Howdy, AA. What's up?
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I just got an invite to perform for my annual Turkey Toast the night before Thanksgiving. This will be my fourth year invited to the same venue for this event. I'm way out of practice, so I'm glad they gave me plenty of notice. What with health issues and two surgeries I've kind of slipped in the music department, but this will get me going. My sidekick is down, but he just had knee surgery. We'll be practicing at his place on Tuesday night. I'm thinking since they keep asking us back we should step up and offer some new material. We usually make about $500 at this gig, which ain't bad for a duet - $100 bucks an hour if you don't count practice (which is fun, anyway).
Good to know I haven't been entirely forgotten. I've been holed up for months with almost no socializing. The drinking crowd doesn't call me anymore, and I just haven't made other connections despite almost two years of sobriety. I take responsibility, though, because I haven't been reaching out and I quit going to our Wednesday picking circles (got kinda bored with the same three chord clusterplucks every week, and with legal weed these days they're all stepping outside to get baked after every few tunes).
Still trying to muster the courage to get involved with the AA community in town. I was just talking with my supervisor about some colleagues with substance abuse issues. She mentioned her brother has been to rehab several times but it hasn't stuck and was wondering about the efficacy of coaching a specific worker into rehab. I told her it could plant a seed, but she wasn't convinced and made a comment that normal people just don't really understand how the mind of an addict works. I almost told her I'm not all that normal, and I felt kind of inauthentic when I replied simply, "I'm sure there's some truth to that. Lots of addicts don't really understand how their minds work, either, which I think can be part of the problem." Anyway, now I feel weird about eventually coming out of the closet, so to speak, but I don't think it will be an issue. She's not top brass, but she is compassionate and empathetic. I guess I'm just holding out until 2016 because it will sound good to be able to say I've been sober since 2013 in case management fears I could relapse. Then again, it would be nice if they quit leaning on me so much because I'm so damned responsible. Even when I was an active drunk I never really let myself **** up too seriously. Ironically, that hasn't really served me well.
Back to work... Enjoy your Sunday. Wife out of town so I'm running the inn solo. Beds to make...