AA | Mixed Metaphors

Oct 17 2021

Posts

Funny, Not Funny!

“When an idea first strikes you as funny, then you quickly realize its seriousness, and the funniness disappears, leaving you only with the feeling of how not funny it really is.” — Urban Dictionary

The past week there’s been a spotlight on Dave Chappelle’s new stand-up comedy performance, The Closer, streaming on Netflix. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I paid close attention to the early reviews and scathing criticism of his transphobic and misogynist material. At the suggestion of a friend whose humor I appreciate — which is often politically incorrect yet delivers a thought-provoking message — I decided to watch Chappelle’s The Closer. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Apple Island, Artistic Freedom, Big Dyke, Cancel Culture, Comedy, Dave Chapelle, Freedom of Speech, Funny...Not Funny!, GALVAnize Pride, Improv, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Lysistrata, Madison, Misogyny, Netflix, Spoken Word Monologues, The Closer, Transphobia

Aug 22 2021

Posts

New Habits Are Hard to Make

…and old habits hard to break!

“You can’t teach an old dog, new tricks is a common phrase that means it is challenging to teach a person something new, usually because that person has been doing things a certain way for so long that they’re too stubborn to learn how to do it differently.”

Yes, full disclosure, I’m an old dog, living the first year of my seventh decade. In dog years, I’m 10 going on 11. I’m also at the threshold of changing habits, again. It’s challenging; I’ve been doing some of the same things for so long — the task of undoing them and replacing with new behaviors — seems impossible. Continue reading →

Tagged 12-Step Recovery, AA, Accountability, Change, Exercise, Family, Food, Habits, Healthy Eating, Old Wives' Tales, Osteoarthritis, Physical Therapy, Relationships, Self-Care, Slogans

Apr 29 2021

Posts

Life Is Good. I’m Grateful. Thanks, H.P.!

For my Door County LGBTQ+ writer’s group, Write On, the prompt this month was ‘Thank You.’ At first, it didn’t seem inspiring, until I realized that thank you and gratitude are cut from the same whole cloth. As a person in recovery from substances and behaviors that no longer serve me, gratitude is an acknowledgement of the commitment and work that was required of me, and a thank you for the support I received from others, including a belief in a power greater than myself. Continue reading →

Tagged 12-Step Recovery, AA, Alcoholism, Blogging, Gratitude, Journaling, Journals, Memories, Personal Narratives, Recovery, Relationships, Sobriety, Thank You, Therapy, Write On, Writing Prompts

Jul 04 2020

Posts

A Solitary Life: Living Independently

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” ― Gabriel García Márquez

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” — Oscar Wilde

Today is the 4th of July, the Independence Day Holiday. Yesterday, I began reflecting on the meaning of the day, which celebrates the independence of a nation following a revolution and the freedom of its people from an oppressive government. Of dire concern — we are living through what may be judged as another oppressive government — our own — as our elected leaders dismantle democracy and favor the corporate aristocracy and dominant white culture. We are not truly free and independent until we are all free and equal under the law. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Blogging, Childhood Memories, COVID-19, Family, Fireworks, Fourth of July, Friends, Holidays, Home, Journals, Memoir, Memories, Parades, Racine, Recovery, Relationships, Reminiscence, Safer-at-Home, Solitary Life, The Orphan Holidays, Wisconsin

Apr 06 2020

2 Comments

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Edition

“There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness.” — Maggie Smith

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.” ― May Sarton

This past week I hit the wall to use a metaphor. The difference between solitude and loneliness became viscerally clear. I consider myself someone who enjoys my own company and solitude, who goes to great lengths to protect it, and over the years has learned to be both independent and resilient, two skills critical to survive the pandemic. Continue reading →

Tagged 12-Steps, AA, Alone, COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Gratitude, Grief, Home Alone, Loneliness, Pandemic, Recovery, Shelter-in-Place, Sobriety, Social Distancing, Solitude, Stay-at-Home, Tools to Survive the Pandemic

Mar 21 2020

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Pandemic Edition

“If you lived here, you’d be home by now.” — Firesign Theater

Yes, I’m home, homebound, socially distancing, not quite in a lockdown, not totally self-quarantining. I’m staying in, doing my civic duty to protect our community and to keep myself healthy. Do I get a Girl Scout Badge for that?

I’ve been socially distancing to some degree since February 28^th when I was laid-off from my job which was eliminated due to a company reorganization. In the interim, I’ve conducted a job search, applied and received Unemployment Compensation, registered at the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Job Center, and gratefully, interviewed for a couple of positions before the community spread of COVID-19 changed everything. I also had a few dates with friends for coffee and/or brunch. I delivered birthday cards to my niece Gemma and nephew Quinn. With their mother, my sister, Tami, we visited outside, 6-feet apart, and I elbow-bumped my brother-in-law, Ron. All that has now ended too. Continue reading →

Tagged 12-Step Recovery, AA, AA during an Outbreak, Ambivert, COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Films, Home, Lockdown, Pandemic, Quarantine, Social Distancing, Social Media, Staycation, Wisconsin Film Festival, Work, Zoom

Sep 12 2019

1 Comment

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Premature Hibernation

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.” ― Albert Camus

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ― C.G. Jung

Though it’s not officially autumn yet, I feel the urge to go underground, to hibernate prematurely. Like caterpillars who cocoon in a chrysalis and emerge in a new form as a butterfly, it’s my desire to find a safe place to enable transformation.

The world seems like it’s becoming more threatening, whether it’s our natural world and the consequences of climate change, or our political environment and the actions and policies by those currently in power. On a personal level, things sometime happen to us — and for me — how I respond makes a difference in my emotional and spiritual health and serenity. While there are storms happening outside of me, there’s also turmoil and uncertainty stirring within. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Ambivert, Autumn, Changing of the Seasons, Couples Therapy, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Home, Isolate, Legacy, Mental Health, Premature Hibernation, Recovery, Relationships, Therapy, Underground, Winter

Jun 30 2019

2 Comments

Posts

Random Topics III

Sober Bars, Emotional Labor, and Salad Frosting

“So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.” — Sidney Poitier

“Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.” — Eric Hoffer

From the introduction of the first in the series of Random Topics:

“As a blogger, I mine my daily life for topics to write about. I set out to find something timely and meaningful, something that my readers can relate to, a universal message or lesson to discover in my lived experience. Another option is to choose a subject from the news of the day to comment on, however sometimes current events are tragically overwhelming.”

“I’m often left to choose from the mundane or subjects that pique my curiosity. When this happens, the only common theme is the randomness of my choices. Today, I offer three random topics with absolutely no connection or relation to each other at least that I’m aware of at the outset of this essay. Perhaps as I write, I may discover the subtle relationships that bind them together. Life is like that.” Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Al-Anon, Coffeehouses, Connecting the Dots, Division of Labor, Emotional Labor, Gay Bars, Hotel Washington, LGBTQ Bars, Low & No-ABV Cocktails, Lysistrata, Mocktails, Random Topics, Recovery, Salad Frosting, Sober Bars, Sober Curious, Stonewall In

Oct 21 2018

1 Comment

Posts

Holding On & Letting Go

“Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.” — Rumi

Holding on and letting go is one of the subjects I keep coming back to, a thread in many of my essays and remembrances. It’s an essential element in the cycle of life, a theme in many of my memories, a lesson to be learned and practiced as needed, and today again, present in my journey.

This is not unique to me. It’s a universal truth; it’s what makes us human, mortal, and sentient beings. Holding on and letting go is one of the first things we learn as an infant, one of the first things we teach as a parent, one of the most difficult emotions we experience at the beginning and at the end of our lives, and the lives of loved ones, as we examine who and what we need to let go of and who and what we need to hold onto. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Death, Family, Father, Friends, Future, Grief, Holding On, Home, Impermanence, Letting Go, Loss, Love, Memories, Mother, Past, Present, Sisters

Sep 01 2018

4 Comments

Posts

Life as a Barfly: Dispatch from the Hotel Bar

Barfly: a person who spends much time in bars

Full disclosure: I’ve been visiting bars and have climbed up bar stools to take my place ever since I was a child. I guess that makes me a barfly. Growing up, my parents with their children in tow, would attend Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, then visit one of their regular taverns in Racine, Wisconsin, southern neighbor to Milwaukee, home to immigrant German brewmasters and the beers that made Milwaukee famous. Continue reading →

Tagged 1 Light Short, AA, Afterlife, Barfly, Bartenders, Charles Joly, Cinephile, Films, Friends, Heaven, Hell, Hotel Bar, Madison, Madison Independent Filmmakers, Purgatory, St. Peter, Stories, The Brink Lounge, The Pearly Gates, Web Series, Wisconsin Film Festival

Mixed Metaphors

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.

Tag Archives: AA

Funny, Not Funny!

New Habits Are Hard to Make

Life Is Good. I’m Grateful. Thanks, H.P.!

A Solitary Life: Living Independently

Dispatch from the Hideout: Premature Hibernation

Random Topics III

Holding On & Letting Go

Life as a Barfly: Dispatch from the Hotel Bar