We are not a Glum Lot.....

I awoke last Saturday morning at 6.30, after really wanting to sleep in but not being able to, because my need to write was stronger than my need to sleep.  In pondering what to write about, I was thinking I should write about the 70,000 attendees I just shared space with at the Int’l AA Convention last week.  That’s what I should write about – but naw, my first thought was, we are not a glum lot.  So that’s what I’ll write about.  No need to get down and dirty about the convention.  Other writers have written about it this week and I couldn’t have said it any better.  What I do need to recognize is how full and amazing my life is because I am sober and because I say YES to life.  I said Yes over 11 years ago to “check out that meeting” and for that I’m grateful as I know I’ll never be able to fully pay back what has been so freely given to me; but I can try to, little by little, smile by smile, and maybe be a tad nicer to others that walk the earth with me.  What’s that bumper sticker? “Practice random acts of kindness” – Sure I’ll try that.  I see this lasting about five days or so. I’ll let you know how that turns out. 

In getting back to work this week I think I had some post partum depression from my last two weeks of gallivanting to San Diego and Atlanta.  I worked three days in between these two trips (someone needs to get paid), and my mantra walking away from these trips is that we are not a glum lot.    

My first trip away was a five day visit to my homeland of San Diego – Encinitas to be more accurate.  I call it my homeland because that’s where I got sober, and that’s where I feel most at home, that’s where my peeps are.  My posse, my tribe, whichever you wanna call them.  One of my girls got married and we were all able to be in attendance at her wedding and we were all sober and it was a drama free trip.  Imagine that - drama free! It took about six years of being sober before my life started moving into the drama free zone.  That shit didn’t happen overnight.   My husband and I stayed with friends during our visit and in years past I normally got us a hotel so it could feel like more of a vacation - but this time around we decided to bunk, rub elbows, and share bathrooms with children, pets and the like.  And ya know what? Its way better doing it this way. I can have those special moments of going through her closet or sitting outside in their backyard while she smoked or watching that lame ass show on HGTV with her; these were the moments I relished.  My friends are awesome and they get me and they want me to stay with them (or so I think they do).  Lucky me gets to go back in four weeks for another friend’s wedding.  After this trip I don’t know what else I’ll be going back for since we’ll all be married by then. I guess they’ll have to be trips to just visit.

Trip two was the International AA Convention to Atlanta.  This trip was so overwhelming I’m not even to go into the details and logistics – but I will sum it up with a couple of sentences.  If I only went to the Big Meetings on Friday and Saturday evening, that would have been enough.  If waiting in line was an Olympic sport, I could have received the Gold or Silver;  Saying the serenity prayer with 70,000 other drunks could was pretty spiritually profound – it was definitely in the Top 5.  The Top Five is what I call the five most amazing things that have ever happened to me in my life. Ever. 

Now I feel compelled to share that list;

1.      Getting sober. 

2.      Meeting Bob Weir (and smoking pot with him-not very AAish of me, but this was pre 2004).

3.      Getting married to my husband (and still being married!).

4.      Rescuing Lucy.

5.      Having a god in my life that shows up, keeps me sober and gives me amazing gifts:  Saying the serenity prayer at the IAAC, publishing my Memoir, giving me a career and amazing family and friends that love me.

So theoretically, its really the Top 9. I can work with that.