Social interactions that don't involve alcohol?

[suitor]

on the topic of it being a disease...can't remember who said it , but reminds me of some comedian..."the day i'll believe alcohol is a disease, is when i can call my work in the morning, tell em i drank all night, and am still loaded and can't come in - and they'll send me to a hospital, instead of firing my ass!"

Haven't hit a low.

You can drink and then be sober for periods but as the years go on it gets harder to resist saying no. At least that's what I've found. But I also have access to unlimited booze every day. There's 6 bottles sitting 10 feet from me right now. I got into graffiti / stickers when I was sober 'cause I'd go out every day and get exercise to keep from drinking / stay sober. Then I realized you can also get fucked up / listen to music and make stickers as well so I could spend nights making like 100 stickers. I still have a lot and have given them to some people in Portland. Never got a "Thank You" or anything from anyone. It makes you feel shitty for even trying and makes me want to just not connect / talk with anyone and stick to doing my own thing. Moving to a bigger city wasn't a real good idea. There are a lot more people around but it just makes you feel loneliner / more outcast. It is nice to see more graffiti / stickers though. I always try and hit up other sticker people on the street to say "Hi, I say your stuff. I know you exist! Hello!!".  I plan on biking to downtown PDX today and putting stickers up since it's early morning here and there's not much to do.

[suitor]

I had to fire a dude I really liked 5-6 years ago because he was caught drinking in his car at lunch time. He was, while young (he was in his late 50s at the time), a Vice President for a company that would at least ring a bell for everyone here. High achiever, incredibly smart and charming when he wanted to be, but also the most cynical person I've ever met, which is probably one reason why we got along. He basically thought every single human was an idiot. He also listened to punk in the 70s and would quote Pistols songs regularly. He knew all the top business folks in the GB area, including ex-Packer Hall of Famers, and seemed to be from a premier local family. I'd wondered why his life had gone to shit personally and professionally (divorce, estranged from all but his mother, OK mid-level jobs but nothing high profile), he hid his drinking pretty well I guess, but it made sense looking back obviously. He went down fighting, but he went down. He was embarassed as hell and I felt bad for him. I told him I wasn't mad and hoped that he'd be OK, but he denied drinking to the end, even though he was seen right outside the HR office by the head HR lady and we saw Hamms (fucking Hamms!) on his front seat of his car. Hamms. Haven't talked to him since, though he left a couple voicemails telling me he could find me an ace job here or there a few years back. Hope he's OK, but I doubt it.

You can still buy Hamms in the Pacific Northwest. It's like the cheapest beer. About $3.98-$4.50 for a 6-pack of tallboys. I used to buy it a lot. Then Winco (local 24-hour supermarket chain) started carrying 18-packs of 12 oz. cans of Rolling Rock for $7.98 so I started drinking that last year. So fucking cheap! Pabst, Rainier, Olympia, Busch, Miller High Life costs more than Hamms / Rolling Rock here by a dollar or two. I used to drink Olde English 800 when Winco carried it in 6-pack of tallboys. Craft beer is good but then you're more into getting drunk than taste profile it gets too fucking expensive. Craft beer 6-packs in the Pacific Northwest is about $7-and-up. I wouldn't consider Henry Weinhards craft but they sell sometimes for like $5.50 a 6-pack of bottles. It's just local beer basically. Nice thing about living in Washington is that there's no deposit fee for cans/bottles. In Oregon it's 10-cents a bottle. An 18-pack will be $1.80 on top of what you're paying already. 

[suitor]

https://www.facebook.com/this12steplife/

No new episode of Jack Grisham's 12 Step Life this week.  Fucking bummed out! He's on tour though, so..

I still like this, very funny:
Jack G. - AA Speaker - Alcoholics Anonymous Speaker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJv8aslzJ0Y

[suitor]

Both these movies are good. You can ask your local library (usually online) to order them if you want to see them. Totally worth it! 

Bill W.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJv8aslzJ0Y

My Name Is Bill W.
Can't find a trailer for this one!

Here's the full Lois Wilson movie starring Winona Ryder-

When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx5eu_yDI4k

[nuggetsvolume1]

I didn't know they made a movie about Lois. I always thought she didn't get enough credit in the A.A. world: if it wasn't for her supporting Bill all those years, he would have died/gone nuts and A.A. would never exist. She also had a lot to do with the "To Wives" section of The Big Book.

[satanisrealagain]

Hey man if you're really feeling like you can't be around people who drink then don't. Its all about self control.

[bradx]

i cant control my alcohol intake so i quit drinking.  i never wanted to preach to anyone or tell people what they could or couldnt do, but i quickly found that i was not comfortable being around people who were drinking.  so i quit hanging out with those people.  i quit my job, i got a job where nobody drank, at a nursing home.  i didnt quit the band, but i cancelled a bunch of gigs and a tour, and i stopped booking new gigs. 

i found that i was not any happier staying away from people who were drinking.  the longer i had been alcohol free, the more comfortable i became hanging around people who were drinking.  i quit my job again, i started booking more gigs.

where i am at now, i dont mind hanging out with people who are drinking, but i dont like doing it every day.  even once a week is too much, on average.  but i found a healthy middle point, where i can still go to shows in bars, hang out with friends, and have a good time. 

[rr]

Haven't hit a low.

You can drink and then be sober for periods but as the years go on it gets harder to resist saying no. At least that's what I've found. But I also have access to unlimited booze every day. There's 6 bottles sitting 10 feet from me right now. I got into graffiti / stickers when I was sober 'cause I'd go out every day and get exercise to keep from drinking / stay sober. Then I realized you can also get fucked up / listen to music and make stickers as well so I could spend nights making like 100 stickers. I still have a lot and have given them to some people in Portland. Never got a "Thank You" or anything from anyone. It makes you feel shitty for even trying and makes me want to just not connect / talk with anyone and stick to doing my own thing. Moving to a bigger city wasn't a real good idea. There are a lot more people around but it just makes you feel loneliner / more outcast. It is nice to see more graffiti / stickers though. I always try and hit up other sticker people on the street to say "Hi, I say your stuff. I know you exist! Hello!!".  I plan on biking to downtown PDX today and putting stickers up since it's early morning here and there's not much to do.

Not sure why you quoted me on this one, but I'll jump back in the conversation.

Three and a half years not getting drunk for me.  I have a beer with dinner once in a rare while (like a couple times a year), but that's it.  I could always handle one or two beers, but after that I probably wasn't gonna be stopping for a good 12-24 hours. 

It may have been different for me compared to most, but I found quitting to be easy.  I'd really only drink when I was going out, mainly at shows.  So, I didn't have any sort of physical withdrawal.  Going out knowing I wasn't gonna get trashed was the hard part. 

I really disliked it at first, and honestly, I still ain't crazy about it.  But it feels like less of a big deal as time goes on.  The older I get, the more drunk people annoy me.  Idiots who won't shut the fuck up and have no concept of personal space.  People that hang out at bars all the time getting wasted every night...fucking boring.  Used to be bummed that I didn't go to as many shows as I used to...then I started going out to em sober...and realizing most of em weren't all that great anyhow, and that social interactions in bars are mostly superficial.

[SLANG EDIT]

I just hit my 2-year mark in February.  I never had a problem NOT having alcohol on any given day, but once I had a beer or two, it was game over.  I was going for blackout.  Usually by myself, too (if I was lucky and not in public).

So, I didn't struggle with abstaining, but I have struggled with things like leading a life without that as a crutch for doing certain things.  Especially art and how to fill time.  I won't get into it too much, but I've realized it's very possible to quit and have underlying problems with quitting that you're unaware of.

Socializing is hard enough in this era of technology, but everyone is right that it's much harder when you aren't drinking.  Unless you're wired to be a prime socialite, which I am... not.  But I still love hanging out with a good homie one-on-one, even though I despise hanging with large groups even more now that I'm sober.

Oh and weed.

[suitor]

No drunk. Go to work. Still got 500-600 things up so far this week. I'm really lazy except for a few things I like and don't even fucking know how I got so much shit up. Still feels like it's never enough / never satisfied. I've hit spots and realize I've already got shit up there rocking from like 3-4 months ago

Yep. Stay busy. Good way to stay sober.

[suitor]

Drunk til die. Fuck! Couldn't even sleep last night. Been up 24 hours up. Nothing to do. Drinking. I was gonna put up stickers (already completely bombed the fucking route I'd take to downtown PDX) + too early. Listened to so much shit. Hard to find good bands! Looking at old posts here. Such boring stuff. Old punk is basically "dad rock". Brainbombs are SO GOOD! I LIKE THESE ALBUMS!! SO BORING!! Give me new shit, tough shit, painful shit, stuff with feeling, not that OLD SHIT!! Got to find your own shitty music these daze.

Shit posts.
Look Stupid.
Drunk
Stupid
Punks.
!

X
CLAM
AT
SHUN
POINT
-->
!!
Z

[suitor]

WE AREN'T ALL HAVING PROBLEMS

WITH

AL.CO.HOL

YOU ARE.

 

GOT WATER

?

 

[suitor]

*PARCHED PUNX*

Punks looks stupid spelled with an X, I only spell it with an S. 

[suitor]

New 12 Step Life with Jack Grisham! He's back from tour! 
https://www.facebook.com/this12steplife/videos/432039140558462/

"Judge, Have pity on me... I'm an orphan."

 "I shoved a pound of cocaine up my ass before 7 AM.".. 

[suitor]

Jack back!

4.22.2018 episode!
https://www.facebook.com/this12steplife/videos/440118843083825/

Watching drinking Balboa and Grateful Red wine. I'm bad. I did give a couple of my co-workers 4 bottles of wine last night at work. Could've taken them home but chose to be nice and give them away and make someone's night with a kind gesture. One of co-workers I gave them to has a tattoo of pepperoni pizza with cheese dripping off. Why do modern people think pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers etc somehow have something to do with rebellion? I like the hardcore black&white punk stuff with something to say. Anything that mixes food and punk is going to be lame. Rebellion nothing. Just stupid copying shit to be "cute". Very boring / stand for zero. It's like punk bands who sing about soda or beer or getting drunk. Really boring topic to make music about.

Mean Jeans: Totinos (Portland Oregon, 2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rPau4Gcw4A

So fucking cringeworthy. Make Portland look stupid and like shit. Why sell shitty product? At least sell something that's actually good or worthwhile.