It looks festive, doesn’t it? I don’t want to be a downer, but the holidays present inordinate opportunities to overindulge. For those of us with drinking issues, there are triggers around every corner. I started thinking about drinking this morning – not about actually drinking , but about the subject of imbibing during the holidays and what […]
Category Archives: Sobriety
That ribbon of road to the left is my driveway… I once had a psychologist tell me my biggest problem was not alcoholism, but the fact I did not pay attention to my surroundings. He said, “It’s 48 degrees outside today. You are wearing a silk blouse. Pay attention and take better care of […]
This photograph does not begin to properly show the isolation and the beauty of this place… I am going to live in the Georgia mountains for a few months. I am staying in a “Wilderness Community” in a cabin with a massive stone fireplace and eccentric neighbors. I have packed boxed soups, apples, winter garments, razor blades, […]
Housewife by Anne Sexton Some women marry houses. It’s another kind of skin; it has a heart, a mouth, a liver and bowel movements. The walls are permanent and pink. See how she sits on her knees all day, faithfully washing herself down. Men enter by force, drawn back like Jonah into their fleshy mothers. […]
Apparently I have a new addiction. It popped up this weekend like a boil. I was staying at Lauren’s and we were getting ready to go for a long walk on the beach and I found myself sitting on her couch with my hands clutching my cheeks like Munch’s The Scream saying, “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! I […]
Watch where you walk! I fell down on Saturday. Lauren and I were putting away her Halloween decorations at one of my many storage spaces. As we came out of the building I stepped on a stone just wrong, and my loose (but stylish fold-down, stacked heal) boot gave way. I hit my knee, my side […]
Isn’t it inviting? …or experiencing sobriety but not recovery, because I’ll be damned if I didn’t get hit hard with a craving for alcohol yesterday. What is it about airports? I almost didn’t write about this, because it is repulsive to me. I have not had a drink for fifteen months and I would like to […]
Is it just me or are AA meetings not always that easy to find? This is not a rhetorical question. I’m in Flint looking for a meeting and when I Googled AA meetings Flint Michigan, I got a hodgepodge of websites touting services to problem drinkers and a glut of options so varied and obtuse I started to […]
I have a friend named Mark who lives in Michigan. I’m thinking of him this morning. I was feeling resentful about not being able to drink yesterday, and it’s all his fault. Mark is one of those people who does really fun, outrageous drinking activities and then goes back to his important job with great stories to […]
Recovering alcoholics talk about the evils of boozing all the time: the injurious falls; the broken relationships; the missed opportunities; the emotional toll. We never seem to talk about the cost of drinking. I’m talking about the actual amount of money it takes to be a lush. When I was a drinker, I put […]