jscorpio

My oldest brother and his wife came up to Spokane from Salem, Oregon to visit for the weekend. They are staying at my moms house while they are here, so I went to my moms house to visit them on Friday. Well Friday night my youngest brother invited my visiting brother, and anyone else who wanted to attend, to come to his house and hang out around the fire pit. Well I know from experience that the fire pit and copious amounts of alcohol go hand in hand so I politely declined the invitation. 1 Bullet dodged.

So instead of the fire pit, another brother of mine asked me to go to dinner with him. I am an isolator and everyone in my family knows that, but I accepted the invitation anyway. (a free meal). This brother is now sober, but has had 5 dui's and a load of legal problems because of his drinking. He never drank at home, but he hung out at the bars mostly on weekends. The problem is, he still hangs out at the bars and just doesn't drink alcohol. So he takes me to a pub called Charlie P's for dinner. I was nervous about going into a bar, but I knew I wouldn't drink in part because my family knows I am sober now and my brother wouldn't have let me. We both had a prime rib dinner, shot the s*** for awhile and left. I came home, checked in at SR, read awhile and went to bed. 2 bullets dodged.

So yesterday, Saturday, I went back to my moms to spend some more time with my visiting brother. I was having a lot of anxiety and just didn't feel quite right, and there were more people coming over to see my visiting brother. Since I was feeling 'out of sorts', I made an excuse and left before more people showed up. Around 4:00 I received a text message from one of my sisters. They were going to do dinner at my moms and she asked me if I was coming over. Well since I wasn't feeling quite right, I was honest and told her that I was feeling 'out of sorts' and didn't feel like being around people and declined the invitation. Stayed home, checked in at SR, read my book for awhile and went to bed.

So this morning I get a text message from my brother, the one I went to dinner with Friday night. He lives with my mom. He asked me if I wanted to go to breakfast with him, my mom, my visiting brother and his wife. Well since my brother is heading back to Oregon today, I accepted the invitation so that I could say goodbye, and what the heck, another free meal right. My brother said he would come by and pick me up. Well on the way to the restaurant my brother preceded to fill me in on the events of Saturday night dinner at my moms.

My little brother, the one with the fire pit, showed up with a bottle of booze. He had his wife with him. One of my sisters was there along with the visiting brother and his wife, my mom, the brother that lives with her and the daughter and son in law of the visiting brother. Well there is a situation with my mom that I won't go into detail about, this post is way to long already. Anyway, the family is divided about the situation with my mom. The brother that brought the bottle with him (my favorite drinking partner), started drinking and brought up the situation with my mom. In the end he ended up storming out of the house to walk home. His wife decided she better go after him, but not before getting into with my sister. Well my visiting brother decided to chime in and he and my sister went at it and said a lot of things to each other that were hurtful. Mt visiting brother and his wife ended up going to my little brothers house to help him finish the bottle of booze.
3 Bullets dodged

So I ended up going to breakfast this morning, I kept my mouth shut about what I had learned in the car on the way there and after breakfast wished my visiting brother a safe trip home and said goodbye. The brother that I was riding with brought me home. When I got in the door, I got down on my knees and thanked God for letting me feel 'out of sorts' and decline the invitation to dinner, which I am sure would have left me wanting a drink after all of the drama. So here I am, all of my relationships with my family in tact and another day sober. Hope your weekend went well. The End.

IWillWin

j - wow, that's a ton of drama. From your join date I assume you are a month or so sober? Wow, you should pat yourself on the back for putting your sobriety first this weekend. You anticipated situations, participated in a healthy way and didn't drink.

That is a huge accomplishment. During my early attempts at sobriety a hangnail would throw me into a tailspin and right to the bottle. You should be very proud!

jscorpio

Thanks Iwillwin, 54 days today.

nigey1

Great result sounds like best possible outcome and great restraint not to even mention it at breakfast. Amazing how after some sober time you start making the right decisions. I'd gift myself a free lunch or trip to the movies after that.

wpainterw

You're on a roll! Keep doing what you're doing. But don't let your guard down. Don't assume you've got it all licked yet. The booze has lots of patience and doesn't mind biding its time.

W.

Deluxe

Awesome efforts my friend. Sounds like you consciously stayed in the day and managed your sobriety. Took each issue face on and dealt with it as it came. I bet you were also very grateful that you didn't drink and become involved in the BS.

Huglets

Job well done jscorpio!! Almost nothing can get us going like family drama!

You followed your gut when you felt out of sorts. Great wisdom in early sobriety. Keep it up!

Sally3127

Great post. As the Promises of AA tells us "we will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle of us." You did just that. Great job.

deeker

Woohooo! That is a real accomplishment. Way to set boundaries! That was awesome. Ya know what Deek means? To dodge.lol

U were a good deeker this weekend!

ok so it's spelled deke.


deek means a dork and a geek.lol

deeker

What she said!