I went to a meeting last night. Although I did consider attending an NA meeting while I was in Vegas (me and Las Vegas are on a single name basis now. You can only refer to it as ‘Vegas’ if you have actually been there. So.), I didn’t make it a priority so last nights meeting was the first meeting I had attended in over a week. A week is too long to go without a meeting, for me anyway.

It was good to see my friends in recovery and to meet some newcomers. The topic last evening was ‘dealing with feelings in recovery.’ It has been said that this is a feelings disease and that the core of our using is an effort to change the way that we feel. This is certainly true for me. It is the day-to-day stuff that is difficult for me to handle. Give me a major crisis, a death, a wreck, a broken relationship, and I’m ready and focused to handle it. But, let me stump my toe, or loose my keys and I might go ballistic on you. Somehow when the Divine was equipping people with feelings I think I must have gotten mine and someone else’s. Anyway, it was great to connect and be reminded of how simple this program of recovery truly is: Meetings, Sponsor, Steps, Service! More...

Ahhhhhhhh

It is great to be back home, clean, healthy, and now rested.

More later.

Las Vegas Baby!

Some things to remember…

1. When you fly Delta from Atlanta to Las Vegas, you get to watch a movie for free, but to listen to the same movie; you have to pay $5.00. Ahhhh such extravagance!
2. The Las Vegas Blvd. strip reminds me of my home town of Myrtle Beach, SC…on steroids.
3. Food in Vegas isn’t that expensive. It appears that they make their money on something call gambling.
4. The world’s largest ‘adult’ night club is here in Vegas. I saw the sign that said so.
5. My body can’t read the clock here. The clock says “5 a.m. sleep,” My body says 8 a.m.WAKE UP!”
6. Not ALL Hotels give you free internet access. Sometimes you have to set up a new dial-up connection with MSN and plug into the Hotel phone line.

I miss my wife, my dog, my kids and my bed. And, I increased my gambling investment by over 400%. This fact sound great, but I have been playing the quarter slots. Total Theo winnings to date: $32.75.

Well it is time to get back to selling tee shirts in a smoke filled room with 100 pool tables and 500 fanatical pool players.

Rack em!

Sin City Here I Come!

Work is demanding that I go with our VP of Operations on a trip this week to Las Vegas...

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it! --grins--

plane leaving in 3hrs and 10 minutes...but, who's counting?

from my Sister...episode 2

My sister, six years older and seven inches shorter than me, sent me this.

This is a story about a girl. While at the funeral of her own mother, she met this guy whom she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing, so much her dream guy she believed him to be, that she fell in love with him there but never asked for his number and could not find him. A few days later the girl killed her own sister.


Question: What is her motive in killing her sister?


Give this some thought for a while before you click on more. Don't cheat and be as honest as possible. More...

Happy Easter!

Cute yellow chicks, hopping bunnies, pastel eggs, bright new dresses, lily clad altars...

More than these, my heart, my very spirit says, "Easter."

May the undying, eternal love of the Divine be yours this day!

Canine Meanderings...

walk the Dogma!

I'm so old, and white...

If you are ever singing along with a rap/hip-hop song, while your son and one of his friends are in the car, make sure you know the words.

And, it is not, "Go 'Charlotte' it's your birthday...''

Splat!

I found this here. Via Dave's blog.

What is next?

There be fairies about!

This morning...

White shimmering fairies hung in the distance. I stood in the kitchen, the twilight of the day’s journey from night to morn making it’s way, slowly, creeping through the trees. Wisps of thin vapor rose, caressing the tree trunks; willow oaks, maples, poplars, beech and a lone twisted cherry, as they stood anchored in the soil among granite boulders with the dancing water of the stream below. I looked again. “Fairies,” I thought, my mind bending in disbelief. I sat down my mug of freshly poured coffee and blinked my eyes. Stepping closer to the double window, straining now for a clearer look, gazing down the hill of my back yard, over the fence, and out into the trees at what was now a lovely dance, dozens of bright, white wings, fluttering gently in formation; each one moving up, down, fluttering left then right, always in perfect formation, never even one loosing it’s appoint place. Magic.

The sun rose. Then twilight became morning. I found myself looking at the newly opened petals of a small, scant dogwood, tucked quietly away among the trees, just across the stream bank. My eyes had deceived me. The fairies were gone, transformed in to lovely flowers.

Sometimes, I prefer my wondrous imagination.

To The Tune of Greensleeves?!

I cut the grass today.
My dog, Gizmo, now has Easter Egg green feet.

A Friday Post

blog friend

words on my screen
tokens of life well lived
speaking of actions, attitudes
options, for living

words of one's journey
signs, revealing and deep
challenging me to thrive, live
choices, for growth

words launched into timeless space
floating in e-land, wandering
come home and sink deep
lifting, my heart sings

words from you, my friend.

Touch The Whirlwind

After reading posts at eyesicle and sweetnsour, i penned these words:

Touch the whirlwind
Dance with the dervish
Find the frenzy
Embrace the fiend

We are where we are
Stillness feels lost
Chaos’ cost
Yet, peace is never far

This will end.

A Breath of Relief

ahhhhhh! Finally, i can breathe again. After Two days of feeling angry and down right grumpy, my mood has changed. Why? Don't know.

It seems that feelings come and feelings go. It seems that feelings are just a aprt of being human. It seems that sometimes my level of acceptance is really low. It seems that, through the program of NA, I am learning to act out much less on these uncomfortable feelings... so, I am very glad that I don't have any amends that I needs to make. My feelings that last two days were very strong, but, I didn't act out toward anyone else: no harsh words, no thrown objects. More...

Have you been to "The Gift"

Have you visited The Gift? Have you read about malformed creatures, The Stinky Cat, and graphic passion? Although, not necessarily in that order...

Why not take a stroll away from your life, and into the writer's mind?

Crap.

Today, I am mad as hell and I hate my job!

Land Of The Free?!

First event: It started a while back. I stopped at a local ‘Quick Stop’ to get gas. When I tried to turn on the pump and fill up with gas, I was greeted by the electronically replicated voice of the well intentioned attendant, “Sir, you will have to pre-pay.”

I usually pay cash for my gas. For reason’s that I will not go into, I don’t use credit cards..ok..i don’t have any credit cards…cuz, well, I destroyed my credit while I was ‘out there’ abusing prescription pills. Anyway, I was in a hurry so I trotted inside, waited in line for several minutes, handed the man $40.00 (I knew it would take more than $20 to fill up), and then went outside to pump my precious gas.

After filling up, I went back inside, waited longer in line, got my change and didn’t get a ‘Thank you.” Though mildly irritating, the experience only has become an issue recently. For now, in the last week, I have had two different ‘convenience’ (HA!) stations treat me the same way. When I asked why the new policy, I was told, “Because people drive off without paying,” and “That’s just our policy, sir.”

Second event: In the last four days, I have been greeted at three of my customer’s businesses by locked/alarmed doors. Each of these companies has heretofore allowed me to enter, visit with employees, and sell my services to them. Their reasons? “Terrorist Activity, Bad Economy, Loss of Contracts to competition, and my favorite, That’s just our new policy, sir; are the responses I was given.

Third event: Now, come with me to other times, other places. I lived in the rural mountains of NC for a few years. While living there, it was a custom to leave locks, unlocked. I knew two families that didn’t even know where the keys to their homes where. They never needed them. My sister lived on a island for a few years where nobody locked their cars. My daughter goes to a small private school. She often leaves her valuables lying around on the tables in the ‘common’ room for days on end. She has never had anything stolen. There can be communities in which honor and trust are the norm and where the participants are willing to risk the occasional loss in order to live with continued freedoms.

Increasingly, it seems, my world is becoming a place where fear is limiting freedom and ease. I don’t like it.

Nice night for a walk...

What a wonderful evening to walk the Dogma!

Errors and Mischief

Yesterday was a comedy of errors. I can laugh today, but yesterday when i was in the midst of it all...I was angry, pouty and down-right ILL! How dare life not give me what I want - When I want it! Huh!

Yesterday...
1. Conversion to XP resulted in loss of all Office XP program operations (thousands of error, unable to find messages)
2. Search for Office XP disks took until 4 p.m. (found them at a friend's house, right where I left them six months ago).
3. Ordered steak, soft tacos at lunch - got taco shell and meat. That's it, that's all.
4. Someone 'brushed' the fender on my car, giving it it's first scratch/dent. no clue who did it.
5. Greymatter ate another one of my posts.
6. Mouth ulcer
7. Wifey is sick with a head cold, and she's ill, too
More...