Fireworks, Sobriety, and Pirate Tattoos

Not a bad Fourth of July weekend, if I do say so.  Got a new tattoo (check my Facebook page for pictures), a haircut, saw my daughter, saw my friend perform on Saturday, spent some quality time with the girlfriend and the cat, and went to a couple of really good meetings.  Also, I conquered a major hurdle in my harmonica learning curve, courtesy of the aforementioned girlfriend.  She doesn't play harmonica, she just figured it out before I did.

Also, I brought her to the meeting I went to yesterday.  I hadn't been to this meeting yet, but I'd heard good things.  They basically split it up into two meetings; one for beginners (those with 90 days or less of sobriety), and then a short break, and then the open meeting for everyone.  The beginner meeting was sort of a combination of lecture and open discussion.  It was small, aside from me, my girlfriend, and two other beginners, there were a couple folks there who had at least a year under their belts, plus the chairman and the speaker.

I've only been to one discussion meeting, and I didn't speak at that one (or "share," as they call it) because I was kind of taking it all in.  This time, there were only a few of us, so I felt I needed to contribute.  I think it went well.  At least I came up with what I think would be a good line for my new act (inching closer and closer to hitting an open mic...).  the problem I'm running into now is, I'm finding a lot of good meetings near me that I can't go to on a regular basis because of my work schedule.  Hopefully, my employer can meet me partway so I can follow up with some of them.  I did join a group that meets down the road from me on Sunday nights, though.  Next stop, sponsor.

One other thing I did yesterday was buy a sketch pad.  I've mentioned before that I once wanted to be a comic book artist, and every once in a while I'll still doodle something out of random inspiration, or boredom or whatever.  I'm thinking I'm going to try working on designing a tattoo for myself.  Not sure what it's going to be, but the word "Pirate" keeps running through my head.  Celtic pirate?  Pirate radio?  Pittsburgh Pirate (okay that last one was just to satisfy the rule of threes)?  Or something completely different?  Which makes me think that maybe Terry Gilliam's (Monty Python) art might be a good inspiration for a tattoo.  This is all rather stream of consciousness, I know.  I've also thought of something along the lines of Van Gough's "Starry Night."  Decisions, decisions.

Well anyway, it was a good weekend, and some hopeful things came out of it.  And I'm starting to get ambitious, which is good but strange, for me anyway.  I'm looking forward to getting used to it.  I will NOT, however, go bungee jumping with you.


Don't forget to tip your wait staff, and try the veal...