on and seeing the outcomes, but there's a lot to be said from learning from people who actually already have some solid AF time under their belts too.

Lifechange, I'm touched that you noticed I was absent and were concerned - thank you! I think we're in a very similar place right now so I hope we can keep sharing our thoughts on how to make that newfound commitment stick. I have already found an AA meeting this week that I plan to go to on Thursday (my first AA meeting - gulp) - it's nearby and I read on a blog post that it's a good group. Why don't you go back to the one you found and let me know how it went It can't hurt, right? We can always just walk away if we don't like it.

Peach cobbler? Yum. Yes please!

[shueaddict]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

LillyE;1350516 wrote: Shue, HA. . I even googled 'Well Known Drunks' to see if I was missing some obvious reference - duh. That's pretty funny.

OMG, what did google come up with for that ?!?:H:H:H

Lilly, I'll be in the chat room around this time tomorrow. If you feel like it.

[LillyE]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

shueaddict;1350525 wrote: OMG, what did google come up with for that ?!?:H:H:H

Lilly, I'll be in the chat room around this time tomorrow. If you feel like it.

Thanks Shue! You know, I haven't ever logged into the forum - hadn't really occurred to me. I'll definitely log on tomorrow around this time if I'm online then, which I probably will be. Might go have a gander quickly now..

Night all!

[Mick]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Lifechange.. time off work excellent..a good chance to positive things with your time...if you get the cravings which we all do, its on this site, but just remember they are cravings and will go.Think they call it surfing the cravings.This is what I do....when they start sit and read sober visitors post.."junkie thinking" I have even got it photographed on my phone to read!then write down how you feel and how you are going to deal with it..the next time you will read how you dealt with it.Then ask yourself the question if I take one drink, what life enhancing benefits will it give me?if I don't,ask yourself the same question.You can make your own questions up , ie if I drink will it help my situation, will it disappear, how will I feel etc etc there are loads of them.By this time your head will be on its way or have surfed over the top of the craving.Also do something different ie if you are sitting when it kicks in..then walk about.. try and get out of the scenario.Thats just me ,but if there's anything there that helps you use it.

Mick

[Lavande]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Good morning Abbers!

Just about 7:30 am here in these parts - you guys have been busy :H

The heat & humidity continue despite the storms last night - yuck.
My plan for the week is to do as much as I can outside before 9 am then head back inside....gets boring but what can you do?

Greetings to shue, Mick, LifeChange, Lilly & everyone up & about
I'm off to Curves soon - yay!

Have a great AF Monday!
Lav

[porqoui]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Good Morning all and great advise Mick. I find that worked for me. Just trying to figure out what's going on in my thinking/life is enough to ride the crave wave and get off safely. Got totally PISSED OFF with my sister yesterday and the first thing into my head was F%$*K I want a drink. Anger is a very BIG trigger for me and I gotta say The Serenity Prayer does work at least for me. It calms me down and lets me look at the big picture and get out of my "poor me" mood. Looking forward to the week ahead being AF. Have a good week everyone.

[msfreedom]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Hi~
I would like to join this thread. I am on Day 1 of AF. I've been hitting AL pretty hard (for me) lately. I've done many different AF stints. I'm not in crisis (yet) although I'm so tired, deenergized, noncreative. I'm missing my joie de vivre ! Thanks to all of you for being here, for the support~
Best,
Ms. Freedom

[shueaddict]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Hi MsFree, welcome to the club, how do you take your coffee in the mornings?

You could not have said it better, " missing the joie de vivre", how very accurate !!!

Tell us more about you, how much is "pretty hard" for you ?

[Turnagain]

AF Daily - Monday, July 16th

Lawdy - girl wakes up and starts seeing double even without drinking! But, really... I think it's a great sign that we've had a number of dual starts to our AF Daily thread. It means we're a bunch of gungho go getters who can't wait to start another day free and clear of addiction.

Welcome to the thread MsFreedom - Love your handle - btw! I think it might have been Byrdlady over in the Newbie's Nest who wrote about her many unsuccessful attempts at moderating that when she finally quit, her relationship with alcohol was the best it was ever going to be....

That really resonated with me. This addiction is progressive and just like a rubber band that's been stretched too far....there's no going back to tight and sproingy. Not ever gonna happen. But the good news is that if we stop abusively stretching ourselves by pouring the poison down our gullet....we won't reach the point where we snap. And as for missing the good ol' days....once you have some serious AF time under the belt....and honestly look back at WHAT it is that's missing....it's pretty clear NOTHING worth ANYTHING is absent. You can still kick back on the deck and relax and enjoy a beautiful sunset. You can savor the flavors of a fine dinner. You can deal effectively and clearly with all stressful situations. You can have FUN - real fun with friends and REMEMBER it all without regrets. And by replacing those drinking binges or daily episodes with regular and VIGOROUS exercise ....your brain will start to restore the dopamine/serotonin balance that gives you the natural high we're meant to experience. Woot! Woot!