Author: Johnnyboy

After a week resting on my laurels, I dig in to the pile of reading due on Monday for my Meso-American Studies class. I’ll get that done easily enough and then work on the backlog of philosophical work I need to resolve. I read for about 3 hours today, and will do the same tomorrow and Sunday. I’ll start on the other stuff Monday. No worries.

The past week was spent playing around with model airplanes and going to some incredible AA meetings. I am so grateful to be sober, serene sometimes, and usually happy, joyous, and free. Because of this sobrity thing I am able to address life-threatening health issues with sense and aplomb, changing my eating habits, adjusting my excersize routine, and generally not being afraid of that change.

Haikus on Tuesday—a double batch, I promise!

I have been missed at my homegroup in the past 2 weeks, and this morning I was telephoned by one of the members, a fellow that I respect very much if only for his cool and level head. He was relieved to find out about my speaking commitment this week and my visit with my father the week before. I asked him what was going on and he told me about a very long business meeting that I also missed. It seems that some folks are becoming unhappy about newcomers, especially folks from rehabs, sharing about the ‘mess’ and not the ‘message’. This is an old saw, and not one to get hung up about, or leave on account of. We talked for a while and both of us agreed that newcomers have nothing else to share about except the mess. Even in my own story, I am only now slowly moving away from a drunkalogue as I build a sober history of recovery with which to reference. This fellow agreed that it is a natural occurance for newcomers to share this way, and also for some folks to become ‘bleeding deacons’ about it. This will take months to resolve, and in that time, if folks do what they are supposed to do* , more will be revealed, resentments will dissolve, and the group will remain the strong and vibrant group I love. The last thing the group needs is people jumping ship, depriving those who need their kindness, calm, and wisdom a chance to ask them for help. In the words of Ben Franklin, “We must all hang together, or surely we’ll all hang seperately.” This kind of ‘group shake-up’ is also nothing new to the rooms, and is always greeted with this kind of chatter. It’s healthy. It’s good for everyone. Breathe deeply and remember that everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.

Johnnyboy

*Don’t drink, go to meetings, talk to your sponsor, practice acceptance, read some AA lit.

I’ll get the haiku up tomorrow, never fear.

I have to make this quick, because I have to go to my shrink for my sesion in a few minutes.

I spoke last night at a nearby meeting and it went very well. I have no idea what I said which is usually a pretty good indication of my message. The theme seemed to be ‘honesty’ which is as good as it gets for me.

My sponsee is still not addressing his hygiene problem. Like many people who are MICA he has a weird fear/aversion to water and soap. Not much I can do, but perhaps others can help me. I might have to lie and say that when I was getting sober I had to relearn everything about hygiene, and wash more thoroughly than I used to.

I received my results from my blood test as a part of my physical last week. My chlolesterol is fine, as is my bp, hr, and other fluids. My triglyceride level, however, is out the roof. It should be around 100, or less, and is at a whopping 624! If my bp weren’t good, I’d have had several heart attacks already and would probably be dead. For those who don’t know, the triglycerides are the molecules in the blood that grab hold of fat cells, whisk them along to the liver and other organs to be processed, or pass them out. They are not doing their job. My doc thought that this was genetic, but there is no history in my family, which is good news. This means that I can address this with diet, exercise, and medication, namely Tricor, which I have been taking for 4 days now. This is supposed to lower the tri, raise the HDL and set me back on course.

My sister in Maine wondered how much of this was caused by my alcoholic history, and I wonder how much was caused by eating three-meals-a-day of high saturated fat, carbs, and junk food for 19 months, i.e. jail. Probably a combination of the two.

So it’s no more animal fats for Johnnyboy (that’s cheese, Grommit), and lowlowlow chlolesterol. This is where I’m thankful and grateful that I’m a chef, and know how to cook. I do not have to live out of packaged foodstuffs.

Another friend said that sincethe tris are not doing their jobs, which is burning fat, I would never be able to lose any weight if this problem had not been addressed. Interesting. Maybe I’ll be svelte by June!

Johnnyboy