(time noted) how it was and how it is today
 

thought this might be an encouraging thread
for both the ones with some clean and sober time
and also for the ones still struggling to get clean and sober

time here is 6:04 AM

in my old drinking and using days
I would have just finished getting dressed for work
after drinking a couple of tall cans of beer in the shower
which towards the end of my crazy days
I would usually wash down a few Valium with those beers
the drive to work was not pleasant
as I would try to stay between the lines on the freeway

today on this beautiful early morning
I was just outside with a very clear mind
watching the sunrise
(retired now) will be driving sober down that same freeway in short while
so as to meet my best friend for a bicycle ride at the beach

this is how it was and how it is today at this time of the morning

wishing for all a sober day
Mountainman Bob

It is 9:12am where I am.

I would be waking up just about now... feeling like crap from downing at least a 1 1/2 bottles of red wine the night before. Fortunately, I would have a little bit of wine remaining just to take "the edge" off. I would find myself with absolutely no alcohol around 9:45am. I would then find myself extremely sad and depressed over this discovery. Hence, I would get out of my PJs and walk out to the nearest wine store to pick up another 2 bottles... Come home... drink... pass out... wake up... drink...pass out... wake up and discover I had no more wine... go out to nearest wine store... come home... drink... pass out ... and over and over and over...

Today, I am sipping coffee and experimenting with new software to help me become more successful in my own business!

Today is so much better than it was almost four months ago!!!

Here it is 9:10am...

I am drinking my coffee and getting ready for work, happy and thinking about all the blessings I've received since I stopped drinking.

This time a year ago, I would be struggling to keep my eyes open, trying to figure out how to make it through another day so I could have another drink.

I'm so happy for these past 9 months and 19 days. It hasn't been easy, at times it's been a living hell, but I'm glad I was able to push through with the support from reading this site and those who have reached out to help me.

Without my family, friends, and especially my boss and coworkers, and of course you guys, I never would have made it this long, and have no desire whatsoever to drink.

I honestly didn't think it was possible for me not to drink anymore after over a decade of abuse, but here I am.

Thank you all, and happy holidays!

Thanks for this! One of my biggest problems is forgetting how bad things really got when I drank. There were so many mornings when I would wake up and have to drink some beers in bed before I could even get moving, even if it was just the liquor store that I needed to get to. You've reached Hell when you need that drink in the morning, methinks.

Here's how it went a month ago: wake up (no set time), drink enough to get out of bed, down 1/2 to a gallon of water while sipping alcohol, get the BAC back up, buy more, pass out (no set time).
Rinse and repeat.

Glad it's been nearly a month since I was there; it feels like a lifetime ago. Almost can't remember how painful and pathetic it all was.

This site helps me to learn from the past. I'm attempting to learn how to prepare for the future.

Best of luck to all, and thanks for this thread.

It's 804 AM
Three weeks ago I would be just dragging my hungover butt out of bed and chugging coffee to try to clear the fog, while rushing to get ready to go to work, put in another day so I could hit the beer again tonight. I'd be thinking about it already, in spite of how crappy I felt. Pop a few advil for the headache (never just one, 3 or 4 ex-strength ... everything was in excess)
Today I was up just after 6, sipping and truly enjoying my coffee. I contemplated the meeting I went to last night and felt so thankful that I went. Came to SR and read a lot of posts and threads, gaining strength from the stories I read. I am feeling lucid and clear-headed ... not sick and foggy and I am so grateful for that!

Thanks MM ... :)

3:15 PM on a Wednesday afternoon
for many years at this time of the day
I would be driving east on Interstate 8 from work with a good beer buzz on
only to stop at a store at the bottom of the mountain
and buy a 24 oz Bud for the drive up the hill
very foolish as I look back

just drove home from a bike ride at the beach on Interstate 8
a nice sober drive home (no one was in danger because of me)
and no stops at the store at the bottom of the mountain

I have noticed in sobriety
all of the different stores that I used to stop at and buy beer for the road
drunk driving is nothing to be proud of (thank God that I didn't kill anyone)

a sober evening wished for all
Mountainman

It is 11.30 pm here and I am online and multitasking by watching TV at the same time. I am having a lime and soda and feel a bit peckish.

Eleven years ago 11.30 pm Knocking back vodka like it was going out of fashion, not having eaten. Then ringing all and sundry talking absolute melodramatic crap. Then I would either collapse on the sofa in a stupor or run out of booze and go to an all night bar to buy some more. Yuk!!!!!

Excellent thread! Weekdays no booze before work so I don't smell like an empty barrel of whiskey. Afterwork drink as fast as possible to get my buzz. Stop early enough to be half sober.

Weekends, wake up at 5:30 Am and start because Friday nights was get hammered. That hangover feeling of wanting to just die was hell!!

1145pm here finished work about an hour ago reading online and just sorting my running gear out for a 630am run tomorrow :) love it !

6:00 pm.

Dinner on the table. All organic. All homemade. Healthy fare to supersede the nightly poisoning that was occurring.

Would be debating about open up bottle #2 of what ever, but typically Chardonnay. Convincing myself that I DESERVE THIS !!!!

Deserved what ?
The shakes and sharts the next day ?

Fast forward 8 weeks. Worked, worked out, baked a sobriety cake :), warmed up lefties and made a big salad. Going to clean out my closet and take a tubby.

Ahhhhhhh. Sobriety. :)

5:39 AM in the old drinking days
my mind and body would be obsessed right now
as the morning craving for alcohol kicks in heavy

5:39 AM today
thoughts are concentrating on a nice positive sober day
lunch with an old co-worker
that would be right after a morning AA meeting

Mountainman

in my drinking days on Saturdays
 

6:04 AM Saturday in the old drinking days would mean
let's get ready for a day of yard work here on the mountain acre
I will need two coolers with around 6 beers in each
spacing those coolers in the yard
so when I'm mowing and weed whacking
there will always be more beer just ahead
yes - prox 12 beers usually worked best for this


today how it is
looks like it's going to be a beautiful sunrise (I noticed that)
to spend a nice sober day with MountainLady and her Mom
Black Angus Steak House sounds good for lunch
nice
today - no trauma no drama

Mountainman

Lovely thread. Thank you to everyone who posted. Truly inspiring.

Mtnman- THAT was an Aaaawesome post. Everybody knows what a crisp early morning, with a clear mind feels like. Its a very good feeling. You made it so palpable. I felt it!! Very encouraging visualization to start my day. Thank you! :-)

9:35 am enjoying a wonderfully sober morning off from work reading blogs around the internet. I would be still nursing a hangover had I drank. Instead I am about to get up and clean the house and then cook stew. I have been enjoying watching the snow from my bay windows which look out over the valley.

9:08 on a Saturday morning here.

In the past, I'd probably be on my 3rd drink by now. I'd likely have switched from screwdrivers to straight vodka sodas by now. No reason to dress up the drinking and pretend it's a "morning beverage" anymore. This was full-on boozing time. I'd be seated in my favorite spot on the couch, TV on, and contemplating whether or not I'd take a nap before college football started, or at halftime. I'd likely haven't showered in days, and I certainly wouldn't be cleaning up today. For some reason the booze always made me cough in the morning, and I developed a strange habit of coughing and spitting up phlegm right onto the brick wall next to my couch. Spitting on the wall. Drunk. Dirty. Unemployed.

Today I have just returned from a morning photography project. I woke up, saw all the snow, made some coffee and grabbed my camera and tripod. I listed to BBC radio on my walk through the snow. I was one of the only people out in the city this early. I stopped to talk to the girl at the cafe who was shoveling the walk. We had a laugh. I went to Wicker Park, right by the subway. I didn't get too many great shots, but I had a lot of fun being out! Now I'm back home, warm cup of coffee. I logged on to my computer and checked on some of my work projects for my job. Making a nice breakfast of fruit, eggs, beans, and rice. Active. Healthy. Employed.

I think I'll take my sober mornings, thank you very much! :)

We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it
 

thank you bigsombrero for sharing that
yes - a typical drunken morning in our past was not very pretty
amazing back then I thought that I was having fun

my Sponsor says that fun could stand for

F ed
U p
N uisance

just got out of our Jacuzzi
watching the sunrise out there
thanking my Higher Power (God)
that I'm sober
and grateful for so many things today

things and people that would possibly not be in our lives today
if we were drinking

yes - I (we) never wish to forget

We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it

remembering these days of our past can be a great asset

wishing for all a calm sober day
Mountainman

5 years ago,I would be waking up wondering if I really hit the "send" button on that email. Saying NO I am not going to drink today,knowing damn well about Noon,I am gonna start to change my mind. By 5 oclock there will be no contest. Also taking my blood pressure medicine. Soon I will be cleaning the beer can nest out of my car from the ride home from work yesterday. I guess I also need to work on the beer can nests at various "catch all" spots around the house.
Also since it's the weekend I will need to do all of the things I couldn't do throughout the week because as soon as I left work i got drunk.


Today I wake up knowing I didn't do something stupid last night because I was drunk. I know I am not going to drink today. At 5 Oclock there will be no battle. I won the war a few years ago. But I also know all it takes is one beer,and that war will be right back where it left off. I still have the beer that was next in line to drink that night I quit as prisoner. It is right by the TV set,I see it every day. My "prisoner" keeps the battle freshly in my mind.
I don't need blood pressure medicine anymore. About a year after I quit,I no longer needed it. Which kind of makes me wonder if I would even still be here if i was still drinking.
I also don't have to clean any beer can nests out of my car,although there might be a couple diet A&W root beer cans. A fraction of a "beer can nest",and there is no beer can nest stench either.
I spent over 10 bucks a day on beer,and I quit almost 5 years ago. Sooo
I have roughly 18 thousand dollars I wouldn't have had.(and I am leaving out a lot of stupid frivolous things I would also have blown money on). In the movie True Grit Maddie says she would never put a thief in her mouth to steel her brain. Yes I would have donated 18 thousand dollars or way more to that thief.

Thanks Bob for starting this thread. I might have been getting complacent,because my first thought was "not that much has really changed". That is scary. If I were to write all of the changes down,it would actually take several pages.
Fred

3.30 pm here

Before I would be taking advantage of the house being empty by downing a bottle of red wine. Alot of the time I wouldn't even use a glass, just straight of the bottle in about 10 swallows.

Today I sitting relaxing on the sofa admiring the Christmas lights. I've just had some food and a ice cold Diet Coke and I'm happy in my own skin.