Class Of September 2012 Part 8
WWG glad you posted, I was worried.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 1,247
Hey WWG, Glad to have you back with us...
We all know what you are going through..Trust me..
Nothing about this is easy. We have each other for understanding and support...
Matthew...hang in there with us. We don't want you to go anywhere...I need your support as much as you need mine.
Jim
We all know what you are going through..Trust me..
Nothing about this is easy. We have each other for understanding and support...
Matthew...hang in there with us. We don't want you to go anywhere...I need your support as much as you need mine.
Jim
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Indiana
Posts: 145
Originally Posted by lefthook 
Haha ozark me too. One night I just sat down and counted it all out at once and dated each 10th day on my calendar. I got sick of trying to remember each day lol
I am FIRED UP to have reached triple digits, and "one hundred days" sounds (and feels) terrific to me! I'm really part of the August Class, but thanks to all of my friends here for your support, and letting me post here. You have a great group of survivors here....
To all of you struggling/working hard on your sobriety, just take it one day at a time! Don't keep things bottled up inside; I don't believe that anyone can do this on willpower alone. Being completely honest with my wife/family, my sponsor, going to meetings, and most importantly turning my will and my life over to my higher power (God), is what is working for me.
Johnny
-----------------------
Sobriety Date August 1, 2012
-----------------------
One Foot in Front of the Other
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 582
Originally Posted by JohnnyOneDay
I don't believe that anyone can do this on willpower alone. Being completely honest with my wife/family, my sponsor, going to meetings, and most importantly turning my will and my life over to my higher power (God), is what is working for me.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Orange County, CA
Posts: 43
Good morning. Picking up my 60 day chip with my temporary home group tonight. I'm looking forward to it.
I'm still looking for meetings that really grab and keep my attention. There are sooooo many to choose from around here it's almost overwhelming! So, I've made a list, have crossed a few off, and keep chugging along. I know I'll find one to call home!
There's one that's held at the beach, on the sand (a few, actually). I've had a feeling that's going to be the one. I just can't seem to get my booty movin' early enough! I shall, though. Sooner rather than later. :-)
Hope you all have a great day!
I'm still looking for meetings that really grab and keep my attention. There are sooooo many to choose from around here it's almost overwhelming! So, I've made a list, have crossed a few off, and keep chugging along. I know I'll find one to call home!
There's one that's held at the beach, on the sand (a few, actually). I've had a feeling that's going to be the one. I just can't seem to get my booty movin' early enough! I shall, though. Sooner rather than later. :-)
Hope you all have a great day!
Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Cheshire, N.W England
Posts: 6,803
20.15
O.M.G I don't believe this, I've popped in here to give WWG and SoberJim a bit of earache and find half my lovely support circle here. Woohoo, it's a party and look who's come with me, the one and only 'Banana boys'
cups of tea all round!
Thanks for the kind words sjim, much appreciated.
Slim, W.T.H and Johnny, fancy seeing you here, do you come here often?
Eli, Hope and Twestlie, congratulations, you're all doing brilliantly.
WWG. SJim and Jimuk, you men need to pull together now and thrash this demon. You can do it, if I can you can. Honestly you can do anything if you REALLY want to do it!
Stay safe and sober. See you tomorrow.
O.M.G I don't believe this, I've popped in here to give WWG and SoberJim a bit of earache and find half my lovely support circle here. Woohoo, it's a party and look who's come with me, the one and only 'Banana boys'
cups of tea all round!Thanks for the kind words sjim, much appreciated.
Slim, W.T.H and Johnny, fancy seeing you here, do you come here often?
Eli, Hope and Twestlie, congratulations, you're all doing brilliantly.
WWG. SJim and Jimuk, you men need to pull together now and thrash this demon. You can do it, if I can you can. Honestly you can do anything if you REALLY want to do it!
Stay safe and sober. See you tomorrow.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: My city of ruins...
Posts: 593
HI! Still here...and still SOBER! Wow, it has been a challenging almost two weeks now since Sandy blew through (literally) and washed away any semblance of normal we've ever known.
Just wanted all to know that I am ok - just got power back TODAY. 12 days without power but 65 (I think!) days sober.
I am broken, exhausted, in shock and reeling still - but through it ALL I remained true to myself and my sobriety. And for that I am truly grateful.
WOW. So much I want to write - but my brain is like scrambled eggs. This has been quite the ride and it ain't over yet, but I am proud to share with you all that I made it so far without a drop.
I figure if I can get through THIS - a hurricane that destroyed my town AND a nor'easter a week later that dumped almost a foot of snow on our already weak infrastructure - I have NO excuse to drink again. EVER. I know it will try to trick me but I am hopeful that all I have learned will shield me from temptation.
I have yet ANOTHER trigger coming up - an out of town jaunt into the dubious world of rock n roll - but I am feeling strong.
Phew, what a ride. Sorry I haven't been able to catch up on posts - just got wi-fi back and jumped right into a quick post. I will be slowly restoring normalcy to my life and you will for sure hear more from me as that takes place.
THANK YOU all for your support and for just being here.
Just wanted all to know that I am ok - just got power back TODAY. 12 days without power but 65 (I think!) days sober.
I am broken, exhausted, in shock and reeling still - but through it ALL I remained true to myself and my sobriety. And for that I am truly grateful.
WOW. So much I want to write - but my brain is like scrambled eggs. This has been quite the ride and it ain't over yet, but I am proud to share with you all that I made it so far without a drop.
I figure if I can get through THIS - a hurricane that destroyed my town AND a nor'easter a week later that dumped almost a foot of snow on our already weak infrastructure - I have NO excuse to drink again. EVER. I know it will try to trick me but I am hopeful that all I have learned will shield me from temptation.
I have yet ANOTHER trigger coming up - an out of town jaunt into the dubious world of rock n roll - but I am feeling strong.
Phew, what a ride. Sorry I haven't been able to catch up on posts - just got wi-fi back and jumped right into a quick post. I will be slowly restoring normalcy to my life and you will for sure hear more from me as that takes place.
THANK YOU all for your support and for just being here.
Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Cheshire, N.W England
Posts: 6,803
IWW you are one amazing, inspiring person! So glad to hear you didn't get hurt and I'm really sorry about the devastation caused by Sandy. You really have been true to yourself and yes, if you can get through that last 12 days, you can certainly beat the A.V. You wont have any problem at the Rock n Roll jaunt. You can do this, you are doing this! xx
Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Notheast US
Posts: 524
IWW:
So glad to hear that you are doing so well under such extreme circumstances. I think of you and your Jersey shore community every day.
Don't know if you saw this, but I will share it with you...it seemed to resonate well with people who grew up on the Jersey shore:
CNN PRODUCER NOTE aliciacook86 grew up going to the Jersey Shore every summer for as long as she can remember. And in 2002, her family moved to the Shore permanently. 'I met the most influential people in my life there; people who have changed my life for the better whether they realize it or not. People I can't imagine not knowing or loving. … I hope one day to raise my children the same way my parents did for my brother, sister, and myself,' she said.
She was in Newark, New Jersey, when Sandy hit and she didn’t lose power until late that first night – late enough to see the “horrific” photographs of the JetStar Rollercoaster in the ocean and the destroyed boardwalk. 'My heart broke. … I watched as many of the places I grew to love got swallowed up by the ocean,' she said.
Last Wednesday, she drove to the house where she grew up on the Shore, and wrote this open letter to all the people who hail from the Jersey Shore.
- zdan, CNN iReport producer
I don’t grieve often, I don’t weep over the little things, but my heart aches tonight. With all the news surrounding Hurricane Sandy, this open letter is geared towards a specific group of human beings. This letter goes out to the kids who surfed under Casino Pier twelve months out of the year. This letter goes out to the kids who frequented the beaches in the winter just as much as they did in the summer, not for the tan, but for the feeling it gave them. This letter goes to the kids who turned a beach block into their own personal world as soon as the sun set. This letter goes to the kids who met lifelong friends at a renovated old garage arcade. This letter goes out to the kids who sat in their beach chairs the minute the forecast broke 60 degrees. This letter goes out to the kids who were pushed out of the good parking spots the minute Memorial Day Weekend hits. This letter goes out to the kids who have “beach feet.” This letter goes to the kids who get their food, money, and gas at WaWa. This letter goes out to the kids who still go to “Steaks” at 4am on a Saturday in April. This letter goes out to the kids who experienced “Teen Night” at Joey Harrison’s Surf Club. This letter goes out to the kids who drive on the streets while the traffic lights still blink yellow and the “One Way” signs aren’t yet in their place. This letter goes out to the kids who played beer pong on their parent’s white carpet. This letter goes out to the kids who knownot to feed the damn seagulls. This letter goes to the kids who drive to the ocean when they are having a bad day. This letter goes out to the blue eyed arcade attendants, badge checkers, and ice cream scoopers. This letter goes out to the kids who never cared about the sand in their sheets.
This letter goes out to exit 82. This letter goes out to the locals.
I am not the first or the last person to comment on how, in mere hours, many of us lost our childhood to rain and winds and, ironically, the one thing we loved the most: the ocean. The traditional definition of a “skyline” is usually synonymous to a busy urban city like New York or Philadelphia, but we locals had a skyline too. And this past weekend, that skyline was forever changed.
The ocean and bay have swallowed up everything, demolishing the boards where we have carved our initials. The boards we road our bikes on. Sitting on Ortley Beach, staring at the ocean, and looking to the right we always saw the same thing: our skyline. Our childhood. Our adolescence. We saw the silhouette of the Jet Star rollercoaster sitting almost magically over the Atlantic Ocean. We saw the Ferris wheel and its changing colors. If the ocean wasn’t too loud that day, you may hear the rise and fall of laughter. All that is gone now.
I don’t want to get too anecdotal, but I remember 7 years ago my best friend and I brought my younger brother and his friend to the boardwalk. Their reaction that night is forever seared into my heart and mind. It captured the innocence of a shore kid. This trip to the boardwalk was different from all of the other countless trips I took. I was with two young kids who never were on the boardwalk without adult supervision and at night. The freedom they felt that night…the light in their eyes…if I could have bottled it up, it would have lit up the entire city just the other day. They were only ten minutes from home, but a world away.
Now, what I find most saddening about this life altering event is just that: it’s life altering. The day will come when I have children of my own and I will not be able to walk them around Casino Pier and say, “Mommy went on this ride,” like my parents relentlessly told me and my siblings. My parents, my father especially, were able to pull out old photographs and match them up to their present day setting. My father put me on the same carousel horse he sat on when he was a kid. Any human being can find comfort in that. In knowing that though everything in life changes…in certain moments…nothing in life can change too.
Our generation will not be able to connect with our children like that, and that is very unfortunate. I will not be able to drive around the shore town and point out most of the landmarks that have shaped me into the young adult I am today. I am positive our children will have a beach, and a local hangout-which may or may not be an arcade…and I am positive our children will be able to experience a boardwalk with rides and games and first kisses. I am even more positive though, that it will just not be the same in our hearts.
Like I said, our skyline has changed forever. The gazebo is gone. The gazebo, which was a town landmark and late night teenage hang out, located at the entrance of the beach and a centimeter from the dunes that had been “adopted” by some affluent family in 1992. All gone. The block we just called “3rd” is gone. A block that gave so many kids their first taste of freedom and their first taste of alcohol. The block where so many young people fell in love over and over again.
Now don’t get me wrong, we would pump our own gas before we gave up rebuilding something so many true New Jerseyans believe in. We are resilient. As a race, humans are born to survive – to face true devastation and grow. It will be rebuilt; all of it, but it won’t be the same. It will be new and shiny, just waiting for the next generation of locals to carve their initials into it and make it their own.
Here’s to the future, while remembering the past,
Alicia Cook
i
So glad to hear that you are doing so well under such extreme circumstances. I think of you and your Jersey shore community every day.
Don't know if you saw this, but I will share it with you...it seemed to resonate well with people who grew up on the Jersey shore:
CNN PRODUCER NOTE aliciacook86 grew up going to the Jersey Shore every summer for as long as she can remember. And in 2002, her family moved to the Shore permanently. 'I met the most influential people in my life there; people who have changed my life for the better whether they realize it or not. People I can't imagine not knowing or loving. … I hope one day to raise my children the same way my parents did for my brother, sister, and myself,' she said.
She was in Newark, New Jersey, when Sandy hit and she didn’t lose power until late that first night – late enough to see the “horrific” photographs of the JetStar Rollercoaster in the ocean and the destroyed boardwalk. 'My heart broke. … I watched as many of the places I grew to love got swallowed up by the ocean,' she said.
Last Wednesday, she drove to the house where she grew up on the Shore, and wrote this open letter to all the people who hail from the Jersey Shore.
- zdan, CNN iReport producer
I don’t grieve often, I don’t weep over the little things, but my heart aches tonight. With all the news surrounding Hurricane Sandy, this open letter is geared towards a specific group of human beings. This letter goes out to the kids who surfed under Casino Pier twelve months out of the year. This letter goes out to the kids who frequented the beaches in the winter just as much as they did in the summer, not for the tan, but for the feeling it gave them. This letter goes to the kids who turned a beach block into their own personal world as soon as the sun set. This letter goes to the kids who met lifelong friends at a renovated old garage arcade. This letter goes out to the kids who sat in their beach chairs the minute the forecast broke 60 degrees. This letter goes out to the kids who were pushed out of the good parking spots the minute Memorial Day Weekend hits. This letter goes out to the kids who have “beach feet.” This letter goes to the kids who get their food, money, and gas at WaWa. This letter goes out to the kids who still go to “Steaks” at 4am on a Saturday in April. This letter goes out to the kids who experienced “Teen Night” at Joey Harrison’s Surf Club. This letter goes out to the kids who drive on the streets while the traffic lights still blink yellow and the “One Way” signs aren’t yet in their place. This letter goes out to the kids who played beer pong on their parent’s white carpet. This letter goes out to the kids who knownot to feed the damn seagulls. This letter goes to the kids who drive to the ocean when they are having a bad day. This letter goes out to the blue eyed arcade attendants, badge checkers, and ice cream scoopers. This letter goes out to the kids who never cared about the sand in their sheets.
This letter goes out to exit 82. This letter goes out to the locals.
I am not the first or the last person to comment on how, in mere hours, many of us lost our childhood to rain and winds and, ironically, the one thing we loved the most: the ocean. The traditional definition of a “skyline” is usually synonymous to a busy urban city like New York or Philadelphia, but we locals had a skyline too. And this past weekend, that skyline was forever changed.
The ocean and bay have swallowed up everything, demolishing the boards where we have carved our initials. The boards we road our bikes on. Sitting on Ortley Beach, staring at the ocean, and looking to the right we always saw the same thing: our skyline. Our childhood. Our adolescence. We saw the silhouette of the Jet Star rollercoaster sitting almost magically over the Atlantic Ocean. We saw the Ferris wheel and its changing colors. If the ocean wasn’t too loud that day, you may hear the rise and fall of laughter. All that is gone now.
I don’t want to get too anecdotal, but I remember 7 years ago my best friend and I brought my younger brother and his friend to the boardwalk. Their reaction that night is forever seared into my heart and mind. It captured the innocence of a shore kid. This trip to the boardwalk was different from all of the other countless trips I took. I was with two young kids who never were on the boardwalk without adult supervision and at night. The freedom they felt that night…the light in their eyes…if I could have bottled it up, it would have lit up the entire city just the other day. They were only ten minutes from home, but a world away.
Now, what I find most saddening about this life altering event is just that: it’s life altering. The day will come when I have children of my own and I will not be able to walk them around Casino Pier and say, “Mommy went on this ride,” like my parents relentlessly told me and my siblings. My parents, my father especially, were able to pull out old photographs and match them up to their present day setting. My father put me on the same carousel horse he sat on when he was a kid. Any human being can find comfort in that. In knowing that though everything in life changes…in certain moments…nothing in life can change too.
Our generation will not be able to connect with our children like that, and that is very unfortunate. I will not be able to drive around the shore town and point out most of the landmarks that have shaped me into the young adult I am today. I am positive our children will have a beach, and a local hangout-which may or may not be an arcade…and I am positive our children will be able to experience a boardwalk with rides and games and first kisses. I am even more positive though, that it will just not be the same in our hearts.
Like I said, our skyline has changed forever. The gazebo is gone. The gazebo, which was a town landmark and late night teenage hang out, located at the entrance of the beach and a centimeter from the dunes that had been “adopted” by some affluent family in 1992. All gone. The block we just called “3rd” is gone. A block that gave so many kids their first taste of freedom and their first taste of alcohol. The block where so many young people fell in love over and over again.
Now don’t get me wrong, we would pump our own gas before we gave up rebuilding something so many true New Jerseyans believe in. We are resilient. As a race, humans are born to survive – to face true devastation and grow. It will be rebuilt; all of it, but it won’t be the same. It will be new and shiny, just waiting for the next generation of locals to carve their initials into it and make it their own.
Here’s to the future, while remembering the past,
Alicia Cook
i
Last edited by Dee74; 11-08-2012 at 03:27 PM. Reason: personal contact details
Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: My city of ruins...
Posts: 593
SlimSlim - thank you so much. I had not seen that and I'm so grateful you posted it for me. That is my story...and her letter helps me grieve the past while gathering strength for the future. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Grace - your support is valued and I will keep your words close to me as we start the process of rebuilding. Thank you for having faith in me...I'm finding in sobriety that it is important to know other people have that faith and I'm not alone in this.
A great big hug from me to all of my September classmates!!!! I love you guys and the understanding, compassion and support were key to my taking this all in sober. My eternal gratitude to you all!!!!
I get knocked down, but I get up again...Jersey Strong.
Grace - your support is valued and I will keep your words close to me as we start the process of rebuilding. Thank you for having faith in me...I'm finding in sobriety that it is important to know other people have that faith and I'm not alone in this.
A great big hug from me to all of my September classmates!!!! I love you guys and the understanding, compassion and support were key to my taking this all in sober. My eternal gratitude to you all!!!!
I get knocked down, but I get up again...Jersey Strong.
A girl can dream...
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Recovery Road
Posts: 388
Hi all,
I flunked out of class on Tuesday. Reunited with a bunch of people down on vacation and we all got into our drinks WAY too much. Regretted it the next day and remembered how great those 45 sober straight days were. I did it before so I'm going to do it again (the staying sober part, NOT the drinking part... lol).
I think I should depart and join the November class but I'll check back in to see how you wonderful people are doing. Keep going strong, my friends!
I flunked out of class on Tuesday. Reunited with a bunch of people down on vacation and we all got into our drinks WAY too much. Regretted it the next day and remembered how great those 45 sober straight days were. I did it before so I'm going to do it again (the staying sober part, NOT the drinking part... lol).
I think I should depart and join the November class but I'll check back in to see how you wonderful people are doing. Keep going strong, my friends!
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 1,525
Hey all. Checking in quick. We lost power again due to the snow. They now say we won't be re-restored until everyone who lost it during Sandy has been restored. Which is fair, but I may not be on as much for a few days. I'm still sober though and doing great on day 62!
Congrats to all on your milestones
and IWW, hang in there. You've done awesome through this whole disaster.
SBTS
Congrats to all on your milestones
and IWW, hang in there. You've done awesome through this whole disaster.SBTS
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