On the Links Again!!!

With my job the work week sort of ends on Thursdays since there is not much going on in the office on Fridays. I say “sort of” because I am still in the office on Friday and also Saturday since I don’t have much else to do. Most of my work is complete by Thursday and I do like this schedule which frees up Fridays to play golf which is what I did today. Last night was another Thursday night at the Souplantation with my sponsoree. I have been very fortunate with a good sponsoree and yesterday marked the second week in a row we had dinner at the Souplantation. We didn’t work the steps like we did last week but we still had some very good conversations.

We do share similar consequences of our compulsive gambling addictions but the reasons prior to these consequences couldn’t be any different. I can only speak for myself and my reasons were that of entitlement which in retrospect is just terrible. I do know now that I am not entitled to anything but it has taken me a long time to discover this.

My sponsoree reasons are much different and we are really very different people however we share the same disease. That is the fascinating part about the compulsive gambling addiction that it seems to affect all different types of people. I have read some of the studies that state compulsive gamblers have a higher then average IQ and this maybe the case but no matter the IQ the addiction takes over the individual.

The addiction did take over my life but now recovery is my life which makes the world of difference. I am doing my best to instill all of the benefits of recovery in my sponsoree. I love recovery and it continues to save my life however others may not share my same sentiments. I don’t know what else I can do other then do what I have been doing which is staying focused in recovery. I don’t believe in any magic words or catch phrases. I believe in walking the walk and yes, my life continues to get better each and everyday.

The dinner was very good and this month’s theme at Souplantation is strawberries. I think strawberries are the only food item that has gone down in price over the past two years. I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that strawberries are in season right now but anyhow the strawberry them was well received by me last night. There was a strawberry salad and a strawberry vinaigrette dressing. Both of these items were delicious and I think someone should develop strawberry vinaigrette dressing in the bottle form because it was delicious. The dinner was very good and the company was even better. This was a great way to spend a Thursday evening.

I arrived home to an empty house which doesn’t happen often so instead of doing something productive like reading I switched on the television. I have somewhat reverted back to “before prison” in turning on the television instead of reading. I read so much during my time incarcerated and over the past almost three months I have read next to nothing. Sure I read the news everyday on the internet which is another wonderful thing and I really don’t see the need for newspapers. In fact I haven’t picked up a newspaper since I have been released because there really isn’t any need. All of the news can be found on the internet and within minutes I am well informed.

I have slipped back into watching television I have no desire to watch “network” television. There are some very good programs on MSNBC, CNN, CNBC and even the Fox News Channel. Also; the new favorite of “Deal or No Deal” seems to air every night on CNBC. I watched a few minutes of this last night and a few minutes of the “Donny Deutsche Show” which is very good and serves as a motivator for doing “one’s own thing”. I was tired and could only take a few minutes of television before falling asleep.

I didn’t need to wake up early this morning so I took advantage of an extra hour of sleep and my body needed this. I was feeling the effects of my hard 10 mile run as I woke up this morning. I was due to run another 8 miles this morning but thought better of it. My shins have not been feeling well for the past two weeks and I need more rest to be at my best for the marathon in two weeks. I have pretty much stayed on course with my training regimen but today was a necessary departure. I rode the exercise cycle instead of running this morning. This seems to flush out the lactic acid in my shins but there still seems to be more then the usual soreness in this area.

The exercise cycle is great because there isn’t any impact on my joints whereas running wears on my joints. I have trained differently for the upcoming marathon then I have for my previous five marathons. I have done more running then in the prior training sessions and I think my body is letting me know to “chill out”. I ran my best marathon in December of 2005 at the Las Vegas Marathon. It seemed that all the stars aligned and I ran exactly what I had planned. I am hoping for a repeat performance in two weeks and even if I don’t I am just happy to be there. I am not only happy I am grateful for the opportunity and will enjoy every step of the 26.2 miles.

Yes, today was a golf day and I went with a great friend. The temperature was in the 90’s (thankfully my golf game was below the temperature) and the winds were blowing rather fierce. This made for an interesting combination. Usually when the winds blow hard there are some holes which are downwind and other holes into the wind. However; today most holes there seemed to be a cross wind (wind blowing from right to left or vice versa). This made for some unusual shots and I did play fairly well. I had one hole that I would like to forget and I can’t wait to complete a round of golf without one of these holes. I believe I lose concentration and one bad shot leads to another bad shot. Fortunately this was only on one hole and I bounced back quickly on the next hole.

It was a wonderful day and it was just the two of us playing golf. This was great because we were able to complete the round rather quickly since there wasn’t any waiting on any of the holes. This is an extra bonus and a great way to play golf. Sometimes (heck oftentimes) golf takes over 5 hours to complete because there are so many players on the course but today we played in only 3 hours which makes a big difference. I hit more good shots than bad shots and my putting seems to be improving. It was a lovely day on the links!!!