A Very Merry Un-Birthday TO ME!
FYI, this is not a real post today. I just got back from a weekend away, and I was too busy to think about you all. Sorry guys.
I have a birthday today. It’s not the day of my literal birth, but I am celebrating the day I put down the bottle, which is actually a more important date for me. If I was still sucking down the hooch on a minute-by-minute basis, I’d be dead now. Or homeless. Or worse. Not sure what’s worse than being homeless, but I sure as hell don’t want to find out.
This day is not that big of a deal to me – you don’t have to send me gifts or anything. Unless you really want to. Like, I’m not going to stop you or anything. Cash is always appreciated, am I right or am I right?
So although it’s not necessary to throw me a party, I have been sober for three years, which is necessary to note. You know, for posterity. Or something. If attention were not paid to this fact, there might be no Cat Lady. I’d just revert to Bag Lady, begging for spare change in front of the local Rite Aid and pawing through garbage for aluminum cans. I’m pretty fastidiously clean about my person, so were I reduced to those circumstances I think I’d rather be dead. Or just sober.
So hooray for getting a grip on life, putting on my big-girl pants and sucking up the fact that I have to be me twenty-four-seven without the aid of anything else to make me more fun, more carefree, more beautiful. I have to be me on my own, and I’m doing just fine.
Hooray also for those who lifted me up when they could have easily written me off. Thank you.
A total coincidence, I spent the weekend in Palm Springs on a girl’s trip, so I’ve been busy making merry and celebrating with virgin margaritas and of course, Diet Dr. Pepper, the drink of champions. There honestly has been little time for writing, as I really needed a break after last week’s insanity – I was incredibly busy and stressed out. Instead I’ve been lounging by the pool, rubbing SPF 70 sunscreen into Poppy every fifteen minutes and alternating between reading Game of Thrones (had to find out what the hype was all about) and chatting with the girls. It’s been wonderful not doing what I usually do on weekends, which is clean the house and grocery shop. What a thrilling life I do lead.
Here I am. Living in the moment. Absorbing the glowing sunset over the crumbling desert mountains from the quiet of the balcony. Being me: being real.
It’s a good day to be sober. It’s a good day to turn three.
13 Comments
Marcy
Happy Birthday Nat!
Natalie the Singingfool
Thank you, Marcy. 🙂
Alexandra
I’m proud of you.
Like so many addictions: computer, internet, twitter, FB, lying: everything that makes us FEEL GOOD is next to impossible to give up.
It takes work: be it food, drink, drugs, sex, pornography, gossip, dressing for attention: it takes SUCH WORK.
So very proud of you.
Natalie the Singingfool
Yes, it’s a LOT of work – but it’s soooo worth it. 😉
Erica Schatz
Awww, congratulations!! Enjoying life and basking in nature’s beauty through sober eyes is an awesome way to spend your third birthday! Here’s to many more! 🙂
Natalie the Singingfool
Thank you! It was pretty boss. 😉
Lindsey
Happy Birthday!!! It’s certainly worth celebrating when you’re strong enough to make a new beginning for yourself.
Natalie the Singingfool
Thanks you, Lindsey! Worth every bit of struggle. 🙂
Mia
Congratulations! That’s a huge accomplishment. (Which you know, but I’m saying it anyway.)
Natalie the Singingfool
Thank you! I appreciate it. 🙂
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johnnyNo
Good for you!!! I’m on year nine myself, and sometimes I don’t even miss it. HAH (A little white lie-honestly, it does get a bit easier as time moves on.)
Natalie the Singingfool
Thanks! Nine, wow…and it definitely gets easier! Although I do miss it, I don’t miss how it got in the end.