Twelfth Meeting, Day Fifteen

Clubhouse. Found an old friend there that I remembered when he went into the program and got sober. He was always very verbal about it... was shocked when he announced today was his anniversary and it was 16 years! Sixteen years??? He said when people ask him when his bottom was: He says it was when he came to AA... A couple people chuckled. In this meeting people don't raise their hands for pitch, you get picked on. He picked me and I shared my day count and how I'm seeing that all kinds of little things I'm experiencing this week would have been held onto it and made into reasons for self-pity to justify a week end drinking binge... That instead, I've been stopping from judging myself with each problem and not letting it get to me since drinking is no longer an option... I pitched to a guy that I've heard share a few times... It's kind of like, instead of buying someone down the end of the bar that you might have chatted with once or twice a beer, you give them a pitch by name... Maybe they'll reciprocate in a future meeting and sometimes not... walking home with S16, he told me how he, too, avoided gay meetings as there was a sexual dynamic at play, or a romantic one, and he was advised early on not to date anyone in the program for the first year... I don't know about that... But I'm sure I won't for at least 90 days, and by going to these straight meetings there isn't much danger of that anyway...