SOBER IN THE CITY

Lets Get This Party Started

November 22nd at 11:07PM by Sara [317 comments]

There were six of us crammed into one booth in the middle of a bustling diner on a Sunday night. It was just after 11pm and despite the fact that most of the people in the room had to be at work the next morning, every seat in the place had a butt firmly planted in it. Most people who were out that late on a work night were usually looking to party, so it was ironic that everyone in the restaurant happened to be sober and in the program.

We'd all shown up a few hours before to help celebrate. Tizzie had been sober 364 consecutive days, and her program and non-program friends and family had gathered to watch her get her year. Ten minutes before midnight, she'd share about what her life was like a year before and then at midnight, we'd all sing happy birthday to her and watch her blow out a single candle.

Tristan sat on one side of me and Ashley sat on the other. Across the table were Hunter, Tizzie and her new crush, Shawn, who we'd all taken to calling McYoungin on account of the fact that he'd just recently turned 21. McYoungin had about a year and a half sober. I still couldn't get over the fact that he'd never taken a legal drink. Where other kids his age were hanging out with Jose, Jim and Jack on their twenty-first birthday, McYoungin had spent his night downing enormous amounts of Mr. Pibb while having a slice at his favorite pizza place with his sober buddies.

"So, what are you majoring in?" I asked McYoungin after he'd just announced to the table that he was a student at NYU.

"Right now I'm really into alternative healing," he said, sounding very much like your typical California surfer dude. "I just think there are so many tools out there that no one's really utilizing. All this untapped power that lies outside of prescriptions and pills. Things like acupuncture, positive visualization and even hardcore meditation can all having healing properties, with fewer side affects than prescription drugs. The problem is, we've all been so conditioned by the government and pharmaceutical companies to believe that all our ailments can only be fixed with a pill, when what we should be focusing on is healing our souls."

"Very...introspective," I said, not quite sure I'd understood what he'd just said.

We all sat around the table quietly trying to come up with a response to what Tizzie's boy toy had just proposed. Finally, Ashley broke the silence.

"So, Sara, you said you're getting ready to start your ninth step?" she said, turning to me expectantly. "How's that going?"

I cleared my throat, gladly welcoming the topic change.

"It's going good! I've already picked out the first three people that I'm going to make amends to right away," I said as I took a swig of my coffee. "I'm starting out with Tara, who is going to be a cakewalk, since I already know there are no hard feelings there. And then I'll do my old boss and my neighbor. I'm actually looking forward to finally owning up to some of this stuff and putting it all behind me."

"How many people do you have on your 'red' list?" Hunter asked.

When Thandi had me write out my eighth step, I had to make a list of all the people I'd harmed in my lifetime and put them into one of three columns: green (the people I would be willing to apologize to right away), yellow (the people who I really didn't want to make amends with anytime soon) and red (those who I'd rather sooner eat my own arm than have to atone for the things I'd done to them).

"Only three," I answered. "But almost everyone else was in the green."

"Even Mr. Hollywood?" Ashley asked.

"Well, no," I admitted sheepishly. "He's on my yellow list. I'm not ready to make that one just yet."

"Mr. Hollywood?" Tristan asked me.