Travel Kicks My Ass

I arrived home Saturday night, slept most of the day on Sunday and I’m still tired.  Overall I had a wonderful time though.  There was a little tension with one of my travel companions who I found to be astonishingly self-centered, but I’m sure I played a part in that.  Managed, in the end, to discuss all that openly and reach some compromise and peace.

I called my sponsor from the corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Franciscojust for laughs where there were people smoking pot and selling joints right on the street.  That stuff just doesn’t go on in Boise.  And I went to a couple of AA meetings in Fresno; one of the worst I’ve ever been to and one of the best.

Even with per dium and lodging paid for, it is just unreasonable to expect to save any money on a trip like this.  I lost $30 gambling in Reno.  I bought souvenirs in Yosemite, Tulare and San Francisco.  I found an amazing outlet mall in Reno that had Saks Fifth Avenue and Banana Republic clearance centers.  (The lime green cashmere Ralph Lauren v-neck was a screaming deal, marked down from it’s original price of $800 to only $125 – even at that I couldn’t make myself buy it and opted for some really cute socks instead.)

Reno was maybe the hardest city.  The accessibility of alcohol at any time of day and the fact that I was away from home made drinking sound more appealing than it ever has, but even with that there was never any real consideration of actually acting on the thought.  Being sober still means so much to me.  And honestly, the image of people drunk and gambling at 6 in the morning was amazingly unattractive.

One of the most happy events was having lunch with a friend I know because of writing this blog.  We got sober at about the same time.  We’ve taken very different paths to the same place but we’ve both gotten there – confirming what the book says about AA not having cornered the market on recovery.  There may, in fact, be an ‘easier, softer way’.  Not one that worked for me, but obviously it exists.

I spent time in Yosemite and at the beach in San Francisco.  Both of them are deeply moving experiences for me.  The Central Valley of California is the most beautiful farm land on the planet and everything in the world grows there.   Nectarine trees were in bloom.  Alfalfa was green and lush.  Our world is the most amazing place; California in particular.  Whatever lack of faith I have in a deity is overwhelmingly replaced by pure wonder at the beauty of our little diamond, colored blue.  The scale alone makes me feel less “important” – and that is always a good thing.

It’s good to be home and I’m really looking forward to attending my home group tonight.