By Larry D.

<Tomorrow I'll have 90 days sober, and I'm glad to be able to share that with all of you, because it doesn't mean that much to the people in my life who haven't been down this particular road. – S.>

TOOT! TOOT! That's really great. When I was at 90 days, I think the strongest emotion I felt, even stronger than the absolute unfairness that of all the people who need it so bad, I CAN'T DRINK, was how awful it was that nobody appreciated how hard it was to quit drinking: not my wife, not people at work, not my students --- they all expected me to just behave normally, with no temper tantrums, crying spells, foul moods, or other outbursts. A month later, I was finally desperate enough that I started attending AA meetings (no SOS then), and whatever their other failings might have been, it felt really good to finally be around people who understood what I was going through.

I think that the #1 thing that groups like ours can do is to offer that understanding; we know what it is like for J. to be struggling at 72 hours, and what it is like for you to face a 90-day birthday during the holiday season.

So congratulations, and thank you for your 90 days --- every day that you don't drink our group is that much stronger, and you have that much more to share with us.

Hey, I like that thought --- each and every day that we all hang in there and don't drink, our group is 160 sober-days stronger. Who says sobriety must be earned one day at a time?