Tranquility Base

This evening found me in the kitchen cooking. I prepared Pioneer Woman's chicken spaghetti. Check out her blog. It is a great read and she is a wonderful photographer.

"This is absolutely delicious," Rosa told me as we sat eating. "And I am not much of a casserole person."

Rosa and I finished our meal and she helped me clean up the kitchen afterwards. I then fixed my mother a plate and I and Rosa walked over to my parent's house to give it to her. I introduced Rosa to my mom. They seemed to get alone quite well.

"Your parent's house is huge," Rosa said as we were walking home.

"I personally wouldn't want it," I replied. "It costs dad a fortune to heat and cool the damn thing."

Rosa finally left to go home and I readied myself for my nightly AA meeting. I drove myself to a nearby college town to the meetings held in an old former Catholic Church. I noticed Dana's, the Celtic Beauty's, car in the parking lot as I arrived.

"Hey stranger," she said as I walked into the meeting hall.

We talked for about ten minutes until the meeting started. I then shared some of my misgivings about I and my father's relationship and his recent attempts to drug me into submission. The consensus was that I should just say no and I agreed. Xanax is terribly addictive and I just knew I would be hooked in a matter of days. I also revealed for the first time in all the years I have been going to AA that I have a mental illness. I would never do this at the stodgy and conservative group in my hometown.

"I struggle with bi-polar," a lady told me as she came up to greet me after the meeting. "My doctor has me on lithium."

"I take lithium as well," I said. "Does it upset your stomach?"

"I always try to eat when I take it," she replied.

"Walk out to my car with me and let me give you my phone number," I told her. "That way you can call me if you ever need a friend to talk about mental health issues."

She did follow me out to my car and I wrote my number on a napkin. She asked me if it would be okay if she could call me tomorrow night when she got off of work. I told her I would be pleased to speak to her for awhile. I then left and drove on home and spent the rest of the evening working on my computers and installing a TV tuner card I had ordered on the internet. Saturday is George's poker night so we didn't go on the drunken express.

Well, let me head to bed. It has been a busy day.