Bimini, sorry!

Great job on making it a sober Christmas, Undies. :)

Babs - It's so good to see you here!!!!!

Petals - What strategies did you use on Christmas? Any advice that you think may work for folks wondering how to ring in the new year sober?

Toots - I like your description of the holidays in Tootsville. I feel like I was there!

Drake - Your meal sounds like it was delicious. I find it disorienting sometimes watching people get drunk, especially when I'm the minority of the group. You're doing a great job.

BoozeFree - All sides of my extended family have their share of skirmishes when everyone is gathered under one roof, and if one of them is drinking, it amps the drama. I'm glad not to have fueled it this year. :) I hope you have fun with your new keurig brewer.

Carlos - I'm glad you had a nice Xmas.

Bimini - Glad to have you join the conversation.

Vandermast - how are you doing?

Saskia - It looks like your sober muscles are strengthening with each passing day. Good work.


I had to work today and getting a break from the dynamics at home was a relief. After work I skipped AA in favor of getting together with some friends. I only made it til about 9:00 pm before calling it a night. When I drank, I would have probably closed the place. Figuring out who I am, as a sober person, is continually evolving.

Have a good sober weekend!

I need the huge pics to know if I've posted in a thread or not :glasses
<also old :D

D

Bimini, Dee, Drake; I can recommend a reeeeally good optometrist in Dundee, and can guarantee a personal service!!! Lol

My daughter was meant to be working Christmas Day night, but had booked annual leave. The on,y call outs they ever get are to domestics. Families forced into each other's company + copious amounts of alcohol = aggro and someone cooling it off in the cells!

Hello all Undies!

Made it through Christmas without too much AV activity, struggling a little today as I have to go to a family party that I will be incredibly uncomfortable at and I should really be spending the day talking to landlords so I can get a place to live for my new job!

I am hoping to get through to a couple of places this morning so I can view them tomorrow.

(Oh and yes, as expected, my Dad has been his usual intolerable self. The day I move out will be a happy, happy day)

Peace and strength my dear Undies
LS

Oh, I hope you see something you like today, LS!

You'll do fine LS.

Happy almost new year everyone else. Haven't been around during the holidays, as we've been entertaining quite a bit - both my family and the DWs. Good for us neither group is really drinkers, and the only booze seen was some wine with Christmas dinner.

Very strange not to be drinking through the holidays - though do have a bit of trepidation heading up to new years. My wife keeps wanting to invite friends, but all of our friends drink - some rather heavily. And the challenge I've found since being sober is that I really don't like most people that I used to like when we drank. Hell, she could have invited anyone over, just so I'd have a drinking partner.

So it shall be interesting heading into New Year's, but I'm sure the Sparkman will manage solid sobriety the entire time.

Think about my Undie friends everyday, even when I'm not posting. Glad to read everyone's stories of the holidays, and my heart goes out to you GF. Everyone in my life has been 100% supportive of me quitting drinking, and I wish I could give you the same gift for Christmas.

Great to hear from you, Sparky. Sorry you'll probably have to deal with the old tedious, drunken "friends" over New Years. Excuse yourself often for 10 or 15-minute breaks away from the crowd. I usually recommend that for temptations, but there's no reason it shouldn't work for boredom, too! :sasmokin:

Hi undies
Quick check in before work.
I'll have to catch up on posts later today
Hope everyone has a nice weekend

LS - well done on staying sober. You've got some stressy life events coming your way - new job, new apartment, moving, dealing with your father. When my life gets busy I have found it helpful to set aside a little bit of time at the beginning of every day to work on my sobriety. I may not be able to change what happens that day, but I can decide if I'm going to focus on what I'm grateful for or dwell on what's bothering me.

Sparky - thanks for the kind words, ((sparky)). Healing takes time, and sometimes it's quicker when you cover it with a bandage. I couldn't force myself to be good company early on, and I opted to be alone a lot more than ever. With the passing of sober time, as I learn what my interests and limits and boundaries truly are, I find that I feel a lot more sociable. Listen to your boundaries now; it's like keeping a bandaid on when you first skin your knee.

Have a good remainder of the weekend Undies!

Hi Undies,

I have a few hours for just hanging out so I thought why not a few random thoughts:

Glee, your Friday bar experience was exactly like mine...ditto, 19. I even left at 9 pm from boredom. Are we related?

Coffee pot broke yesterday, bought a French press as a tide over...WOW, that coffee was amazing, but a pain to make.

Went on a date last night to a restaurant/bar. Again, after the food was consumed it was time to move on. Bars do nothing for me, and, consequently the date was below average. I had more fun dragging her to help me pick up a French Press.

Driving home from my date I remembered this meeting in Rector at this amazing church. It is a very high end affair, coffee with real cream from a silver setting. Pie with dishes, plates and real silverware! The Mellon's own 90% of the land in Rector...haha, it is where that war monger ex VP idiot, Dick Chaney, shot his friend in the face while quail hunting.

I was at a mtg on Christmas night, but still was feeling a yearning for one again last night. I have been around so much booze these last few days. Like a woman at the mtg said, dressed to the 9's and wearing her evening gown gloves, "I needed this meeting, not because I wanted to drink, I found my alcoholism (disease) taking over so many other aspects of my life"...and she was sober 25 years on May 3rd this past year.

Another man shared that he had just wrecked his brand new car. He continued that he could now laugh about it and the first thing he thought about after the wreck was, "Hey, I wasn't drunk and nobody hurt." He picks his buddy up for the meeting last night in this loaner Caddie and his friend asks where his new car is. He told him he wrecked it...first thing his AA buddy said was, "At least you weren't drunk!"...funny, but true!!

I will be hitting another restaurant bar again today for pre-game food and the drink will be abundant for the final regular season Pittsburgh Steeler football game. The saving grace for me is that I will be meeting my youngest, my favorite game day partner for the past many years. We only get to about one Steeler game a year together these days...but they are special. I love going to games with her! Oh, BF, are you following the exercise regiment she suggested to strengthen your shoulder?

Enjoy the day, Undies!

Carlos

I hope you and your daughter have fun at the game, Carlos.

I love that a woman can show up to meetings dressed in an evening gown and gloves! Do guys show up in tuxes?

Are there bathrobe and slippers meetings, too? :)

Hey Carlos! The Vice-President's name is Cheney. And your opinion has no place here. Happy New Year!

7 hour round trip, two house viewings, finally found a place!

So my new career and place to live is all ready to rock and roll, moving on Saturday.

All this over the holiday period totally sober.

What a year!

LS, you aren't alone. We're there.

Thanks Gilmer. Yes, youngest and I will have a blast. I have a Terrible Towel that I wave that has the Undies written on it...in fact I may have a pic? Feels like torture waiting for that game to start tonight.

Sorry to any I offended with my liberal, anti-war political views. I was wrong.

It wasn't your liberal, anti-war views. Just the general dis-respect. Agree with them or not, they're all elected.

I agreed with you and apologized for my view. I dropped it. I suggest you do the same and not judge me and who I respect or not.

Again, my view was misplaced and does not belong on a recovery site. I apologize for any I may have offended with my view.

Thanks for your apology Carlos.

(Edit:Thanks for yours too Trach)

I think we should all move on now.

Dee
Moderator
SR

I have a problem being forgiving. My BIL is an addict and hurts my sister daily. Carlos, I'm sorry for transferring that anger to you. I did.

Folks, I have all my own problems and try to handle them. When I fail, please tell me.