Well, this weekend I'm down in North Carolina, visiting with the in-laws. It's pretty sweet - my father in law pays for the tickets because he gets astounding amounts of frequent flyer miles. This time, as a surprise, he upgraded us to first class. That was really great because I got to take something off my bucket list and the seats are far more comfortable there.
What freaked me out was when the Stewardess asked us if we wanted anything to drink while we were waiting for the rest of the plane to board. Must be something they do in first class, so I asked for a seltzer water and my husband already had a drink so he was ok. The guy across the aisle asked for a glass of wine, and his lady friend asked for some other alcoholic drink. And then it hit me - my first time flying first class, and I don't get to enjoy one of the benefits of first class, which is to drink myself stupid for free. I was a bit ticked off for about 30 seconds. Then the voice of reason appeared and said to me, "it doesn't matter that you are finally getting to fly first class and you are missing out on the free booze. You don't need it, and if you ever get to fly first class again, you won't really miss the booze anyway. It won't ever have been a part of your experience, so you won't miss it."
One thing I didn't miss today was getting to a meeting. On Thursday, I spoke at a beginners meeting about my upcoming travel plans and how I just wanted to make sure I stayed on track. Many people suggested I get a meeting, and I did manage to find three meetings I could attend today. It was a little AA club over in Morganton, the meeting was small but it was a good meeting. I listened, and I learned that the accents change, and the preferences for drinks may change, but the alcoholics do NOT change. They go through the same stuff, get into the same trouble, and face their sobriety the same way as I do. It was good to hear and they welcomed me in as a Yankee (not a Damn Yankee, because a Damn Yankee comes to stay where a Yankee just comes to visit.)
I'm glad I listened when people suggested I get a meeting while I am travelling. I have an app on my phone that finds any meetings within a 5 mile radius of my location, or I can type in a specific city and it will find the meetings there. (It's called Meeting Finder and it works for NA as well as AA, and it's available for Android phones.)
I'm glad I didn't back out of my promise to get a meeting this weekend.
