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Oh man, I had a wild weekend I want to tell you about.

I went to an NFL game in a city I’ve never been to. I have gone to lots of NFL games over the years, so I am well aware of the drunken hellscape that can occur in the tailgating areas.

But this was something else. The day before the game, I had lunch with a friend who’s also been to lots of NFL games over the years. She was adamant that this particular team had especially rowdy pregame drunkfests. “You’re gonna see some s**t,” she said.

Well… she was right. It was insane.

Luckily, though, I knew what I needed to do before the game. On Saturday night, I found a 12-step meeting close to my hotel and went to it. I am so glad I did.

I love going to meetings when I am traveling. I love seeing recovery in different communities all over the country because they all have their own local flavors. It’s a little like food—and some places are saltier than others.

This place was pretty salty. The meeting had a lot of tough blue-collar people, which I identify with. I’m definitely more of an indoorsman these days who has no idea how to put up drywall or fix a car. But in my soul, I feel like I am a grinder from out in the woods, who has deep respect for people who build things.

I got so much out of the meeting, even though I don’t love crosstalk. This meeting had a lot of direct comments and suggestions, which isn’t really my thing. But it felt like that was the pulse of this particular meeting. I just listened for the first 56 minutes of the meeting, and then the chairperson called on me.

I shared how grateful I was that I spent all of 10 seconds looking on my handheld computer to find a meeting, then clicked a button that provided directions to the meeting. What a technological gift. Then I found 15 people on Saturday night trying their damndest to get sober and stay sober.

And it was a gift. I went to the game the next next and whoo boy… I saw at least 1,000 very drunk people, doing very drunk things. It’s mostly amusing to me at this point, but I gotta admit, it is still a little uncomfortable. Because every person who I saw walking sideways because he or she couldn’t go forward without stumbling… every guy I saw propped up between slightly more sober friends carrying him down the street… every obliterated person who had that glassy-eyed look of somebody who shouldn’t have had those last five shots… those are versions of me at every single event I went to for years. I am so grateful that I don’t have to live like that any more.

ALCOHOLIC/ADDICT JOKE OF THE DAY

This newsletter is a place of joy and laughter about the deadly serious business of sobriety. So, as I will often do, let me close with a joke: 

I dialed the number of a newcomer and got the following recording: "I am not available right now, but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes."

(Credit: AA Grapevine, October 2006, by Richard M. from Golden, Colorado)

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