This is me to a “T”!! I’m a 31 year-old female, conservative with some socially liberal views, that doesn’t drink, yet sells drugs for a living .  For the first time ever this weekend, I posted on Facebook about my sobriety. I have been sober for 3 years, this past Sunday. I had my last drink on my birthday in 2010, and haven’t looked back. To make a long story short, the drinking needed to stop before I completely screwed up my life. It took me awhile to get to the point where I wanted to get help for myself. Throw in the risk of losing the first thing that was more important to me than alcohol, and you had a catalyst for change.

Getting sober was one of the hardest things I have ever done emotionally in my life. The key is you have to want to help yourself, and I did. No one can force you to change. It has to come from within for it to really work. Everyone follows a different path, and this was mine. I can’t explain how emotionally raw I was those first few months. It’s like I was stripped down completely with paint thinner before I was built back up. It was all worth it, though, and I wouldn’t change a damn thing.

Soon after getting sober, came hiking, and then running, and my life was completely changed for the better. A lot has changed since 2010, and life has only gotten better since. I now feel like I have more of a purpose, and I look forward to far different things in life than I used to. The friends I surround myself with are real. I didn’t surround myself with the healthiest people while I was out there, but now, I won’t have it any other way.

So, as you have figured out, May is a special month for me! My birthday is 5/4, directly followed by my sobriety birthday on 5/5! One of the cutest texts I got on the 4th was this one:

Brat!! Lol!! My friends know me SO well!! None of my plans aligned and worked out on Saturday, so I went to a meeting that morning, and stayed home watching a Smash marathon on On Demand trying to catch up with the season. I was kind of sad, but really, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Sunday turned out much better! Ali decided that we were going on a walk to the dog run whether I liked it or not! On our walk, we ran into a pair of ducks! They appeared to be boyfriend/girlfriend:

 

They were so friendly and fearless! They came right up to me like they kind of just expected me to give them something to eat! I didn’t have anything with me, so Ali and I started to walk back home, and they started following us down the sidewalk!

So I went home and brought back a couple of pieces of bread for them. They bravely came right up to me, and the female ate bread right out of my hand!!

They were so adorable! They made my morning! I saw them outside again today. I wonder if they’re lost? The lake is a couple of buildings over….anyway, they were cute nonetheless!

That afternoon, I hung out by the pool, and Devin took me out for sushi that night. We went to Ginban Sushi over on 40th St and Chandler. It was excellent!! Even their basic rolls like Spicy Salmon and Spicy Tuna were exceptional! The fun rolls we got were the Ginban Roll (right)and the Spicy Girl Roll (left) pictured here:

Fan-freakin-tastic! I could’ve eaten like four of either of those rolls. I will definitely go back and try more of their stuff. After dinner, we watched Silver Linings Playbook and ate candy .

This whole candy thing’s gotta stop…..

The movie was really good! Jennifer Lawrence definitely earned her Oscar for her role in it. What a great representative of my hometown!

So the weekend was really nice. I am so blessed to have such supportive people in my life! I really didn’t expect the kind of response I got to my Facebook post on Sunday. I am grateful! Here’s to another great year of healthy living and continuing to grow into the person God created me to be

‘Til next time….

Happy Trails!

Stacey