Category Archives: Drinkin’ Stories

Summer Concert Going – Drunk Vs. Sober

I went to a free concert at Meijer Gardens on the 4th of July with Cindy. She seems to be witnessing a few of my sober “firsts”. This time, it was at an outdoor, camp-chair, picnic basket kind of concert. I haven’t been to one of those sober before. In fact, an outdoor concert (once I recced the […]

Yes Virginia, I Was a “Highly Functioning Alcoholic” (HFA)

A few years ago, I co-owned a contemporary art gallery called Spiller Vincenty in Jacksonville, Florida. I had all the trappings of success. Although the most “Vincenty” and I got out of the venture was some great art, an opening outfit or two and several exciting “art buying” trips to Moscow, Santa Fe and London.  There was […]

What Do the Sober Folk Do?

 To help them escape when they’re blue? In the old musical Camelot, Guinevere sings a little ditty about being sad. I can’t remember why she’s sad – something to do with cuckolding her husband and a war raging… Anyway, she is feeling blue, which is an unfamiliar sensation, and together with the king she warbles the heartfelt (yet condescending) question, “What […]

I’m Solitary Sober… What Kind of Sober are You?

I guess, if I were being honest, I’d have to say I am the kind of person who enjoys being alone in a remote cabin in the woods. I am writing from one now. If you met me, you would not think of me as some solitary, grizzly gal. I shave my legs, I carry on lively […]

Living Sober on the Other Side of the World…

One of the things that has been wonderful about getting sober, is meeting new people online from around the planet. I have readers in 32 countries. Isn’t it incredible, when you think about the reach of the internet? I think of myself as a student of the world. I’ve been around. And when my friend Lotta Dann, who […]

The Days of Wine and Contusions…

Brenda responded to one of my blog posts by saying, “I always drink club soda, because I like staying in control at all times.” That’s not something you hear every day on a sobriety blog. I think most heavy drinkers love the feeling of being out of control. The photo above is how I saw the […]

Found on Facebook – 5 Ways to Explain the Drunk Years…

Whatever happened to unlisted phone numbers and secrets? I heard from an old boyfriend the other day. Does anybody else get Facebook private messages, where people you haven’t heard from in years start a conversation without preamble? I have now had every past relationship of merit check in with me on social media. It reminds me […]

Tricking Yourself Sober – GO LEFT!

  I have two stories about going left, and one conclusion: Story One I was in a therapy group one time, and a woman said that if she was driving down the street toward her house and the light was green on a certain street, she’d “go left” and drive past the ABC Liquor store. Of […]

Sober in The Bahamas? Really?

I Dated Captain Ron for Three Years

  I have a confession to make: I am a little afraid to go back to The Bahamas. It’s the land of “wine for breakfast” and “every day’s a holiday,” after all. I was looking through some old photographs this weekend, and I was back in Blue Heaven – I could smell the rust and salt. […]

A Life Without Hangovers

I Dated Captain Ron for Three Years

For a couple of years before I quit drinking I walked around with a continuous, low-grade hangover (when I didn’t have a top-of-the-line hangover). Which is weird, because I hate the feeling and a hangover is preventable. That salty taste in the back of the mouth, the shakes, the sensation that someone big is pressing a knuckle […]