It Was Twenty Years Ago Today....

I was in the hospital with acute pancreatitis, detoxing off of alcohol with vast quantities of Valium. Happy as a clam to be ridding myself of something that had turned out not to be such a good friend, after all.

Interesting to think that there is not one TNSC member who ever saw me with a real drink in my hand, although many of you have seen me with a beverage. People in my last 6 or so jobs have never seen me with a drink, but I have partied down with all of them.

Tonight I am going out with a fellow "friend of Bill W", who is celebrating 2 years. We and several of her friends are chowing down and then getting "chips", little plastic or metal pieces with numbers imprinted on them to represent years (or months, at first). I haven't been to a meeting in 7 years, since a different fellow friend took me to a lunchtime chip meeting to get my 13-year chip. But I remember the amazement I felt, and the hope, of seeing someone getting up to get their 20 year (or more) chips when I was still new and fragile. I want to repay that favor and maybe give another fledgling that same hope.

Please, have a really good drink tonight for me (I never got to have a Cosmo or a Mojito) - I still like to drink vicariously through my friends!