Originally Posted by
nolonger 
It's so good that drinking seems so far away. Had a miserable day yesterday, was restless, tired and unhappy all evening. I ended up watching a video and going to bed early. And just before I went to sleep I thought - there was a time when I would have gone out and gotten sh**faced, but it now never even occured to me.
Yeah, just a couple of days ago, I was thinking about how far away drinking seems to me. It's been a few months now since I bought O'Doul's. I used to keep the pavement warm going back and forth to the store making beer/cheap wine runs. The owner of the little independent store near me recently sold out. I think my sobriety had something to do with him going out of business! I'm not kidding... I'm almost certain that I was his best customer. Strangely, I feel a little guilty about it. He had an assortment of nicknames for me every time I would come in, all of them related to alcohol.
Anyway, rather than getting ****-faced, I'm learning to find other ways to cope with stress and misery. Instead of reaching for alcohol, I've been reaching for hot cocoa. And I've recently discovered the soothing effect of slightly melted peanut butter. I turn the bright lights off, and sometimes, I don't take phone calls--they can leave a message and I will get back to them later. With quite a bit of difficulty, I've been trying to limit the amount of time I spend on the computer because it creates a lot of stress for me. Also, I have to be very careful about what music I listen to. Without a doubt, I've had my strongest urges to drink when I hear certain songs--all the ones I used to listen to while I was drinking! Too many to count...
Okay, now for something completely different. Back on topic:
This morning, I was searching the web for the art of Marye McKenney. She is a legally blind artist who contributes her work in support of NCBC. I could only find one image. She's participating in an exhibit that features blind or legally blind artists. Along with images from other artists, an example of Marye's work can be seen on page 14 of the following link. I think the picture kind of goes with Morning Glory's story:
http://www.scco.edu/Shared%20Visions..._08Catalog.pdf