Mr. SponsorPants

before uber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Before Uber and all the ride sharing services,

back when I was drinking

my most common method of transportation was

by ambulance!"

 

 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings: "Professional non-feeler."

 

 

 

 

 

"Some alcoholics drink to stuff their feelings; to bury them deep down.

Me? I was raised to never express anything inappropriate, never display any strong emotion.

I'm a professional non-feeler.

I didn't drink to stuff my feelings. I drank to feel them."

 

 

 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings: "...pulled the trigger."

 

 

 

 

 

"When it comes to my addiction, I think genetics loaded the gun, but the decisions I made, my behavior, pulled the trigger."

 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings: "Man, that is a perfect metaphor for my alcoholism..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

"So, I've always been an avid reader. And at one point in my early sobriety I became a little obsessed with death, so I was poking around all the used bookstores in my neighborhood for books that were a little... well, macabre, I guess. Anyway, I found this one book that was all about the Eskimos and surviving -- or not surviving, maybe -- winter in the extreme North. I don't remember much about it except this one thing: In the worst part of the winter, when hunting was at its hardest and everyone and everything was pretty much starving to death, the wolf packs would start to track the Eskimos as they followed their own game to hunt. And what the Eskimos would do is they would take a knife, and sharpen it and sharpen it and sharpen it until it was to the finest edge they could make it. Then they would cut one of the dogs and get the dog blood all over the knife blade.  Then they'd stick the knife, hilt down, blade up, in the snow. The wolves driven by starvation would be in a frenzy when they smelled the dog blood on the blade of the knife, and before they could stop themselves, would lick the blade, cutting themselves until they bled to death. Every sense they had told them to lick the knife, and every lick of the knife moved them closer to bleeding out. And I thought, "Man, that is a perfect metaphor for my alcoholism. When I'm in a frenzy, my every sense tells me to drink, tells me that THAT'S what I need. And every time I drink I move closer to kind of... spiritually bleeding out. And that can absolutely lead me to death as certainly as those poor wolves freezing in the snow."

 

 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm an alcoholic... which basically means I'm an angry people pleaser who swings wildly back and forth from doormat to defiant.

 

 

Laughter in an AA meeting almost always indicates identification.

Personally, when I heard this, I howled.

 

 

 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings: ...what kills the oldtimers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sure, it's very much resentment which takes out the newcomers.

The book's not wrong about that.

But from what I've seen, I think pride is what kills the oldtimers.

 

 

 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings: Watch out for the A.N.T.s!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heard this in a meeting this morning and thought it was a great acronym.

And (as I've written about here before) I guard against not only the automatic negative thought undermining my sobriety (and serenity) but also from assuming that a negative thought is somehow "more realistic" than a positive one.

That's just bullshit. Positive thoughts are not unrealistic.

Thoughts are thoughts, some good some bad, some healthy some less so. I may not choose what pops into my head but I can certainly select what I choose to focus on -- which can then be instrumental in getting into action (which is ultimately how I transform my thinking). 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings: Stop me if you've heard this one before...

 

 

 

 

 

 An old-timer comes home from his home group meeting, gets ready for bed, and is on his knees saying his evening prayers.

He's in the middle of his "God blesses" saying "God bless the guy who says the same thing no matter what the topic, God bless George, the 'cake lady,' God bless . . . " suddenly he pauses and looks up. Then says, "You know God. I wonder if there is AA in heaven. If there isn't AA in heaven, I don't know if I want to go there. These folks are so important to me, I don't want to spend eternity without them."

There's a bolt of lightning and a loud clap of thunder and then the old timer hears a Voice saying,

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is, there IS AA in heaven.

The bad news is, You're speaking tomorrow night."

 

 

 

Shooters - Quick shots from meetings: Just a sermon (it bears repeating)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shooters: Quick shots from meetings. Trying to be a learn-it-all