Who, What, and Why
I don’t know what I am doing, but I’m a 45-year-old guy in recovery for alcohol and getting started on an improv... something.
As I write this, I am just about to turn 20 months sober, which means that I had my last drink on 3/21/24 by mixing water and vodka in a white, insulated Yeti cup and drinking it on my way to my 3rd 30-day rehab stint in 6 months (I only complete two full cycles. I left the 2nd rehab early).
One of the precipitating events was having a procedure called "Gastric Bypass," which, entirely at the age of 40, changed my relationship with alcohol. Since the stomach metabolizes most alcohol, and I lost 80% of that, one drink became like four or five drinks. I was sober, by medical requirement, for one year post-surgery, which was the first year of the COVID pandemic. Once I started to drink again, I was, in the words of the AA Big Book, "without defense against the first drink." When I started, I could not stop until I blacked out, and I couldn't stay stopped. I drank all the time.
By way of defining how bad it was, once—and I have too many similar stories—I tripped and hit the sidewalk on a Baltimore street and decided it would be a good idea to sleep there. So I did, terrifying my family since they had no idea where I was. That journey into Hell took three years (I've always been advanced, even to the point of ruining my life!) The last time I was in Rehab, I read the AA Big Book, and it clicked for me. I did AA for a year, working the 12 steps with a sponsor.
When I was in rehab, I started talking and telling my story, and people laughed and told me I should "do that" — "that" being talking in front of people and making them laugh. I decided to try Improv classes, and things clicked again. It was as if my whole life, I hadn't been breathing. Stepping out onto the stage with people from the backline is where I am finding my higher power and the connection I have been missing in my life. So, this is where I am at. Knowing I am missing something and trying to find it, one beat at a time. Feel free to tag along if you want to.
