Where to begin? I started drinking in my 20's, and I was a pretty wild woman. My mother, father and step-father were alcoholics. One of my favorite drinking partners joined AA. It was about 5 years later that I called her. This was a cry for help from me, as I could see myself going down the tubes. She whisked me off to AA meetings. One of the things she said that I will always remember as we were walking into a meeting was"The reason we're here is that we are not all there." Let me tell you, AA meetings in LA are totally cool, especially if you go to the ones in Beverly Hills, judges, movie stars, etc.
Then I moved to Sonoma County. My mom lived here and she was in AA. I married a man who was also sober in AA for 20 years. I did not go to many AA meetings in Sonoma County because my husband did not attend very often and I found them very lacking compared to LA AA. Nonetheless, I managed to stay sober without any problems for 10 years.
Then my mother died from lung cancer on March 23, 1984; I left my husband one week later. I managed to stay sober until December of that year. It was so weird; our office was having a Christmas party, and I just walked up to the bar and poured myself a glass of wine without any qualms whatever. I ended up getting totally drunk and calling my x-husband to come get me. Crap, I had been sober for more than 10 years. What the hell happened?
Then I drank for 10 years thereafter; not a whole lot just 3 or 4 glasses of wine every night. Next thing I know I have committed a crime and end up in State Prison (see my diary a couple of weeks ago.) I will tell you that had I not been drinking my 3 or 4 glasses of wine every night I would not have done what I did.
So, then I end up in State Prison and I am unable to drink for 18 months. It did not bother me a bit. No problem. I get out and the first thing I do is check into a hotel and order dinner with a bottle of wine. So now I drink about a half of bottle of wine every night. I am an alcoholic, and I hate it!
Perhaps we should have AA meetings here?