The Sober Squad- Alcohol Free Living

@lorrainequiche59, thanks for the eloquent distinction. I hope my recent happiness about recovery from a “slip” didn’t encourage anyone to minimize such a thing. I think the revelation for me this time was that a slip isn’t inevitably a relapse leading to months of drinking. I recovered from that slip but consider myself to have dodged a bullet. A few “slips” become a very sad story for me. It’s taken me two years to have one drink that doesn’t quickly lead to a miserable downhill slide. So in no way am I encouraging “slips”!

As to the Quit-Lit money thing, I sprang big bucks ( for me) for Annie Grace’s intensive course ($500). So far there’s been nothing that I haven’t read or heard from her for free. And now I’m being told that the real benefit comes from the next level (expense-wise). I love Annie for helping me s ton on my journey so hesitate to criticize her in any way. She’s done s ton of good. As has AA. I’m just saying caveat emptor and hoping to save y’all some money if you’re like me. But the money might be well worth it for some. All meant with love.

Good Morning All

I think you are all fantastic and doing awesome. Even though I've only been posting here for a short while I haven't felt judged at all - and just like @whitpauly I'd never judge any of you either. My posts as well are about me and my personal feelings and journey and I'm always a little worried about sounding right when I type. I tend to be really up front and direct with a hint of sarcasm - which is all fine in person but can get lost or come off snobby and arrogant in this type of format so I am ALWAYS trying to not sound like that.

Anyway lots of posts about Annie so here is my 2 cents. I'm about half way through her free experiment and I listened to the audio version of her Naked Mind book twice. I really liked it and I really liked her mostly because I find I'm able to relate to her. We are similar in age, professional experiences, drink of choice and amount being consumed and reasons for drinking - in a lot of ways she was able to put in to words exactly how I was feeling about it all. That's my biggest draw - she's like me. I will admit there are a lot of repetitive themes from the book to the experiment and at this point I'm getting the most out of her special guests in the videos and I'm ok with that. I don't plan on doing the paid intensives but I'm sure that there are people out there that would really benefit from them so I don't want to say anything negative or pass any judgment. As much as I personally don't love the sales pitches (and they do seem pretty expensive) knowing her professional background is as a heavy hitting marketer I also 110% expected there would be a paid program piggy backed on to the free experiment. I'm just ignoring those emails for the extra stuff.

donimfp wrote: »

Oh shites! Just accidentally lost my post. Here goes.

Tomorrow is my last day of a harrowing year teaching wounded, incarcerated teens. So much pain, hope, and hilarity coexisting in one place. I’m motivated to stick my toes into screen/script-writing water based on this year. But first a week of just wiggling my toes in non-closed-toed gross jail teacher shoes! I never imagined feeling such gratitude for bare feet.

I’m going to take a break from contributing here for a while and just lurk and enjoy. I obviously miscommunicated and implied offense or criticism I did not intend at all. I appreciate everyone’s input and also do not mean to dis Annie Grace, whom I respect enough to dive into a costly course. I was just a bit surprised by the speed with which the next offer came.

I’m looking forward to day 63 tomorrow and a wonderful summer ahead. I wish us all delicious frosty AF drinks, new adventures, and bare feet!!!

Congrats on an amazing school year! I remember when you started it! You’ve been through ups and downs and you’ve had a wonderful AF spring! Hooray! I dont think anyone was offended; I was rereading posts and I didnt see that all. I myself do not like high pressure or daily emails from any business. I have to say I unsubscribed to Annie only because the daily emails were too much. She’s a great motivator and I applaud her for her efforts. I think one of the benefits of AA is that it’s free or $1 donation. I once looked into Craig Beck’s workshops and that was a ton of money. So, I am content just participating on this thread as much as I can. Love you guys!

P.s. I love your contributions to the thread. You can take a break of course, but I enjoy your insights!

RubyRed427 wrote: »

donimfp wrote: »

Oh shites! Just accidentally lost my post. Here goes.

Tomorrow is my last day of a harrowing year teaching wounded, incarcerated teens. So much pain, hope, and hilarity coexisting in one place. I’m motivated to stick my toes into screen/script-writing water based on this year. But first a week of just wiggling my toes in non-closed-toed gross jail teacher shoes! I never imagined feeling such gratitude for bare feet.

I’m going to take a break from contributing here for a while and just lurk and enjoy. I obviously miscommunicated and implied offense or criticism I did not intend at all. I appreciate everyone’s input and also do not mean to dis Annie Grace, whom I respect enough to dive into a costly course. I was just a bit surprised by the speed with which the next offer came.

I’m looking forward to day 63 tomorrow and a wonderful summer ahead. I wish us all delicious frosty AF drinks, new adventures, and bare feet!!!

Congrats on an amazing school year! I remember when you started it! You’ve been through ups and downs and you’ve had a wonderful AF spring! Hooray! I dont think anyone was offended; I was rereading posts and I didnt see that all. I myself do not like high pressure or daily emails from any business. I have to say I unsubscribed to Annie only because the daily emails were too much. She’s a great motivator and I applaud her for her efforts. I think one of the benefits of AA is that it’s free or $1 donation. I once looked into Craig Beck’s workshops and that was a ton of money. So, I am content just participating on this thread as much as I can. Love you guys!

P.s. I love your contributions to the thread. You can take a break of course, but I enjoy your insights!

Ditto! I wasn't offended by anything you said & would love you to continue contributing here, but you need to do what you need to do & take a break if that's helpful.

I can't remember who, a page or so back, commented on trying to get our point across and it being lost in translation from our brain to our typing it out...and what we "mean" to say doesn't necessarily come out as we meant OR we could be in a mood and it can color our view or the person reading (or skimming and not really reading carefully...I'm guilty!! of that at times) is reading what we wrote when they are feeling a particular thing and misunderstand our point.

What I am attempting to say in my rambling sort of way is, none of us here are perfect and we do not have to agree with what others write, but we if we begin to censor ourselves to avoid offending each other, I think it will lose some of it's flavor. So I hope you continue to share what is in your heart because it's valuable to us.

Ugh! Lost my post too,@donimfp I didn't read anything offensive in any of your posts either? Hope your toes enjoy their freedom haha and do hope you'll continue to pop in finally getting hot in Vegas,yay! I love the heat and even tho warmer weather is a trigger I also know it's too hot for a hangover so that helps,much love and have a Fab AF day!

@donimfp ditto to everyone else's response.. don't know what anyone would find offensive

Thanks y’all. I didn’t mean to be a drama queen. Just felt like maybe I was saying things unfortunately without meaning to out of sheer end-of-school-year exhaustion.

Life is so interesting. Today at least 5 juvie boy students surprised me with hugs and things like “I’ll miss you. Have a good summer “. These same little criminals were telling me to f* this or that stupid assignment last week or so. I’ve learned so much this year about how many kids come from horrendous circumstances and can’t help grieving for them when I see the excellent parenting my granddaughters are receiving and realizing that my jailed students for the most part just lacked parenting through no fault of their own.

May God have mercy on all of us. We all need it for sure. I promise I won’t go off on this tangent again, but since this is my first night “in the free” as they say, I urge you parents to give your kids an extra hug and grandparents (like me) to praise your own kids to the rafters for doing a great job with your grandchildren. I’ve seen how much it means to my daughter since I’ve been telling her what an awesome mom she is.

So much for my silence. Sheesh.

PS. Did not go out end-of-school drinking with my colleagues much as I love them.

@lorrainequiche59, I hope your day was as FUN as you were anticipating. Having fun, or more precisely experiencing joy, is what I’m most anticipating this summer. It’s going to take me a while to decompress from my job,I think. And today negative self-talk has tried to muscle its way in. Life sure is an adventure isn’t it? The AF journey just adds another layer for people like me who have used alcohol to avoid the intensity.

I plan to take this year’s first dive into our deliciously cold river in the morning. That river is my safe and healing place. Wishing everyone a good day of clean, pure enjoyment tomorrow.