Seekers (and what have you)

My home is in an ordinary ranch house in a suburban area of a state university town. My housemates are drawn from the local Recovery community (A.A., N.A). We are democratically run, the rules are simple and obvious. Pay the rent and stay sober.

No leaders. One another's trusted servants, rather. (And maybe sometimes untrusted savants.)

Everyone is uniquely harum-scarum, reckless, and unhinged, but when newly sober---maybe for the first time since our teens --- unlike Tolstoy's axiomatic observation ("Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"), our personal happiness is unique as well.

I am very nearly going to write about people I do not understand. And I don't know any addicts like myself.

They say we are not unique. I know what A.A. means by that, but it's bunk, of course. Nonsense, is what that is.
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Some of us come from the "4th floor" (that is the mental hospital), many are just out from prison or jail. All of us are from "treatment center", I suppose.

Men and women, rich poor abused coddled, on the 4th step (moral inventory), on the 12th; men and women, young and old, some on probation or parole, others not so compelled.

And then you know there are personalities and personality disorders. There are also "dual - diagnosis" patients among us. I am one of those I suppose. Or I was allowed to think so anyway. (There are advantages, and disadvantages).

We are variously on our way up or on our way down. (Being stuck is on the way down.)

Professionals, laborers, unemployables. If you say "they are all crazy", you are not imparting very much information.

I almost drank myself to death. I almost drank until my life was over, too.
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I realize just now I don't wish to write for strangers/ newcomers today. It's all in the sidebar and there is my profile and there are the archives.

Life here is idylic at times, charming and serene, amusing with a cast of c

wait. a chat box opens.

Here is a transcript from just moments ago, this Sunday morning.

xxx
ENDD
But I've left the chat box open for some reason. I don't see how that could have been much different from my being collected once. Funny, that also took place during a chat too:

notadr (12:44:46 PM): fing AAAA
notadr (12:44:50 PM): knock on the door
et (12:45:03 PM): answer it
notadr(12:45:10 PM): heart attack heart attack
et (12:45:17 PM): answer the door, john
et (12:45:25 PM): it's probably just stacy or something
notadr(12:46:34 PM): deputy, i'm committed
notadr (12:46:35 PM): bye
et (12:46:47 PM): bye.

Yes, the deputy with the papers let me type goodbye on the computer. "et" knew during this hour long chat that commitment papers were about to be served and was unusually talkative. Or that is, she'd stopped hectoring me about getting help as I drank myself to death and awaited eviction.

This weekend our "sober house" has weekend guests. Sometimes coincidentally, many of my housemates are providing hospitality at the same time. This is a fairly large house, split level on a hill, with two kitchens and two baths, two living rooms if you count the new "media room" down below. Normally we are seven of us. This weekend, I believe we are 12 (and that is not counting girlfriends.)

Then we have visitors. For instance last night before a dance, two of the Gibson Girls stopped by to have me take their pictures. We were in a long term treatment together in 2005. One is at that moment remembering how to deal with me, behind the camera.

I'm not sure if any of us know each other really. We know the way we each can be in a stress and in hilarity. We know one another's boundaries, and some of our "boundaries" are not common-place or even common sense.

For instance, I pretty much draw the line at anything like conversation.

Or, ok, I have caused them to draw a line, since I tend to either fumble or make caustic remarks about any mention of, for instance, popular culture, i.e: horror novels, rap, My Space, divorces, break-ups, (though I do thrive on glossup).

and...

Words I don't know, if they are related to clothing, teenage behavior/slang,
Anything I suspect is a meme,
Cell Phone contracts,
Del.icio.us, RSS,
Brita Smart Pitcher Water Filtration Systems,
The Keurig B-70,
Kholer
HD TV
Beyonce
Dyson suctionless vaccums and this style of website.
Hummers
Anything hinting at the subject of this George and Melba song from Nashville in the early 60's. Unspeakable!