More on this later.

Love to all. Even you, the lady who commented on the leftovers.

The reason I don’t have many tattoos is partially because of the six-month rule: I have to want the same thing, with no iterative changes, for six months.  Then I have the internal green light.

I’ve wanted my new tattoo for much longer than six months.  But, being that it was below the sleeveline, and that it was a phrase, I decided to call my sponsor the day of the appointment for one more opinion.  I told him the deal.  He was agreeable to the concept, and asked me what the words were.

When I said “even you,” he started laughing. Uproariously.

I said: “What the HELL, dude?”

And then he told me why he laughed.

My sponsor had recently moved out of New York City.  For years and years prior, he had been attending the same AA meeting that I go to most weekday mornings.  One of his best friends goes to the meeting, as well.  She’s a FANTASTIC lady who helped start the group.  For well over a decade, they have sat next to each other.  They have the habits of old friends:  she eats his morning bagel without asking, little inside jokes, things like that. They’ve sat side by side, every morning, for well over a decade.

Since he moved from the city, this is something they both miss dearly.

At the end of the meeting, we say the Serenity Prayer.  And, as they do at many meetings, we follow that with “Keep coming back, it works if you work it, so work it your worth it.”  (Yeah, it’s silly, but like everything else in AA, it grows on you.) For over a decade, after the whole group said “so work it your worth it,” my sponsor and his best friend would look at each other, point, and say:

“Even you.”

That is why he was laughing.  That is why I heard God say: “Proceed.”

Love to all. Even you, the guy who insists that it just doesn’t matter.

A long time ago, when I was thinking about tattoos, Renn suggested that, instead of “Be love” I get “Even you.” Renn, this post is yours.

Love to all.  Even you, the tourist with the flying elbows.

“Okay, but next time you have my scrotum between your teeth, maybe YOU shouldn’t shake your head back and forth like a dog with a bone.”

Love to all. Even you, the waiter with the expertly averted eyes.

Today was wonderful. We went to Quassy, where I rode the most frightening, tiny, and rickety roller coaster I have ever seen.  My oldest son convinced me to do the water slide.  We swam in the lake. We ate really delicious and horrible-for-you food.

Driving home, the sky was… was…

Love to all.  Even you, the mom who watched her kid litter, and walked away.

I may be writing this with just one finger, but I’m still posting via the free Wordpress iPhone app. Jesus, I think I need to change my clothes.

Love to all. Even you, the guy who was not so subtley hammering a loose screw back into the ferris wheel.

Come either, I’m getting iPhones today.

Time on line so far:  56 minutes.

Love to all. Even you, the guy getting paid to stand in line who keeps saying “motherFUCKER!”

I RTFM, baby.

That would be another 1800 rotations per minute, and 80 gigs of usable space.

Go ahead. Touch me. Touch me anywhere. You know you want to.

Love to all. Even you, the gritty-sounding Smeller.

My new recruiter just passed his first test of “Rich is a freak.” However, his coming from upstate New York dissolved a bit of the “strangeness” effect of my threat.  I am on the right.

Love to all. Even you, the right woman on the wrong day.

I called my mother-in-law yesterday, and she answered. I asked her how she was.  She told me that she had asked someone to be her sponsor, and that she was going to two meetings a week.

I told her I was happy to hear that.

I told her that that the reason nobody came to her rescue this time was because we’d done all we can do, and that she knows as much or more about how to treat her alcoholism than we could ever teach her.

I told her that she wasn’t in any way being “shunned” by the family - but that if she was drinking, there wasn’t anything we could do, and that I’m glad she’d not drinking.

I told her I had to go, that I would call her soon.

Love to all. Even you, the lady who didn’t realize it might be a good idea to move. her. shit.