Hi friends. Well, it would seem that I lied. No time for a longer post today. Little did I know, when I arrived home late last night, that my wife had invited most of the neighborhood over for Smores and belated fireworks, today. I will make it a point to get on earlier and have a proper post. Very tired now. Off to bed.

@Numblady: I’m sorry that work is infringing on sacred alone time! Hopefully you can speed through the necessary tasks and put a pin in it for the rest of the weekend and just kick back and enjoy your freedom. I hear what you mean about household chores and tidying - though I don’t have kids myself, I sometimes feel as though cleaning and organizing the house is just a never ending exercise in futility and fruitless effort, as once you make some ground, the mess and chores just start clocking up all over again!! Happy you at least have had some time to enjoy yoga and look forward to your bike ride. Enjoy the calmness of the house and hopefully the police don’t make an appearance this time! :-)

@Chase: Hope you enjoyed s’mores and fireworks though I can imagine it was probably the last thing you wanted after a tiresome journey home! Get some much earned rest and we look forward to your catch up when you have time.

I started the morning with a Bikram yoga class and then came home and made a really yummy, healthy lunch for my husband and I. We are just relaxing spending some down time together now until we have to leave to drive to my parents’ who live about an hour and a half away. We’re going for dinner with my family tonight for my sister in law’s birthday this evening, which will be nice.

Hope everyone having a great weekend so far!

Hi all! Well, it's only noon here and I feel like I've packed in a day's worth of tasks. I did walk a 5k, which for me is pretty good since I am soooo out of shape. Of course, I used it as an excuse to get a candy bar afterwards, which was great. :)

I highly recommend the book I'm reading, a recovery memoir called "Lit" by Mary Karr. I feel like she really captures the guilt, shame, and marriage issues that arise because of drinking, and her writing definitely has the ring of truth to it (unlike, say, Elizabeth Vargas's, which was enjoyable but for some reason, didn't seem very honest and therefore, not as compelling).

Lots to do today, but I'll be checking in as much as possible! :)

Well done on the 5k @Palmer, I hope you enjoyed that candy bar!! Thanks for the book recommendation, I’ll be sure to check it out! :-)

Well, here is a few free minutes before the kid's bath time.

So nice to see everyone so active.

Numblady, just when it seems like your job couldn't be any more stressful you have to deal with someone who knows better, because he did your job once upon a time, or some others who seem to be criticizing you for not drinking. That is all so frustrating. It sounds like it will take some time, but I continue to hope you are able to hire the help you need. Hopefully you are enjoying some quiet time at home, alone. Just like you, that would have been prime drinking time for me. I think that when I am home alone, and not working on something every second of the day, I feel very lazy because in the past if I had 4 days alone, I would have to spend the first day and half working non-stop, so that I could spend the next two and a half days completely drunk. The amount of planning and energy that went into being a 'high functioning' drunk is incredible. I hope the bike ride was nice.

Palmer, great job on the walk. Speed, distance, that stuff doesn't matter. All that matters is that you went out and did it. Glad you had a productive morning. I hope you are making some good headway in the unpacking. That is not a fun job.

Newchapter, I hope the private lesson went much better. I think we all have those days, where everything feels off, even things we are normally good at. Maybe we need those bad days to appreciate the good ones. Great job getting through your very busy week. Enjoy, hopefully, a relaxing weekend and time with family.

Dee, that quote about graveyards being full of indispensable people is great. I remember working for a small company. I put in 12-14 hour days, 6 days a week. I remember thinking "when I leave this company will fall apart." Funny thing though, after a while I did leave, and the company did just fine. I could have done a good job and worked hard, but probably much less, and been much happier, personally. I guess we live and learn.

I spent most of the day doing yard work, but got a lot done. Also got a short workout in. Off to bathe the kid and then bed time for everyone.

Chase, impressive catch-up! Thanks for your encouraging words about the job and also sharing the story of the job where you worked so hard only to realize you didn’t have to slam yourself the way you did.

NC, I also meant to say I was impressed with your big catch up the other day. It’ was one of the weird thoughts that comes through my mind when i’m Trying to sleep. Kind of funny but that is what happened. I kind of startled and realized I hadn’t said anything to you.

Palmer, I’m always impressed with your steady posting so can’t leave you out of my love fest here :). I loved Lit. And Parched. And Drinking to Distraction. and just about every well written drinking memoir I can get my hands on. I’ve sort of devolved into less well written ones but oh well! My all time favorite is Mommy Doesn’t Drink Here Anymore. I also really surprisingly got a lot out of the Sober Diaries. Anyhow, all by way of saying I share your love of the book. I now want to read LIar’s Club too. Also way to go on the 5k! Having just eaten a bowl of ice cream in bed I really can’t judge you for a candy bar.

HI Dee, Sunflower, Scotty, BTLover, any long lost lurkers (come back!).

It was a good day. It was nice to just not be in a hurry and working through chaos. I still of course didn’t do everything or even close to everything on the list but I did a good bit. I’ll probably blow off tomororow’s ride and do something shorter just so I can get to some more of the work and household stuff it’s harder to do with young people underfoot.

It’s 9:30 and I’m pretty much nodding off. Talk to y’al tomorrow!

Hi all! Early Sunday morning with lots to do. I could have easily slept another 2-3 hours, but oh well...maybe I'll sneak a nap in later! I've been super lazy lately, sleeping in frequently and pushing some things to the side, although what I'm left with is definitely enough to keep me occupied. ;)

Wow Numblady, you are the queen of recovery memoirs! I would totally recommend The Liars Club (even better than Lit, although more focused on her parents than her). I'll definitely check out Mommy Doesn't Drink Here Anymore, too. I stayed away from these types of books for a long time, but now that I'm looking to re-up my recovery and support, I'm much more interested. I'm so happy that you have some solitary time, free of your husband and kids. On the rare occasions that I travel for work, I think, "wow, just worrying about me is pretty relaxing!" In terms of stress, I'll take work over kid drama any day.

Chase, thank you for spending some time to catch up with everything. You spoke some wise words about the time and energy required to be a "functioning" drunk, I used to wonder what would happen if I were to use all that planning, organization, and strategic thinking for good instead of evil! How are you feeling in terms of your recovery support?

NewChapter, a morning of yoga followed by a healthy lunch sounds so incredibly nice and relaxing! I hope your visit to the stables was better than the last time, I'm sure it will be. :)

Gotta run, but I'll check in later!

Good morning! Palmer, I slept some extra for you :). Slept from around 9:30 to almost 7. Bad numblady! But it felt so good. And now I’m blowing off riding and the HIIT workout I was going to do if I didn’t ride. And just doing yoga :) I almost laught because it is pretty much without fail that I can never make myself get up in time to get the whole thing done before other people wake up and there I am trying to lie in savasana (corpse pose) and my husband is using the toilet or my daughter is playing her annoying and probably age in appropriate tween shows, or my son is up and playing battle games right next to my yoga mat. Today I only have to contend with the cats!

Hope you all have an awesome day. I will be back later! :) :)

Hi Class!

Just back from our trip to visit my family and about to get the house in order and prepare some meals for the week ahead so that I can stay on track with the relatively healthy eating plan!

Had a wonderful visit home and really enjoyed spending quality time with my parents, brother and sister in law - and of course the dogs!! We went for a lovely meal last night and for a beautiful hike by the sea today which was just perfect. It really made me take stock of just how much my life has changed since I’ve stopped drinking. Previously, I would have drank too much at dinner and been embarrassed/hungover the next morning and so would have to leave early to nurse said embarrassment and hangover in the safety of my own home. Instead, we got to take in some beautiful scenes in the fresh air while taking exercise and spending quality time, and even got to stop in to visit my grandparents on the way home afterwards. I know which version of life I prefer for sure.

@Chase: Hope you got a good night’s rest!

@Numblady: I hear ya re: struggling to get up at the time you had intended to achieve all your wonderful plans - I too am great for planning, but less so at following through when the alarm goes off!! You are usually a super early riser though - so don’t beat yourself up for allowing your body a little extra rest while you have that brief opportunity. You always seem to be so busy and hyper productive, I think you’ve earned a little down time :-) I hope you enjoyed an interruption free yoga session! Thank you for your kind words re: catch up post - don’t be silly I wasn’t expecting special responses, I just had so much I wanted to catch up on with you guys after reading all your posts from during my absence!

@Palmer: Sorry you didn’t get to have a little extra rest, it sounds like you sure could use it! I can’t imagine how exhausting life must be for you right now. I hope you get even a sacred few minutes of ‘me time’ before Monday kicks off a whole new cycle again!

Hi to anyone else out there!:grouphug:

Hi friends. Just a quick one today. One of those busy but unproductive days. I did sneak in a run, but it was less than great. I can't remember who coined the term slow lumbering beast, but I was the quintessence of that today. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight and have more energy tomorrow.

Go Team SLB!!

Day got away from me. Thought I’d be back with more time but alas. Talk to y’all tomorrow. Sleep tight!

Morning Class!

@Chase: I know the SLB feeling all too well - I think all we can do on those unproductive days is take solace in our efforts and the fact that we at least tried our best!

Speaking of productivity, this will be the first ‘normal’ week I’ve had in terms of work schedule and engagements in weeks, so I’m really counting on catching up on all those tasks that have been sliding and mounting in the background and causing extra stress and anxiety. Here’s hoping it goes to plan!

Unfortunately I am up 2lbs from the weekend even though I took exercise, leaving last week at a net balance of only 1lb lost. Hoping to do better this week and hit my target of a net loss of 3lbs!

Hi all! I'm sitting here at work and unfortunately, I have a major case of the Mondays (Office Space, anyone?) Actually, it's nice to be here instead of at home, rambling around among the walls of boxes and trying to get enough work done so that I don't feel guilty about not being productive.

NewChapter, your time with family sounds absolutely perfect! I totally know what you mean about feeling hungover and waiting for the activity to be over, vs. actively engaging in something positive. There is really no comparison at all.

Numblady, I hope you're still enjoying your little break from (some) responsibilities, and that your husband and kids are having fun, wherever they are! Your beach trip is coming up, right? That's the one that you've been thinking about for a while, so I'm interested to hear your take on it. When my AV starts talking, it doesn't bother saying "you weren't that bad," because come on...please. I was. But it does occasionally suggest that "this time, you just have to control it," which is utter BS and so far, dismissed easily as such.

Chase, it seems like you're always so good about prioritizing exercise...I find the SLB image hard to conjure up for you! ;)

I'll be checking in throughout the day, and I hope everyone is having a good one!

@Palmer your post made me laugh with the reference to Office Space - I love that movie, it's too funny! Hope your day is on the up at least!

Yeahhhhhhhh, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday too, that would be great. (My gratuitous Office Space quote).

Seriously though, I have no idea what happens to these days. One day I am going to hire a film crew to follow me around so I can see how I can go all day without sitting down but also without actually accomplishing anything. The goal is to compose a proper post tomorrow. Now it is off to bed.

Ha! Like the film crew idea. Well as for me the day just got away again but it was pretty productive. And now I sleep. More tomorrow my friends!

Just a quick fly by. He’s ok, but my partner was rushed to hospital a week ago so Ihave been MIA on here.

He’s finally home at my place, I am exhausted as my son was a bit tricky too.

No interest in alcohol as stress relief. My son and I are still going away as planned next week, so hope to have more time soon.

Sorry to post and run.

I'm sorry its been a rough week but i hope you enjoy your sober break scotty :)

D

Hi all! Love all the Office Space fans, ha!

Scotty, I'm so sorry about your partner! That sounds incredibly scary, but it's a good sign that he is home with you. I can imagine that your son's sensitivities might be causing some challenges too. We are here for you whenever you need us. :grouphug:

Bright and busy day planned for today. I need to get into the office so I can wrap some things up and get home to help my son with his sports training. Neither of us are particularly athletic, but we are trying. It's been a good way for us to bond and enjoy each other's company, plus I've gotten more exercise lately than I have in years. I also recently rejoined a weight-loss/wellness website, which is really helping me to stay on track...it's only been a week and a half, but I'm already seeing some good results. The idea of finally losing this excess weight makes me feel so hopeful and excited, even as I know there will be setbacks and plateaus along the way. Because I'm sober, I feel better able to handle these inevitable challenges with some emotional even-ness, rather than becoming completely undone and giving up at the first sign of failure.

Well, off to slay the proverbial dragon...I'll be checking in all day! :)

Hi Class!

@Scotty: I am so sorry to hear about your partner. I hope it’s a speedy recovery, no doubt he’s in great hands with you. Have a wonderful time on your trip with your son and be sure to pop by to let us know how it goes!

@Palmer: I just love that you and your son are bonding over something so healthy and positive. Such a wonderful and special thing to have, creating memories you will cherish in the future. I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments around sobriety positioning us so much better to handle any of the challenges that life grows at us. I definitely find I am much more even tempered and better equipped to handle curveballs and steady myself much quicker when I do get stressed or upset.

@Numblady, @Chase, @Dee and anyone else out there, hope you’re all having a wonderful day!:c011: