All is Quiet, All is Well

Hi all, before I spend the day doing some serious writing thought I would do some just for me and update those who still read my blog.

College classes are going as follows. Basic writing is easy for now and I am getting good grades. I am kicking butt in my Intro to Business but I should be with my years of experience, it is easy for me to read and comprehend the material which allows me to do well on the exam's and essay's. I was worried about how I would do on the essay's but once I got my head around what he was asking for I just free flowed the answers using my experience in relationship to the material in the text, so far I am getting high marks for critical thinking. Developmental Psyche is a different story from Intro to Business. The material in the psyche class is harder for me to comprehend, some of the stuff I can understand based on experience, other stuff is just foreign to me, the first 4 chapters have been more on theory and medical stuff. I got an 84 on my first test, 4 points where because I answered an essay question to the best of my ability, every point counts on this class. Having done the first test I now understand how he does his test. I have a paper due for this class on Thursday, a review of an article dealing with early childhood development. I choose to do mine on Reactive Attachment Disorder, a topic I am interested in, so hopefully I can do a half way decent job of transmitting what I read to paper in a 3 page summary. I have a little confusion on how to set up the title page and the topic in the 1st page of the paper but a buddy of mine with a psyche degree is going to help me with it this afternoon. If I work hard enough I should be able to get a B out of this class. The computer class has been a bitch but not from the material, it uses a Microsoft Internet program via using Explorer for a browser. I would start doing the online course and get kicked out after completing one subsection making a real pain in the ass to do the work very fast. Yesterday I was using the college's remote website to do some stuff in Office 2010, I took a chance and clicked on Explorer via this site and to my great relief was able to do the work easier than using Explorer from my desktop, literally a thank you God.

Last weekend I was at the state AA area assembly. I thought I would be able to get some homework done in the evening but learned a lesson that I couldn't. The problem is I am really tired come Saturday night. I work Friday night until 11 which means I don't get to bed until around 1am, then up at 5:30am so I can pick up a guy and be on the road by 6:30am for the 2 hour drive to the assembly. Another thing is; assembly is a full day of meetings, some interesting some not, basically I was physically tired and mentally burned by 7:00pm. This is not a big deal, what happened was I learned to not count on being able to study when I have to attend assemblies, once a quarter.

Speaking of AA, our district treasury has too much money in it. At our district meeting we decided to spend some of the money on books for a local mental hospital, we bought 2 Big Books, 2 Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions and 4 of the easy to read Grapevine story compilation books. We bought a 2 year subscription of the Grapevine for the library. We are also going to buy some chicken and have a speaker meeting in October, this will also be a event where the area delegate gives his report from GSO. We have enough money to bring in a speaker from Omaha and pay her expenses; fuel and hotel.

Mich and the kids have officially moved out of my house. It has taken me a bit to not miss the kids being around and not to worry too much about their emotional well being. I still see them a few times a week, so we have quality time together. Mich seems to be doing well in her job and not missing work or being constantly late. The kids are in daycare and doing well. Mich is still drinking too much but that is out of my hands for now.

I have a new normal now. Since Mich and kids have left it is just the dog, the hell on wheels kitten and me. I now have a quiet house to study in, timing of Mich being forced to move out couldn't have been better. My grocery bill has decreased for the most part, still buy stuff for kids to eat for when they do come around. I am getting use to allocating my study time between my time off and what I can get done at work on the slow nights. I have made a commitment to 3 AA meetings a week and 1 NA. Still in the financial hole but slowly digging out.

I have made a change in my diet. I started to really evaluate my eating habits, the knowledge of being 50 in February made me step back and think about taking better care of myself for my family. I talked to a Nutritionist at the VA, she gave me some good tips on eating healthier on a budget. I have started buying more ground turkey and pork to use in curries and stir-fries, buying avocados for salads, using vinaigrette dressing on salads and whole grain pasta dishes instead of so much Ranch. I will buy a steamer soon for meat and vegetables as well. Like a lot of other things the willingness to change came when I was truly willing to change. It also helps not having my lovely grand kids and daughter in the house eating stuff I have bought just for me. By the way I don't do fish but am learning to cook chicken in more creative ways than frying it.

Life is good, work is good, recovery is good. I am in my 6th year of recovery and feel I have been given opportunities to apply the 6th step in the 6th year.

Peace Love Light
Scott