SOMETIMES I HATE Newcomers

I swear, if it wasn't for the fact that I remember what I jerk I was 17 years ago, I would never talk to someone newly sober again.

The men are the worst - sorry, guys, but it is true. Especially the older guys who finally get their heads out of their bumbums and realize that the reason their kids hate them, they are on their third divorce and they have been fired from about 6 jobs and now have a minuscule pension from the grocery story is because they are a drunk. So they go to a treatment center - or two, or three - become Born Again Christians, and then proceed to tell everyone who has managed to stay sober for 15 or 20 years how to 12 step, how to talk to families and what is really wrong with us ( you are so angry - you're right, jerko, I am angry at you because you are such a pompous ASS).

Ah, well...they really cannot help it. And like I said, I can remember being just this insufferable. The oldtimer who finally got in my face when I was - at 8 months sober, the sobriety queen - and told me to shut the F***K up because I didn't know what I was talking about saved my life.

Hopefully, LOM will realize someday that my telling him he is an insufferable bigot with a big ego and a mouth that refuses to shut will feel the same way I now feel about that guy Charlie. Because I made it a point to find him after I celebrated five years and I took him to dinner - he saved my life, plain and simple. He looked at me, smiled, hugged me and then said, "Honey, I would not have told you to shut up if I did not think you were worth the time".

See, that's what LOM won't stop and think about - he is really not that important, so why would someone who is happy, sober, successful and smack in the middle of the lifeboat of recovery bother with him if she did not think he was worth the time?

The fact is, if he ever decides to shut up and really do the work he will be a valuable member of the fellowship. Right now, however, he is simply a whiny little gray man with 7 months who insists he is right and is just a jerk.

No, JACK - you may not post this on The Hive.

I am so grateful for my sobriety today and for the tough sponsorship I have had - and I am so grateful for my homegroup and the women I sponsor..all 15 of them. They are incredible - beautiful, intelligent, creative and SOBER....and they make me smile and laugh, even when they are being goofy. I am sure I make My SPONSOR laugh out loud sometimes with my bright ideas.

So really, I don't actually hate newcomers...any more than a mommy hates her colicky baby. But now I know why they call us 'babies' in SoCal...not only do they love us and nurture us, they know that sometimes we poop all over them.

And that's what makes us FUN!!!!