August 29, 2011
2. Newblog2011: 08/29/11 Al-Anon--for FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS OF PEOPLE WITH SUBSTANCE ABUSE PROBLEMS
I took notes to write this essay on 08/26/11. This is perhaps a good time to repeat that there are NEVER as many Al-Anon meetings as there are AA meetings, anywhere. I would often go to AA meetings in Vermont and say "I'm from Al-Anon." You know what they're supposed to say in AA meetings when somebody shows up and says "I'm from Al-Anon?" They're supposed to say "Welcome."
Last week, I called Al-Anon to get a meeting list. I got the information delivered to me in the mail.
I went to the place that the woman on the phone had told me had the meetings most convenient to my usual locations. I was a few minutes late. When i got to the church where the meeting was, there was a red, "Flood Recovery" van in front of it, with hoses going into the building. That was days before whatever kind of storm Irene was supposed to be in Boston had arrived.
It was a red van, with the number "17" on it. There was at least one "Caution" cone in front of the van, on the sidewalk.
The hoses ran all the way up the staircase. There was a "Wet Floor" sign in the hallway.
The sign on outside of the church says "For All." I picked up the Wet Floor sign. The secretary was in a locked office, so I went into the chapel, where they were taking donations. I said to the guy I saw there "The sign says "For All."" Please take this," and I gave him the sign.
When I went up the stairs to the floor where the meeting was supposed to be, I walked into another hallway. I stood there for a minute, taking notes about the van. The door from the stairway that I'd just walked through opened, and the guy walked in with the hose. He threw it on the floor. I asked what he was doing there; he said "I'm cleaning the carpets. Gotta keep it clean," and he grinned at me.
He then went into the room that was at the end of the hallway farthest away from the stairway, so that the hose was all along the floor. He went back out to get something, and I went into the room where he'd just put the hose. The carpet was completely dry.
I left that room as he went back into it.
A man in a wheelchair got out of the elevator and said "Oh no." He couldn't move his wheelchair past the large hoses on the floor.
I don't drink. I've never been drunk. I've always tried to tell people, at parties and so on, if they ask me why I don't drink, that I don't like the taste of alcohol that much, but that I don't have a moral problem with people who drink.
If I've talked about Al-Anon or AA before, it's to talk about some of the things that happen there that I think are wrong. For someone at Al-Anon, or someone at the post office, or someone anywhere, to say "Lena got some information from Al-Anon to start going to meeting,s," and for TV shows to then write things into their shows indicating that I need to "Stop Drinking," and for it to become this hateful rumor.....it's just one violation after another.
When I left the meeting an hour later, the Wet Floor sign was back in the hallway where it had been when I'd walked in.
Copyright L. Kochman. August 29, 2011 @ 9:31 a.m.
2. Newblog2011: 08/29/11 Al-Anon--for FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS OF PEOPLE WITH SUBSTANCE ABUSE PROBLEMS
I took notes to write this essay on 08/26/11. This is perhaps a good time to repeat that there are NEVER as many Al-Anon meetings as there are AA meetings, anywhere. I would often go to AA meetings in Vermont and say "I'm from Al-Anon." You know what they're supposed to say in AA meetings when somebody shows up and says "I'm from Al-Anon?" They're supposed to say "Welcome."
Last week, I called Al-Anon to get a meeting list. I got the information delivered to me in the mail.
I went to the place that the woman on the phone had told me had the meetings most convenient to my usual locations. I was a few minutes late. When i got to the church where the meeting was, there was a red, "Flood Recovery" van in front of it, with hoses going into the building. That was days before whatever kind of storm Irene was supposed to be in Boston had arrived.
It was a red van, with the number "17" on it. There was at least one "Caution" cone in front of the van, on the sidewalk.
The hoses ran all the way up the staircase. There was a "Wet Floor" sign in the hallway.
The sign on outside of the church says "For All." I picked up the Wet Floor sign. The secretary was in a locked office, so I went into the chapel, where they were taking donations. I said to the guy I saw there "The sign says "For All."" Please take this," and I gave him the sign.
When I went up the stairs to the floor where the meeting was supposed to be, I walked into another hallway. I stood there for a minute, taking notes about the van. The door from the stairway that I'd just walked through opened, and the guy walked in with the hose. He threw it on the floor. I asked what he was doing there; he said "I'm cleaning the carpets. Gotta keep it clean," and he grinned at me.
He then went into the room that was at the end of the hallway farthest away from the stairway, so that the hose was all along the floor. He went back out to get something, and I went into the room where he'd just put the hose. The carpet was completely dry.
I left that room as he went back into it.
A man in a wheelchair got out of the elevator and said "Oh no." He couldn't move his wheelchair past the large hoses on the floor.
I don't drink. I've never been drunk. I've always tried to tell people, at parties and so on, if they ask me why I don't drink, that I don't like the taste of alcohol that much, but that I don't have a moral problem with people who drink.
If I've talked about Al-Anon or AA before, it's to talk about some of the things that happen there that I think are wrong. For someone at Al-Anon, or someone at the post office, or someone anywhere, to say "Lena got some information from Al-Anon to start going to meeting,s," and for TV shows to then write things into their shows indicating that I need to "Stop Drinking," and for it to become this hateful rumor.....it's just one violation after another.
When I left the meeting an hour later, the Wet Floor sign was back in the hallway where it had been when I'd walked in.
Copyright L. Kochman. August 29, 2011 @ 9:31 a.m.