Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

[GinaCA]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Geez! Talk about a day I would be popping pills in the past!!

Oh boy! Crazy day! I just found out we have to move out of the hotel we've been staying in for 2 weeks tomorrow morning, so we have been packing up most everything. I have to be at my son's school to cut up apples and prepare for his class Halloween party tomorrow at 8:30 am, as I somehow got roped into being room mom. I am on a holter heart monitor for 24 hours until 2 pm tomorrow, swinging around this crazy device like a purse everywhere I go. Nothing serious, just random skiped beats now and then and MD wants to make sure everything is ok. I have a guy from the insurance company coming to the house at 1230 tomorrow for an inspection before we tile. And just now, I found out my 75 yo mom is on her way in Kona, Hawaii to the hospital for possible gallstone surgery. If it can wait a day or two, she is going to fly home (she lives in CA also) ASAP!

Can't take a hot bath because of the monitor, darn. Need to fit in a mtg tonight and tomorrow afternoon before trick or treating.

Life on life's terms. Life on life's terms. Amen.

[GinaCA]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Your son sounds exactly like mine, Molly! It's nice to learn a different way to approach situations like that. I cherish the sweet, loving, mama's boy I still have in my 11 yo for however long it lasts!

[Doggygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Hi all! Molly - that is a great story about how much more peaceful things are now in your home. Mr. Doggy comments regularly (still!! :egad on how much more peaceful our home is since I stopped drinking. Amazing how much chaos I could create and it's only me and him living here!!! (well, + 5 dogs....:H) I love being reminded about all the positive changes both here on this thread, and at meetings. If I'm all wound up in some day to day difficulty, it's nice to be pulled back a step, to see how far we've all come.

Gina - hopefully your 11 YO will STAY a sweet thing through the teen years. (no problem wishing for things, right?)

Stress is amping up with school work and life. I'm grateful to be sober - and also to have the 12 Steps as my guide to getting through the stressful times.

DG

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Great meeting this morning. I hardly ever attend tradition meetings, but this morning we read/discussed the 10th tradition about not taking positions in outside matters. Mostly what I took away from the meeting was how that could relate to my life. I don't always have to weigh in w/my opinion. I can just listen & accept that other people can have their opinions. There's a reason that AA has lasted almost 80 years intact. It's because of the traditions. However, I must say that from the reading today, I could tell that there must have been some real growing pains in the beginning of the program.

[bettygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

egad, i'm on day 25 and having the craziest cravings! i'm about to go get my kid and her friends for halloween festivities at our house, so a meeting is out of the equation, but i will be busy and distracted enough to make it through. i know i will not drink, but just had to vent it a bit to release some of it's energy...baffliong and powerful!
thought i found a buddhist recovery group and emailed the guy who got back to me saying that there hasn't been a meeting in yakima (where i live) for 3 years! darn it...it's pretty much just like aa, but with buddhist principles...i am a newcomer to both aa and buddhism, so was so stoked to find a meeting in town..oh well!

guess i'll go eat another 50 pieces of halloween candy now! (i'm sure that is reallllllllllly driving my cravings!).


peace!

[GinaCA]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Hi bettygirl! 26 days? Awesome!! I hope all went well with all the Halloween activity going on at your house. All that darn candy is messing with my system, too! There is a street in our neighborhood that goes all out every year....haunted houses, insane decorations, stilt walkers, and parties galore. It seems as though busloads of people of all ages are dropped off there! One house was giving out "eyeball jello shooters" to the parents. Another house hired the "Red Bull" car to come and handout the drink to all. Crazy! No triggers for me, just interesting. I'm glad I can fully take the whole thing in through sober eyes. I am also glad that, because the crowds eventually stream over to our house, I was able to get rid of the obscene amount of candy I bought. Now, I only have to tell my son to hide his candy from me!!

Such a busy week here! One of those weeks where I really need to tackle "one hour at a time" to stay sane.

Happy November to everyone! CRAZY...is it really???

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Just got back from morning AA. Humility was the topic...makes me think of the line from the step 3 prayer: "...relieve me of the bondage of self." I would love to have that relief! All that thinking:
-What are they thinking about me?
-What are they saying about me?
-Am I good,smart, strong, etc. enough?
-Blah, blah, blah...

I was getting ready to speak pre-relapse at a meeting last year, & I expressed nerves to the person I was sitting with. She said: "Don't worry about it. Alcoholics are so caught up in themselves, they either won't be listening or won't remember what you are saying." Reality check. It doesn't all revolve around me.

Mary

[GinaCA]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

"Don't worry about it. Alcoholics are so caught up in themselves, they either won't be listening or won't remember what you are saying." Reality check. It doesn't all revolve around me.

~LOL, Mary! So very true!

"-What are they thinking about me?
-What are they saying about me?
-Am I good,smart, strong, etc. enough?
-Blah, blah, blah..."

~Through AA, I have become quite aware of this flaw in me. I have lived my life caring more about what others think of me, than what I think about me. That has got to change! I hope it is possible!

Thanks for the reminders!

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

With HP all things are possible. The humility discussion revolved around the ideas of being right-sized...not too big, not too small. M

[Doggygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Hey bettygirl - hope you got through Halloween OK! Even though I used to drink EVERY day, holidays were always "special" becuse I felt more "entitled" to drink. So early in sobriety, any "holiday" type day - Halloween included - held special temptation. Hope you got through it OK.

bettygirl - that neighborhood street sounds wild. Wow - busloads of people not from that neighborhood pouring in??? Not sure I would be too crazy about that! Can't control what the neighbors and other people do though!

Mary - love all of your posts the last couple of days. Humility, self centeredness, not thinking I need to express my opinion about everything.....all excellent messages for me.

We are getting ready to go out of town for the weekend. A couple of the people from our area who are also going to this even are BIG drinkers. Much like I used to be. Mr. Doggy and I have already agreed in advance what our strategy will be to bow out if I don't want to be around it. I dont' generally get triggered by that stuff any more (although I'm always on the lookout for the cunning, baffling and powerful one!) but just cringe looking in the mirror of my past. I'm so grateful I don't live in that any more.

DG

[bettygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

made it just fine. i think just coming here and saying how bad my cravings were, helped! thanks guys!

yep 26 days.

i'm going to my favorite meeting tonight...

peace!

[bettygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

just got home from my favorite meeting where i was asked to read from daily reflections. i read the one for today, nov 1 and it was really poignant. it was about keeping up with the spiritual side of recovery or you wont stay in recovery. i have been an atheist my whole life...never even thought about spirituality. wasn't raised with it, it just didn't even enter my thought process (except for a few times on mushrooms when i had major feelings of oneness with the universe that were really meaningful to me). when i decided to start going to aa, i thought i could just do it without all the "god" stuff...you know, the meetings would keep me on track. but, i have found that i am open to spirituality now...i feel like i am opening up and it feels weird and awesome and amazing. i don;t necessarily believe in "god", but i am feeling the connections with people and the ability to surrender are real and meanigful spiritual experiences. i do feel that the groups are the higher power, that there is strength in our fellowship, wheather that is god, or coincidence, is not for me to say, it just feels really cool to have such a conncection to , really, in essence, strangers. a lot of people in aa seem to call the people in meetings their true family, and i guess that is because they feel that the people in those rooms understand them in a way that their families can not...in a spiritual way...a kinship. it's a neat thing to be a part of, and i am open to whatever happens. i couldn't do it on my own, even coming here didn't work for me (doggygirl knows, i was here before under a different name, and it never stuck), but mwo is another tool in my arsenal against alcohol...cunning powerful and baffling, i'll say.

thansk for being here. it is important stuff, and we need all the help we can get!

peace!

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Spirituality is such a personal thing & so hard to explain in words. I just try to let it flow through me the best i can. Friday's AM meetings are generally very crowded, because that is the day to give out chip's & celebrate annivs. This morning was not different, & with the celebrations there comes a lot of emotion. The room seems filled w/spirituality w/people coming together for a common purpose. It's a closed meeting, & so everyone is there for the goal of staying sober & moving forward spiritually. For me, HP was right there in the room this morning. Mary

[bettygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

guess we petered out!

i'm still here, still sober and 30 days tomorrow! woohoo!

needed my meeting tonight...there were about 25 people there and only 4 women...kind of intimidating at first, but those guys were so aweosme and welcoming and kind! an old timer gave me a passage to read over and over...it's on page 55 the 2nd or third paragraph (i forget), but it was such a sweet gesture and very poignant.
there's an old timer who is coming to meetings here temporarily who's sponsor was sponsored by bill w. he throws around a lot of cliches (pole vaulting over turds etc...) but he's a sweetheart and means well. got sober when he was 30, so has a lot of time...

anyway, hope to hear from someone out there in the wilderness!!!

peace!

[GinaCA]

Weekly AA Thread - Oct 29 - Nov 4

Happy 30 days, Bettygirl!!!

:wave: :goodjob: :wd: :yougo: :rockband: :thumbs: