Author Archives: admin

A Snowplow and the “It’s Better Than Drinking” Addictions…

I woke up this morning feeling like myself. I’ve been tired the last few days. Feeling “like myself”means my eyes spring open at 4:30 AM with an idea like a LED projector light over my head. This morning it was, sit up zombie style (I can go flat to sitting, rolling up vertebrae by vertebrae – Pilates […]

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You (for Ellie)…

I was sitting in the dry cleaner’s parking lot yesterday and my young friend Ellie called me. I don’t hear from her much these days. It feels like there is something missing in my life, like I forgot the pearls I was going to wear on the kitchen table. Or  there is a needful thing in the pocket […]

The Amazing Lack of URGENCY to My Sobriety…

Imagine That… Imagine that. My daughter Lauren and her boyfriend John were visiting from Florida. I spent my downtime last week preparing for their coming.  Groceries were purchased and I filled the pantry with canned goods. I did not want them to think I live on Skinny Pop and blackberries. Or that I would not […]

Is Finding Your Passion the Key to Addiction Recovery?

We’ve been talking about passion at work recently. Not around-the-water-cooler gossip about weekend liaisons. But the kind of passion that has you up at 6 AM testing out your hiking boots and waiting for the sun to come up. Or waking like a kid on Christmas, remembering you got those new paints and brushes. Being so excited about an  […]

I Who Have Nothing (Oh, Get Over Yourself)…

I’m hung over. It was my birthday yesterday and the darling people I work with brought cupcakes. There were four left, in the baker’s box, for me to take home last night. I won’t disgust you with the details… The sugar settled in my joints and eyelids, and when I got up this morning, I felt puffy […]

All or Nothing: Alcohol, Sugar, Coffee, Exercise Addiction

I made it through Halloween without eating a single piece of candy. I did eat a fortune cookie, which hinted I was going to meet an “important stranger who would change my life”, but fortune cookies don’t count. They don’t have any more sugar in them than toothpaste… If I had eaten any real candy, it […]

Recovery Time Management – Am I Really THAT Busy?

My young friend Ellie asked me if I was still going to help people get sober. She said my new blog format was so professional looking, she thought I was getting out of the booze-busting business.  Actually she didn’t use the term “booze-busting”. She did remind me that I made a difference in her dad’s […]

The Remarkable, Rubberlike Resilience of the Alcoholic

I saw the movie “The Girl on the Train” twice last week. I had read the book – it was a gift from my dear friend Nick, who is not alive anymore to give me gifts, so it has special meaning. Special meaning too, as the main character is a female alcoholic. It would be […]

Sigh – As Autumn Leaves Fall I’m SAD…

Winds in the east, mist coming in,  Like somethin’ is brewin’ and bout to begin.  Can’t put me finger on what lies in store,  But I fear what’s to happen all happened before…  I don’t actually have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I have some version of old fashioned melancholia, I think. The exquisite, nostalgia of autumn in a […]

I Was Walking Down the Street Sober…

I was walking with a friend of mine after work last night. He’s in recovery too – about the same length of time as me. We have both been sober long enough to have gotten past the acute, cravings stage, but recent enough to remember what it was like to have them. If you saw […]