First and foremost ” HAPPY PRIDE 2022!!” For me everyday is a PRIDE day.
Recently I have heard several times the phrase “come as you are”. This phrase can be used in several connotations.
We hear people in churches say come as you are, but really do they mean it?
At our jobs we have these programs of INCLUSIVITY that state be you, be who you are, but do they really mean it?
In our recovery groups we always here please keep coming back and just be who you are and just stay sober and clean! I am a testament that THEY DO MEAN IT!!!
I come to you every day simply as a 55-year-old gay man who is married to his loving partner of 21 1/2 years. I am a thriver not just surviving with HIV/AIDS for a little over 25 years. I am the DADA to 6 four-legged fur babies that love me unconditionally. I am proud UTSA Roadrunner alum and staff member that bleeds blue and orange. I am a brother and a son. I am an alcoholic and addict in RECOVERY for a little over 2 years and 5 months.
I am not perfect!!!
So, I come exactly as I am!
That’s what’s in “My Rattled Cage”, thanks for stopping by!
I was doing a project for my job recently and I wanted to include my blog link on the project. When I went to my blog, I was like “has it REALLY been over a YEAR since I have written anything?” Then to top it all off I could not log into my account. Luckily, I was able to gain access today thanks to what they are now calling Happiness Engineers at WordPress.
I have missed so much in this last year as far as my writing goes. I have missed writing for SoCS. I missed participating in The Bee Writes’ “Love is in Da Blog 2022”. I missed writing in this year’s Blogging from A to Z in April. I have also missed writing for Song Lyric Sunday. I plan to get right back into my writing now that I have access to my account and my blog!!
So much has happened in the last year. Most importantly I recently celebrated 28 months of SOBRIETY. I am still very much involved with InTheRooms doing lots of service work. In April of last year I created the Pride in A.A. Group on In The Rooms and on Tuesday nights I chair the Pride in A.A. meeting at 9pm EST/8pm CST, this meeting started meeting the first week of May of last year.
After Mother’s Day last year I upgraded from my 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage to a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander. In October I traveled to McDonald, Tennessee to see my father and stepmother and went to Memphis to go to Graceland on my mother’s birthday October 6th. While in Memphis, on the night of October 5th some nice folks in stole the catalytic converter off of my brand new car. Francesca, that is my car’s name, got stuck in Memphis until December 11th when I returned to pick her up. I still finished my travels in a rental Dodge Ram, that was fun since I am not a truck person. My brand new car already has 22,000 miles on it even though it sat in Memphis for a little over two months.
I am still working with my favorite place to be employed, my home away from home, The University of Texas at San Antonio. Cruz and I just celebrated our 21st anniversary in February. We still have 6 dogs – Crissy, Little Bitty, Zailey, Stitchy, Marcy and Lucy.
Other life has happened as well. My brother in law who has been in my life since I was 11 continued fighting his courageous battle with brain cancer. During this battle I was able to be the brother I am supposed to be by traveling back and forth to the Santa Fe, Texas/League City, Texas area to be there for my sister and brother in law and to do whatever I possibly could for them. Unfortunately earlier this year the cancer had metastasized so badly in his liver and other areas that it was determined to stop treatment. That was in February. On April 28th he passed away at the age of 62.
I am truly blessed that I had the wherewithal, courage and determination to get up on January 4, 2020 and say that I was SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED, I pray for the last time. Had that not happened I would not have been able to be there for my sister and brother in law. I am so extremely blessed to have the family that I have and my friends and wonderful colleagues.
That is what is in “My Rattled Cage” , thanks for stopping by!!!
For Prompt 7 of #LoIsInDaBl21, Bee has given us Bonnie and Clyde -Find a Blues love song and/or write a Nonet about doomed love. WHen I ran across Etta James’ I’d Rather Go Blind, I knew this was the song for this post. I found a live version from 19754 in Amsterdam – it is about 8 minutes long but well worth it in my opinion. Etta had a voice on her and could touch your sole.
That’s what’s in My Rattled Cage, thanks for stopping by!
This year I did not participate in Just Jot January and I have missed it. I also have not posted in a while for Stream of Consciousness Saturday. This weeks prompt is exciting to me because of the exciting changes coming my way.
On Monday February 1st I start a new BEGINNING at a very familiar place to me. I am returning to The University of Texas at San Antonio as a Business Service Center Specialist I for the College of Sciences. Four years ago when I left the university due to personal health issues and other things going on, I never would have imagined that I would ever be able to return, let alone return and report directly to one of my former colleagues with the Institute for P-20 Initiatives from July 1, 2015-February 16, 2017 almost four years to the day I left.
This would not be happening if it had not been the END of the craziness of my alcoholism and addiction that started on January 4th, 2020. In the little over a year of sobriety I have worked 5 different jobs including what I am doing now and that is delivering for Favor a Texas Company through H-E-B. I have been doing that since December 2020. That would not have happened had I not had a new BEGINNING with purchasing my 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage from Mission Mitsubishi on April 4, 2020 on my 90th day of SOBRIETY.
2020 marked a new BEGINNING of ADULTING and the END of being selfish and immature. I can testify that if you work the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and not your program, the 9th Step Promises will start coming true before we are halfway through. Fear of people and economic security has been leaving me in record time.
I am so truly blessed and my goal is simply to work the program and work my job ONE DAY AT A TIME and that is all I need to do.
That’s what’s in My Rattled Cage, thanks for stopping by!
So, I can make the OFFICIAL announcement. On February 1st I am returning HOME to my beloved The University of Texas at San Antonio as a Business Service Center Specialist I with the College of Sciences!!!
I cannot even stop expressing how EXCITED and ECSTATIC I am to be returning home.
Everyone knows I bleed ORANGE and BLUE!!!!
That’s what’s in “My Rattled Cage”, thanks for stopping by!!!
I had my pictures ready yesterday 9/12/20 and I was ready to write this post and then the day just rana way from me. Linda gave us “collar” for our prompt for this week’s #SoCS.
I thought what a perfect prompt because all of our babies got a new collar this week. In order of pictures – Crissy, Little Bitty, our newest baby Lucy, Sadie, Stitchy and Zailey.
We sure do love our babies and I hope every one has a blessed week.
That’s what’s in My Rattled Cage, thanks for stopping by!!
Today Linda has given us “sharp” as our prompt for this week’s #SoCS.
When I was younger I would be called sharp as a whip. As I became a teenager I became sharp as a pencil. As I moved through adulthood i was ranging from being sharp as a tack to being as sharp as a double edged sword with my fiery tacky sense of humor at times along with my very sharp tongue.
Today I deal a different type of sharpness. You see I have always been a go-getter especially when it comes to my work ethic. I currently find myself being called sharp in how I work, but I am also being called eager. Eager can be both a positive and a negative meaning that it can definitely be a sharp double edged sword.
The other double edged sword that I have to be very careful with is my recovery. I am very cognoscente that I must not stand still in my recovery, If I do I will be cut by that edge of the sword that cares nothing about me and my recovery.
September is National Recovery Month. We all know I am an open book and I am proud that I am in recovery! The last few years have been a struggle, but I am so proud to say I have 8 months of sobriety today. Unfortunately it took my husband Cruzer having open heart surgery in December of 2019 and me not taking it well for me to really wake up, but I am woke!
I am blessed to have a huge support network in my family, friends and my fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. But it is important to note that the number one thing that I have in my recovery is my Higher Power whom choose to call GOD!
If you know someone who is struggling with any type of addiction please let them know about a really great supplement to face to face meetings. In The Rooms that has meetings all day everyday for almost every type of addiction you can think of. I have a home group online Global Steps AA, that has a total of 64 meetings per week and just happens to meet in the church of In The Rooms!!!
So in order for me to be sure and handle the edge of the sword that does care about my recovery the way that I do, I do some pretty simple steps. I remain sharp as a tack in regards to my character defects coming to the surface and nip them in the bud. I thank my higher power whom I choose to call God every morning for allowing me to wake up and not just come to. I am in constant contact with my sponsor. I am currently working on my 4th step.
I love doing service, in fact I truly believe that in 2016 when I turned 50, the whole reasoning behind my major relapse and then continuing to have issues with relapse and recovery – was because I had gotten mad at folks in my home group the Goliad Group and my online group – and I quit doing any type of service.
You see, I always say, I cannot keep what I do not give away freely!!!!!! That is a true statement if I am doing some sort of service for my fellow alcoholics then I cannot keep my sobriety. Today I chair meetings at my face to face home group and in my online home group. I share in every meeting that I can, because I never know who I will touch with my words of experience, strength and hope.
So as long I continue to work this sharp program of recovery, I WILL REMAIN SHARP AS A TACK!!!!
That’ what’s in MY Rattled Cage, thanks for stopping by!!
Wow it has been a long time since I have had a #1LinerWeds post because of my new job that I have been at since the end of June. Please enjoy this reminder from Jeremy Camp!
There's a new sun burning, and soft fruits ripening, my precious grizzled tresses tumbling, Dylan's humming 'The times they are a changing', these parting verses are mere shadows merging ...
My Rattled Cage - What has me rattled today? 