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 Thank you. I had to dust this off. Hello. My name is Richard Bounds. I'm an alcoholic.

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 I'm really grateful to be here tonight. Thank you, Nate, for asking me to share my experience,

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 strength, and hope. It's always an honor and a privilege to be asked to share an Alcoholics

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 Anonymous meeting. Thank you, Nancy, for being a great host. I'm just grateful for this meeting.

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 Thank you. I can relate to a lot of what you were saying, especially about the pot parts and all

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 that stuff. I'll get to that in a little bit. I won't dwell on it, but my sobriety date is

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 May 24th, 1988. And for that, I'm forever grateful. I don't know if anybody is new here,

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 but if you're here and you're new and you didn't raise your hand, welcome. And I want to tell you,

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 you don't have to want to be here tonight for this program to work because that was my experience.

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 You know, when I came into that room on that day, May 24th, 88, I walked into Uniday and were there

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 on Lancashire at the time. You could smoke back then. So I sat in the back, thought my life was

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 over. You know, what does sober people do? You know, I just thought my life was over. And then

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 you guys said these strange words to me as I was leaving. I didn't raise my hand or anything

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 because I wasn't an alcoholic. You know, I knew I drank too much, but I wasn't an alcoholic. I just

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 had to have this thing signed to keep my job. So I left the meeting and this guy, Bill, said,

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 keep coming back. Another guy named Bill. I go, why do these people want me to come back? You know,

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 all I heard my whole life was get the hell out and don't come back. And you guys were telling

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 me to keep coming back and so much gratitude. I'm standing here today and I'm just really grateful.

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 I always have a disclaimer that some of my story is based on other people and police reports because

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 I was a, I was a blackout, I was a blackout drinker. I'd wake up in jail and go, what happened?

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 You know, and so I said that I read the report and I go, dang, you know, I got thrown out of

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 most of the stadiums here. You know, I got arrested out of Anaheim. I was one of those

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 guys back in 1979 when slid into third base, you know, and stuff like that. Just, you know,

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 stupid stuff. It did not know why I was in jail. I woke up and here I'm reading this report that

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 what I had done, I knocked somebody down and I tried to fight a cop and I was always trying to

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 fight the cops, you know, which wasn't very bright. And, uh, but is that, you know, but is that stuff

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 why I'm here today? Uh, I too started with the other stuff, smoking before I did the drinking.

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 It was easy to get to where I work at the time. I worked as an usher at the Coliseum sports arena

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 back then and the, uh, they smoked. So that's what I did. And then, uh, when I was in high school,

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 anything I had my first drink, it was a, uh, I believe it was a, uh, what's the orange juice

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 and vodka or screwdriver. I think it was a screwdriver. That was like a high school drink,

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 I guess. Cause it was sweet. So that's what I had. And from that day on until I was 33 years

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 old and I got sober, I had something in my system. I was a truck driver for a local newspaper for a

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 while. So it was hard to come to work, you know, alcohol, my breath. So I would smoke, you know,

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 but I always had something in my system. You know, I, uh, I guess I was a blackout drinker. I,

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 I just sat there and I just, uh, when everybody else was going home, I was going back out trying

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 to get to the seven 11 or the bar or, or into the market and a quarter to two, make sure I had

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 alcohol for afterwards. I, uh, I would sit there and just, uh, just drink to two, three in the

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 morning and then wake up the next day, all hung over and, and just not remember what I did or

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 anything. I must've liked Mexican food a lot back then too, because every time I look, I look at my

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 oven or something, whatever, maybe like a half eaten burrito or something, some place I probably

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 stopped at at three in the morning on my way home or something. Oh, I guess I had taco last night,

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 go to work for this terrible hangover. And then I was just sit there and say, okay, I'm not going to

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 drink today. I'm going to just going to go home and be good. But you know, when you start checking

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 out about a certain time, you realize, you know what? I don't feel so bad. And this is at the end

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 of my drinking. I did work nights for 19 years. And so that was easy to get alcohol then because

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 I'd be in my vehicle and I'd start by seven 11 and I worked for the daily news. And so we'd be

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 out there distributing papers at the time. I kind of ran the nighttime operation until I got demoted.

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 And so we'd always, we're out there all drinking, you know, just partying out there and stuff. And

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 thank God I didn't kill anybody, but I was just sit there. And when I got demoted to daytime,

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 it was same thing. I just, that's when I would wake up with the hangover and I'd have to drive

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 somewhere. I'd be all whatever. And then I would just start to feel pretty good. And then I stopped

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 at the bar. I'm like, I know David F. I actually knew him from 37 plus years ago at a place called

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 Charlie O's. I just talked about it maybe. So I would, you know, and, uh, I go in there and next

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 thing you know, it'd be two in the morning again. And I did it one more time and did it one more

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 time. One more time. A lot of my story, like I said, I just was, I was like, so it's a blackout

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 drinker when, when I was, uh, and I didn't like people like I hated people, you know, I, I grew

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 up in my last name is bounce. I had red hair at freckles. It was just, it was a nightmare. My, my,

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 my childhood, my parents were not the greatest parents in the world. I had to learn to forgive

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 them in this program. And so we moved around a lot stuff. But like I said, I went to Newcastle

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 elementary. I went to North Hollywood high. Like I was telling somebody over here in the corner,

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 I remember it used to be a piggly wiggly market, you know, that we used to go steal from back in

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 the sixties and stuff and all that. But, uh, but you know, that's just how I lived my life. I just

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 was out there doing every whatever. And then when I was, I think I was 19 and a half or 20,

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 I had decided that, uh, I didn't want to work anymore. I was working at this warehouse in

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 some value. I didn't want to work anymore. So I quit my job and got a backpack and I went

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 and got a Greyhound bus pass and went around the United States for nine weeks called a me against

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 the United States. And it was a, this was in 1974. So it's hard to believe how many years ago that

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 was like 50. And so I sat there and, uh, just did the thing and then hung out in the States.

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 We could drink in, you know, I take the boss and some of the States are 18, like Florida,

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 had a great time in Florida. And then I got up into these other States and drinking age was 21.

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 I didn't want to be here and I can just go up. Uh, I had some friends that lived in long Island

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 and they're the drinking age was 18 and the bar stayed open till 4 AM. This was great. So I stayed

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 there until I got thrown out. Basically the court Jefferson police pretty much said, if you don't

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 leave, we're going to arrest you, you know, because I was troubled, just troubled. And so finally left

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 there. And then I ran out of money. I didn't have that much money anyway. And, uh, between the bus

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 and the hitchhike and, uh, I wouldn't do that trip today, but I'm 74. I felt safe. Went back home and

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 got my job back. And I thought, you know, maybe I should get married. So I met this girl work and,

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 uh, she was a Jehovah's witness. So the alcoholic Jehovah's witness marriage did not last very long

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 now officially it lasted four years, but it was over after probably four days in her mind,

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 because I think she thought she could change me. And I was hoping she would loosen up a little bit.

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 And I was definitely in the fall. There there's no doubt, you know, and when we got divorced,

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 this was in 1980, she even told the judge, she said, I don't want to get alimony from him. I

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 want nothing. I just want my name change. And this was a Jehovah's witness spiritual, and I heard,

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 you're not supposed to cuss. So I'll try not to, but she said, I never want to F and see him again.

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 This is what she said in court. That's how bad I screwed up her life. So I went fine. I just saw

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 it as an open invitation. You have to continue drinking without having, you know, like that was

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 the nag. And so I just continued. That was my life. Just, just getting in trouble, getting thrown

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 out of places. He's been a lot of football game, Raider nation, by the way, got thrown out of the

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 Coliseum twice, the same game. I don't think I throw it out that I stuck back in, got thrown out.

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 I saw the same cops again, you know, when I get my, but I never took responsibility. That was my

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 fault. I was always, if I had done this, when I got one of my DUIs, if I'd only gone down ban on

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 instead of victory, I wouldn't have gotten caught. There's more cops on victory. Why did I do that?

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 You know, it never dawned on me that because I was drinking too much, why end up in jail. And then of

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 course, when I was in jail, like I said, I would start a fight back then they could do chokeholds

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 and all that. So soon I got a few chokeholds, but not me, but you know, well-deserved well-deserved

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 and it was just, and then I just, just kept drinking and didn't care. Like I said, I hated

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 people. I didn't like people. When I, when I got drunk, I was drinking and I was more tolerable.

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 I called myself an active drunk. I wasn't one of the ones that just went and sat in the corner of

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 a bar or I stayed home. I was always out doing stuff, which means I was getting in trouble

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 because I was always out somewhere until I got thrown out or asked not to return. I said,

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 I couldn't tell you how many times I got told never come back. And then I got a DUI in 1986.

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 And then they said, I got sentenced to court card, right? So I thought, okay. So I went to a meeting,

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 think it was Radford, but I couldn't swear to. And I went there and I thought to myself, well,

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 here I am 33, 31 years old. So I thought, okay, a bunch of old bald fat guys. And I thought, okay,

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 I'm not like any of these people. This, this is useless. And then of course my brilliant brain

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 said, wait a second, this place is, this is anonymous. They can't check this. So I brought my

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 card into the bar and I started saying, Hey, just define your name and initial, just don't spill any

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 beer on it. Got it all signed, brought it to the judge. Judge was all, yeah, you're good. And all

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 this stuff. So I was all proud of myself, but all I did was just, you know, just fooled myself. You

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 know, I wouldn't take care of myself. Another time I had things forged. Like I never understood

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 why people were standing on the corner of Oxnard and Van Nuys Boulevard and the building there.

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 You know, so I was one of them because I got another DUI and it was like alcohol school or

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 something. And I think that time, no, I didn't have to have a car sign, but they had, they made

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 me, you're supposed to read a book. And I found out that book was the big book. And of course I

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 didn't care at the time. So I think I paid somebody in the bar 20 bucks to read the book for me and

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 write a little report because I always went the easier, softer way. I wasn't going to do it. So

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 one of my last big major drunks was I went to the, uh, the Renaissance fair when I was out in the

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 gourd. This was in 88 and just same thing, woke up. I was always broke, you know, get paid on

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 Thursdays broke by Friday because of the other stuff. I couldn't drink that much, but you know,

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 the other stuff took a lot of my money and I just sat there and I woke up and I went to the bar.

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 I don't even know if it's still there. The red chariot on Burbank. I went there and, uh, no,

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 it wasn't the red chair. It was the red chariot. But anyway, uh, the bartender there said, why don't

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 you try AA? You know, her husband, I guess was in prison and he got sober in AA and I go, no, AA

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 don't work. You know, because I went to that one half a meeting or whatever I did. So I knew that

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 AA didn't work. So I said, no, it doesn't work. And then, uh, I got called into work and they said,

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 if you don't do anything, we're going to have to get rid of it. So I went to their EAP and their

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 employment assistance program and that's when they gave me another card and I said, okay, I got to

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 keep my job. So when I first, like I said, I wasn't an alcoholic. I didn't know what alcoholics was.

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 I know that I didn't live on sixth and main, fifth and main. So I couldn't be alcoholic. I still had

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 my job, even though by that time I was flopping on my mom's couch and an apartment in North Hollywood,

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 because everything else I had lost, you know, I didn't care if I paid my rent or paid my thing,

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 but I paid my bar tab, you know, I get in the bar tab was important. I could do without electricity

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 and I could do without gas and all this stuff because, but I had to pay my bar tab, you know,

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 so I was just sitting there, I'm flopping on the couch and stuff. People had got, they're just sick

136
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 of me, you know, you know, flopping through the house. I was like my mom's. And so I started,

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 she lived on my anchor sham and I found out this place called Unity was on my anchor sham. So I

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 thought, okay, I'll try this place just to get this thing. Maybe I'll just, uh, learn to just

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 drink beer and smoke pot because tequila and Coke was my problem, not beer pot. So I started going

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 to these meetings. And like I said, the first meeting you guys said those strange words keep

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 coming back and all these people want me to come back. And so I just kept going back cause I didn't

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 want to lose my job. And so I get my things signed and it had to be probably about 30 days or

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 something. And my brain was starting, was clearing up. And all of a sudden I had that first revelation.

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 I hadn't been arrested in 30 days. I hadn't woken up, but I hangover in 30 days. You know,

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 I knew where I was the night before the last 30 nights and all this other stuff. And then this

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 is what was the key for me for Alcoholics Anonymous is I started listening to the similarities instead

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 of the differences. And that's when I realized I'm an alcoholic, you know, whether I want to be or

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 not, I'm an alcoholic. So what am I going to do about it? So I just kept going back to the meeting

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 after I had my last day signed off when I went to that first meeting after that is when I said,

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 okay, I guess I'm really coming to AA because I didn't have to be there. That was the first meeting

151
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 in 41 days. I didn't have to be there for 50 days, whatever it was. And so then I just start going

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 back now. I wasn't going to do any of this stuff. I can tell you that, you know, even a day they had

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 the, you know, like here, they had the, uh, the steps on the walls. They had all the bricks there

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 with the sobriety. I didn't know little for sobriety days. I'm thinking, God, why are these

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 people? What? Maybe this was 88. So I'm thinking, wait a second. These people are five years old

156
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 because, you know, they had some data like 81 or something, you know, what is this? And I found

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 out what it was. So, you know, I just, uh, started going to me, but I wasn't going to do this stuff

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 because I'd never gone to church and it wasn't cause I was anti church or anything. Like I said,

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 we had kind of a, as this isn't why I was an alcoholic because my parents weren't the best

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 of parents. My mom and my stepdad is the fact that, uh, I'm an alcoholic because when I drink,

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 I can't stop. You know, I had that craving, but when people were going to church on Sundays,

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 I was in my grandfather's bar with my parents and South gate learning how to shoot pool. So

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 there they'd give me the money and they'd go drink and get drunk and they give me whatever it was,

164
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 Shirley temples or whatever, and a bunch of quarters. And I was just, me and my brothers

165
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 was just go shoot pool. So we just never went to church. So it wasn't like I was pro God,

166
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 anti God, just never went. So when I saw this God stuff up here, I thought, oh great,

167
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 it's going to be some religious thing, you know, and all this other stuff, you know, back then,

168
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 I don't think they do it anymore. Every time you went to a market, there was always somebody

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 trying to recruit you, you know, for the religion, whatever and stuff. And I'm like, great, this is

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 going to be religious. And then I thought, okay, I'm going to be religious. I don't know what sober

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 people do because everything I did involved alcohol. If there wasn't alcohol, I left. And so

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 I shared that. And somebody pointed out the first word in the second step where it said came to

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 believe it didn't say you had to believe you must believe you will believe. So it came to believe

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 just come to the meetings, don't drink and hopefully one day you'll have your higher power,

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 which I did, I finally came to believe in a power greater than myself. And God is my higher power.

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 And this was after I also finally admitted to my innermost self that I was an alcoholic, you know,

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 that was the first step I had to admit that because I still wasn't convinced a little bit because I

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 still had my job. I still wasn't going down living on skid row. But I just finally admit it. And then

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 I did the other step. And then when I got to step four and five, because remember, I hated people.

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 And so there's still so even though I was sober, I still didn't trust people. So there was that

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 trust factor. So I'm not gonna do this, you know, can do this. So I sat there and just kept putting

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 it off. Now I was enjoying sobriety, you know, many years and many pounds ago, I was a pretty

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 good athlete. So I was I signed up for the the softball leagues, silver softball leagues,

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 I was playing a classy saying I had to shave, which I did, I go mustache softball. Well,

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 you see what left, you know, so I was playing softball there, they had a sober bowling league

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 at Granada Hills Bowl before the earthquake back then knocked it down. And I always have to laugh

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 about swearing, because I was proud of this at the time. But in 1989, and 1990, I won a certificate

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 bowler with the biggest gutter mouth two years running, I still got those certificates somewhere

189
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 in the house. But you know, I had to learn that that was a character defect and blah, blah, blah.

190
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 So I really tried to be respectful. And I try not to cut sometimes it comes out. But I really tried

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 not to sit there and throw out f balls, which is basically my that was my language back then. I

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 just wasn't that good in school either. I barely got out of high school. So I just you know, that

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 was my language. You know, I just everything was f this and f the world and all this stuff. But I

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 try not to do that today. So so I was I was in the bowling league, they had a sober ski and thing and

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 all kinds of stuff. So I'm doing all this activity. I'm having fun, you know, playing softball with

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 the Friday night of Dickens me, they had a team, I played on that team and just doing some other

197
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 stuff. And then up my mentality, my brain, I was still I was going crazy. I was always upset still

198
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 still pissed off all the time, probably one of those awards and all this stuff. I was just

199
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 always pissed all the time. And then somebody had some up to me and said I had a sponsor, but I was

200
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 one of those guys that, you know, had a couple of sponsors, you know, cuz I was always gonna beat

201
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 the system, you know, so you know, so I just asked the same question till I got the answer that I

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 wanted to hear. And I said, Yeah, cuz someone told me I could do that. So anyway, I ended up,

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 but Mike, you, you like you, he was a, he was my first sponsor. But anyway, so he got me sort of

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 steered in the right direction. And then all of a sudden, I was just going nuts. And I just started

205
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 writing my fourth step. And that was under another good advice, you know, funny listening to people.

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 And they said, Don't worry about the fifth, right, the fourth noise, you know, don't worry about the

207
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 fifth. So I sat there and did it finally. And then I had to start worrying about the fifth when I was

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 done. And so my sponsors just said, Hey, we're going to get on the five freeway, and we're going

209
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 to drive north until you're done reading it. So that's what we did. We end up somewhere outside

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 of Bakersfield or something, you know, we just just drove up there. And then we did six and seven,

211
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 whatever. And then we came back, I had a little over two years when I did this. So like I said,

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 no 30 day wonder or anything that just took me a while. And then I really felt like I was part

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 of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now I felt like I was in then I started doing the amends thing. I never did

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 see that wife again, I had no idea where she was at. But I was able to my sponsor, you know,

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 write a letter and just kind of read the letter to the air, basically saying, Hey, I'm sorry for what

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 I had done and stuff and went around and money amends are easy. Yeah, I came up to people I say,

217
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 Hey, I owe you whatever, and they didn't even know I'd ripped them off. So you know, they're all

218
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 happy that I'm giving them money. So those were easy, you know, but trying to do the personal

219
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 ones, especially when it came to my stepdad and my mom, those were tough. But you know,

220
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 through sponsorship and stuff, I had to focus on my part when they used to leave town. And I was

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 sneaking their house and hold these big parties and the cops would be coming and all this other

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 stuff. And you know, I had to talk my part, you know, because I felt the time that they owed me,

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 you know, so I, you know, I was able to do my amends. And we ended up having a cordial my mom

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 actually, and I'm getting sober at channel launch, which was kind of cool. So that that worked out

225
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 good. And I ended up having a cordial relationship before he got for stepdad died and my mom. And so

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 I was grateful that I was able to do that. And then through my sobriety, you know, things are

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 going well. And then a friend of mine for Hey, actually was talking to him on the way here. He

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 lives up in Oregon now. Yeah, we're talking that he had asked me this was in 1990. I bought a house

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 in Van Nuys, you know, there's all x, you know, here I am, you guys need to text to go when you

230
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 can give me a car, you know, back remember, they used to have those little gas cars and all that.

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 And now they were lending me money to buy a house. I owned a house and everything was good. And my

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 friend Jorge, he's got about the same amount of time I got, he asked me to help him do a security

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 up at the central office on New Year's Eve, he used to have like a big party. So this was this

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 particular year was in Redondo Beach. So I was up there at the door, and she walked in, and we just

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 started talking. And I said to Jorge, I said, I'm gonna get to know this person. And so we ended up

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 talking, she tried to dish me, she's a little bit older than I am. So she thought I was 41,

237
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 she was 55. So she thought that I was too young for her. So she tried to dish me and stuff. But I

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 was I just sat there, you know, and she's we're coming up on 29 years of marriage. And you know,

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 things are going well, you know, she's, she's got 46 years, so I'm still a newcomer in the family,

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 you know, but for us, we do separate meetings, you know, we don't do meetings together,

241
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 people in our area didn't even know we were together till we went to the local convention,

242
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 because, you know, we even when we lived in LA, and, you know, she went to her meetings,

243
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 I went to my meetings. So we kept our program separate, but we brought the sobriety home to

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 have a sober household. And so that's what worked for us. You know, I see couples that come to

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 meetings all the time, and that works for them. Great. That wasn't us. You know, we don't work

246
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 well together. And also other stuff, we always pride ourselves that you know, that opposite

247
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 subtract for the poster children for that and all that, because here's a sophisticated woman from LA

248
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 and I who she's just had an alcohol problem. And then I was wasn't a nice person here,

249
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 down here, you know, and stuff. So like I said, things are going well. And so things are going

250
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 well. And then in 1999, I got diagnosed with cancer. And oh, great, now I'm gonna die. You

251
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 know, that's first thing I went to, you know, I went, I went there, I thought, okay, you know,

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 things are going well, happy, I just got married and all this other stuff. And now I'm going to

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 die. But okay, but then people started sharing, they said, go to go to meetings, share about it,

254
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 other people will tell their experience. And I did that. And so I started hearing from people

255
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 from different states, whatever, say, Hey, I'm so and so and you know, I beat cancer,

256
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 just follow doctors directions, which I didn't do before. See, part of my story when I was out there,

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 you know, I have a limp and all that I had a hip replacement not too long ago. So that's why I'm

258
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 still limping off of that. But before that, I never went back to adopt never went back. So like,

259
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 when I had, I got into a bar fight, placed in this bar on Sherman Way and Woodman, I got a bigger

260
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 bar fight and tore up my tendons and my broke my ankle and stuff. And I went back into the fight,

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 you know, because that's what we did. And then I that's when it'll say, I woke up with a blackout,

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 I woke up the next day wondering, why is my ankle hurt? Looking over there. So I went to Kaiser,

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 they almost threw me out of there. Because here I'm at Kaiser Panorama City on the balcony,

264
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 you know, blasting deep purple, you know, smoky and all this stuff. They're rushing and getting

265
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 me I had people birthday, what do you need? I need beer and pots what I need, you know,

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 so they finally got me out as soon as possible. And then the group of friends from the bar,

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 Charlie O's, we would they all went to Kern River, whatever. And like I said, I was the athlete. So I

268
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 said screw this, I want to water ski. So I put my cast in the river, cut it off and start water ski

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 and and a couple other times I broke my thing here, cut that cast off, you know, I never went

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 just that was my thing. I never went back. I took out my own stitches. I just never went. So now I

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 was going back to the doctor following directions. And I can tell you even to this day after my hip

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 replacement, I'm so nervous about doing something that I'm not supposed to do. I'm constantly I was

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 under calling them. Okay, can I do this? Can I do that? Am I allowed to do this? How long am I

274
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 supposed to do this and stuff? Because I'm following directions, you know, but back then,

275
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 no, I did, you know, and so so I went to the thing and I'm cancer free. I've been cancer free,

276
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 you know, I went up on 26 years, 26 years. Yeah, it hardly was 2025. And so, you know,

277
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 all the stuff and then things are going well in LA going to meetings in Westchester trying to get

278
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 things, you know, new and also my wife's daughter got married, moved to this place called Apple

279
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 Valley, Apple Valley, you know, we got I got to Victorville lots of times because I like to

280
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 gamble a little bit. And so we got we went to Apple Valley and then Lynn got pregnant and Jackie

281
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 said I want to move. I could be near my daughter. So I said, Okay, I had quit the newspaper for

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 personal reasons and stuff. And so I said I can whatever I got a job actually at the local paper

283
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 up there because with my experience, they put me as the home delivery distribution manager up there.

284
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 So I had a job daily press. So we moved to Apple Valley and been there 23 years and just had to

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 get a whole new set of meetings and start to go to meetings there. I said, Where's the meeting book?

286
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 You know, I'm expecting like a little booklet. They give me like a sheet and I said, Oh, these

287
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 are means in Apple Valley. They don't know these are all the meetings up here in the high desert.

288
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 And so but anyway, you know, we're not perfect. So have character defects. So I'm going through

289
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 a little resentment thing with some of the meetings there. Thank God for you guys. And

290
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 thank God for shakers because shakers, you know, my sponsor go Gary A goes to shakers. And so I

291
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 come into shakers once a month driving just to see my friends and all that. And so we've been living

292
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 up there and just enjoying life, you know, then ended up moving away because she didn't like the

293
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 desert. You know, you gotta like wind and dirt, you know, to live up there, but she didn't like

294
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 it in five minutes. That's cool. And so I we still live up there. And we love it. You know, we just

295
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 we do the sober thing. I was part of their convention for long for many years. This last

296
00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:02,080
 weekend, I had the honor of leading the old timer, the long timers me for the convention there. And

297
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:07,520
 that was that was pretty cool. I had my wife reluctantly is one of my speakers. And so she

298
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 bought it out. But then she said she would do it. So she came and did it. I bought the CD just to

299
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 prove that Yeah, you did it and all that. But uh, but you know, sobriety is good. And we're having

300
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 a good time. Oh, it was really it was a no brainer when Nate asked me to share and he said I could

301
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 use a zoom capacity. And I said no, I said I want to drive up here. I said I see guys on zoom all

302
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 the time. I want to meet everybody in person. I said, you know, I drive to LA all the time.

303
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:37,120
 We're season to get all those the Clippers, we go to radar games, wherever. So if I'm going to

304
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 drive back and forth for basketball games, why wouldn't I drive back and forth from myself?

305
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:47,200
 You know, that's why I drive into Glendale. It's our so you know, I used to drive a lot longer than

306
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:52,800
 that to pick up drugs and alcohol if I needed to. So I wanted to come out here. And of course,

307
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 my brain saying Do I really want to go? Of course I do. You know, and I'm so glad that I did it to

308
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 meet everybody in person, you know, and it's just really, it's really cool. And I can tell you that

309
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:08,160
 claw thing does not sound nearly as impressive on zoom as it does be. Okay, that makes it all

310
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:14,320
 worthwhile. You know, I'm here hearing that, you know, but uh, you know, I just, I love alcohol

311
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 synonymous, you know, and that's why I share if there's anybody who's new who doesn't want to be

312
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:23,520
 here, it does work because I clearly didn't want to be here. You know, 37 plus years ago,

313
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 I thought my life was over, you know, what a sober people do, you know, I had no idea what sober

314
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,640
 people did. Well, you know what they do? We do everything that we can do drink and I remember

315
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:37,760
 being there. Me and 10 of our friends from shakers, we went to a Dodger game. And it was kind of funny

316
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:42,720
 because we said it was like 10 designated drivers at this game. Anyone know something? I didn't

317
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,680
 start a fight. I wasn't arrested. And I remember being there and I had a blast. We're all you know,

318
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:53,360
 we're all sharing, you know, this probably wasn't very healthy. Anybody who's a health freak, but

319
00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:58,240
 you know, they bought a couple helmets of nachos that were passing those around overall. And with

320
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:03,360
 10 guys, there wasn't a napkin or white be in sight. But you know what, we were happy. We were

321
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:09,600
 having a blast, you know, all this stuff. And my wife's the opposite. She she's constantly but you

322
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:15,680
 know, we were having fun. And even at this stage of my sobriety, I'm going out there, we're having

323
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:20,480
 fun. You know, I'm still in the profession that I do, you know, I don't want to retire. I'm a realtor

324
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 out there. So you know, I don't I don't want to retire. I don't I don't need to retire and just

325
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,720
 keep doing what I'm doing at my own pace. You know, so my wife and I were doing like road trips

326
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:34,160
 and we do stuff like that. And we were having fun. Yeah, I would have missed it all. If Bill probably

327
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,320
 didn't say keep coming back, you know, or if you guys didn't share your experience, strength and

328
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:44,080
 hope or had something I could relate to. Because before just on the surface, I was not you guys,

329
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:50,320
 you know, but now I'm so grateful that I was and I still am. And in my last minute, I just want to

330
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:56,640
 say I've said this a few times on my shares. Thank you to this meeting for being a true hybrid. I you

331
00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:01,760
 know, I've been going to a lot of meetings on zoom, and they call them hybrids. You don't get

332
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:08,320
 the participation from the audience in the zoom as you do with the people live here. It's a constant

333
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:12,880
 interaction, you know, share and all this stuff. Usually it's the live people and the zoom people

334
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:17,360
 and stuff. And so that's why I became part of one be part of this group again. And I just,

335
00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:21,280
 like I said, I used to come here when I was licensed session, which is what you say now,

336
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:26,560
 and stuff. And I was not structural. That's why I didn't join the group because I was anti,

337
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:31,840
 but I love coming to Saturday to the speaker meetings. And I did that for years. But anyway,

338
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:37,200
 now I love the structure. Tell me how that works. So I'm done. Nate, thank you again very much for

339
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:41,680
 asking me to come out here. And I'm really glad to be here tonight. Thank you.