i still have some jay walker in me itch & toots! lol

is fbl MIA?

perhaps he's looking for a new avi?

After 5 years at SR, I've decided to move on. My sobriety is rock-solid and I want to thank all of you for your support over the years, it means more than you could ever know. I may still drop-in from time to time, but I'll always be here in spirit:)

Itchy- There are places that will scan your pics for you for a small fee. You just ship them away in a box, they scan them and return them. You might consider checking one of those out if you haven't already. Some things are worth paying somebody else to do!

FBL Old Bud!
I understand completely. Make sure you get my contact info should you ever need advice on computers or looking for where to get something, I enjoy doing that for a select few friends. I have thought the same thing many times. The trouble is, as in person, we can only have time for one or three good friends at most. The rest are regular acquaintances, some very irregular!

Now when things are slow, I'll have to turn on a light with your "spirit" haunting the place.

Good luck my friend. Next year I'll join you with five here. Remember:

"To live [sober] is so startling it leaves little time for anything else." ~ Emily Dickinson

:You_Rock_

RZ!
Jaywalker? Get with the times, Jay retired and took Jaywalking with him! Fallon doesn't do that, and we don't do beer pong and shots like he does.

DG,
Yes, I know, but I am fully re-tired and technically proficient. And have the tech here to do it. MY problem is that I am such a procrastinator that I put off the tedious things I never would have when I was working on a schedule, with deadlines! Now I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. You know what? I am going to stop procrastinating. Tomorrow.

Goodbye FBL and good luck. I hope I'll be able to get where you are.

^^^ lol!

all good wishes to you fbl

you will be missed, and your avi's too! lol

pop back when your in the neighborhood

love you loads

FBL-through my own ups and downs you've often had words of encouragement for me and I'll never forget that! Good luck in your life, friend. :)

IP, this is for you. Click on the PLAY tab.
Berlin | Hotels We Love

Dorothy!
All I can say is wow! Great link. I wish they had it opened up for folks who blend well to go on trips to report back with another. I'd come out of retirement for that.

Heyyy, thanks Dorothy! What a fun site, I'll definitely be using it as a reference! I've been to Cafe Einstein already, it is really cool! I was less than one block away from the Stasi Museum on Saturday, where I went for my job interview. So now I know exactly how to get there-it's only one tram ride away. :) Cool.
I'm starting to settle in and get my bearings. My immediate neighbourhood is crazy. It's right smack in the middle of about a million cafes, restaurants and bars, and next door from a section of old warehouses refitted for community arts, culture and sports. Itchy maybe you remember it it's called RAW. Not sure when you were there but it was done sometime in the 90s. SO there is constantly action going on outside my window which is taking some getting used to. :) But at home we live on an extremely busy street so there was constant traffic--this is better so I won't complain, TOO much. Also on the plus side I'm a quick walk away from a transit centre. Next thing on my to-do list (besides a job) is get a bike. Transit here is expensive.
I might have gotten a really good job, I'm waiting for the final word back. Fingers crossed!!!!!
Itchy--don't get me started on procrastination. Argh. I'm getting better at it though as I realize that the key to beating it is just starting your task before thinking about it. The human brain is inherently lazy. Well, mine is anyway. :lala

That site is awesome Dottie! What's your new Avatar btw? Xx

IP glad you are getting more settled hun.

Well, I just passed one year on the 26th of July.

And my first big test. Just lost my job of 23 years.
They closed our branch.
I'm doing fine, just in a little shock still.
At least I got 10 weeks separation pay.

Resolute - welcome!

So sorry to hear about your job - totally sucks!! But soooo much better that it happened now you are sober... things will work out in due course, I'm sure :hug:

Resolute, that sucks about your job, but they do say as one door closes another door opens. perhaps you can look on it as an opportunity to widen your horizons workwise? I hope you find something soon.

Congratulations anyway on your first year of sobriety

Resolute! :welcome

Grats on the year and at least not losing your job for drinking! Now you have to do without both for as long as it takes to get another position. We're here for ya!

IP,
I hear ya on procrastinating. Here's what you need!

I'll get that tomorrow Itchy!! Tomorrow is a procrastinators favourite word!

Thanks Itchy! Yeah I definitely need that!
So I got a job landscape designing! How cool is that? It's a bit weird because it doesn't pay much but it's full time and there will be a raise and it seems like it'll be fun. I can work from home half the time and the other half be in the field helping to install.
I'm nervous! It's going to be challenging without German but he seems pretty eager to make it work.
Also I'm up for a music writing internship which is SO exciting. I find out within the next few days.
Geez it's been so up and down lately!
Congrats and welcome Resolute--don't worry about the job see it as a whole new world of opportunities.

Today is 16 months or 487 days or 11,688 hours..however you want to count. Even with my up and down moods and sometimes exasperated that things are not magically 100% better, still the best thing I have ever done for myself. I have every intention to continue.

Enjoying being a part of the Over Crowd! :ring

Way to go Drake!! :)

Congrats Drake!

IP,
Life up and down lately? It is always up and down!

Like a roller coaster ride, it is over too soon! open your eyes until then, let go and :coaster
Wheee!

Drake, wow, congratulations! Happy 16th birthday. ;)

Congrats Drake :)

D

awesome drake, and good for you!

Congrats Drake

Well done on the jobs IP, I have a translator app on my smart phone which may come in useful for you? Let us know how the work goes, I'd love a landscaping job, I think I knew then what I know now, I would have chosen a career along that path on leaving school. ( that is if my dad would have let me, hmm probably not white collar enough for him!)

Hi Dottie how are you love?
I'm still recovering from a migraine so am off to find a dark quiet corner

Have a wonderful happy sober weekend everyone.

PHEW.
1) Flat. CHECK
2) Job. CHECK
3) Registry with gov't. CHECK (Four hours in line today.)
4) German health insurance. CHECK (20 minutes on the phone! Amazing.)
5) German bank account.
6) Tax registry. (They close at 1pm!? I found out today. After taking subway and walking there. Sigh.)

It's taken me so long to commit myself fully to being here, and get all this stuff done. I've been struggling with feelings of depression and isolation, and my lovely anxiety issues. But I am finally starting to relax and find some sort of routine. Also I feel lucky to have gotten a pretty sweet job, because it seems like a lot of people are struggling to find work here.

I've surprised myself with how much I hate instability.

I ran on the Berlin Wall Trail yesterday, from Lichtenrade through some beautiful forest and country side. It was so eerie being in such a pretty spot and knowing that so much death was there. I ran past a spot where a young man died trying to cross, his picture was there. Just a young guy. So sad.

Itchy I liked your rollercoaster analogy. :) You're so right, I should be enjoying the ride. So true that it'll be over before I know it.

Toots--my smartphone is locked, I have to find somewhere to unlock it. I miss it! I have this silly old phone right now that can barely text. Sorry you had a migraine!

Oh I have a tooth infection right now! It hurts so bad. So tomorrow I have to get a prescription for some antibiotics.

Drake I didn't say congrats! Congrats!!!

Itch Man, it was a great ride with you in those early days in 2010-11 on the sober-coaster. I got off and kept going down a couple more times. Just lucky I stayed on this side of the dirt.

So glad to be back on board with you now, my friend!

Hope everyone has a fun safe and sober weekend.

Carlos

IP!
You go girl! You are bringing back so many memories, keep the experiences coming. They will serve later for you as a diary as you will be able to read them five years from now here!

Glad you liked the analogy.

Carlos!
You? I was afraid for you because I saw you come back once then drop out again! I explained it to you back then but for the newer crowd let me give the long version of why the downs may just be perspective.

But first let me say that the roller coaster has been running 24/7 the whole time. You have no idea how glad I am to have you back. My contact stuff is the same.

Folks I found my downs were really ups and despite my trying to find pain in them, have to grudgingly admit after a full 30 seconds of throwing a self pity party, that that is quite enough now get BACK ON THE HORSE AND RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE!

There are people in the world who are afraid of public speaking, and folks who love it! I am one of the latter. but it really is no different for me than the person that fears it and becomes incapacitated. The only difference is my perspective and expective. ( I made that word up)

I get the adrenaline rush when approaching the stage, my hands are shaking, and my voice quivers for a moment. My bladder might suddenly feel full or worse! But I strap in enjoying the adrenaline rush because I have been successful before in public speaking, and the larger the crowd, the easier I can get them in the palm of my hand.

There are folks who jump out of perfectly good airplanes and float down to earth, and others who would not even go up in the plane. I Scuba and Ski. Why do we always want to go deeper or faster? (Scuba and skiing, get your mind out of the gutter Snoozy, I see you sneaking in a d reading here!)

It is because we become addicted to the rush. You see we all have the fight or flight reflex and when faced with something we assigned a fearsome expective to we assume that perspective. And when we conquer one level we lose the rush and want to get a little more.

I feel the same way as the person who skydives and passes out because of their expectives controlling their perspectives. Except I am screaming with delight!

If I fell out of a 150 foot tall window, I would be screaming in terror all the way down. But I can experience the same thing on a roller coaster and my expective changes my perpsective, and I scream in delight when we drop.

I also know that we learn from mistakes except for those who don't. So every bad thing turns out to be a teaching thing. I do not regret my alcoholism because I am who I am now because of it. I am very lucky to have been one who recovered because now I am immunized against drug or alcohol addiction. I'll stick to the safe things like jumping off snow covered mountains with planks strapped to my feet, and diving deeper than it is safe to suddenly come up from. See you can't just swim up after 15 minutes at 100 feet or the ascent will give you bends or kill you or both.

So my perspective is to put my hands up in the air, breathe deep, and when the downhills hit go Wheeeeee!
:coaster

See, my expective about life is that it will be over too soon. Thus my perspective is that I have to figure out how to enjoy the rush, of what might drive another to drink, but makes up the balance, of my life.

It really is a good thing that I don't party like I used to. I would be in big trouble. I really would. I know I would not be able to handle the free and easy attitude towards drinking here. It would not be long before I completely fell of the rails and did something monumentally stupid and drove away all of my potential friends with my crazy drunk persona. No to mention showing up to my new job smelling of booze, etc. etc.
At first I had moments of wishing I could drink, but now I see that I am so much better off. It is just the truth. I am handling things and living my life, however full of stress it is at the moment. If I was drinking I'd be living a life of fake fun, fake friends, and disappearing money. And daily misery.
Just....thank god. Is all I can say. I feel so healthy just knowing the alternative.

Oh yeah Itchy I LOVE made up words. And I get what you're saying about getting to like the adrenaline rush of fear and the unknown. It's a good thing to think about.

Popping in to say Hi. Did 50 km on the bike today and went put to lunch- life is easier when i am sober