The 70th

Thank you, Ashley. I'm Phyllis and I am an alcoholic

and my sobriety date is December the 2nd, 1980 and my Home group is Croton Hudson in New York and it's such a pleasure to be here. You know, your friends at GSO have mentioned so many times when they heard I was coming to Old Granddad, they said, oh gosh, you're going to Old Granddad. And everyone there knows you and sends their very best wishes and has such fond memories. And many of them have come to join you. And I'm very excited that I now have the opportunity.

And I want to thank the host committee. I know how much work it is to host and to be of service, you know, to a in this way. And it does take a number of people. It's never one. It's just like what we do in sobriety, you know, it's never one. It's just a number of us in groups of us and working together that we, we are able to make successes like this. So thank you so much for all you've done

and for everybody that's that's been here participating. I've had a wonderful time

and

it's, it's times like this that we can all join together and form new, new fellowship that is so meaningful in our sobriety and enriches us in so many different ways. And one of those, of course, was the biggest treat to me was being with Ashley. I think she knows my story much better than she realizes. She's from what she the questions that she asked and everything. I felt like, oh, you know, she's one of the one of the people that

I have gotten to know in sobriety that so quickly that I feel like she's just a very close friend now because, you know, we've shared so many things. So she doesn't know how much she really knows much more about me than many other people. So, and I was that way too when I was new in sobriety or she's not new. She has 10 years, but all throughout my sobriety was always asking these questions of everybody and everything because I always wanted to know the answers. I always wanted to know more.

Sobriety didn't excite me in the very beginning, but soon it did and I just wanted to know all about it. And so I'm just so thrilled that she was able to share with me

and that I was able to share with her and gain a new friend in AA. You know, my story is really one of,

you know, beginning so much into self and so much isolation before I even began to drink. And I was raised in a family that was,

it was an alcoholic by any means, but it was just a loving family and there was no alcoholism. So, you know, I grew up just not knowing what it was about

after I took my first drink long after I was a child, but I was in a very happy family. But I realized looking back, I didn't know at the time, but I realized looking back that everything was really about me. You know, I mean, it was and I didn't, it wasn't a conscious thing. It was just a natural thing that it was about me. All decisions I made,

everything that I did was me first and

I didn't want to be that way. I was just that way and yet and I didn't realize that I think I was in like junior high or I'm sure it was around junior high or high school that I began to realize there was AU and then I wanted to be more like, but I was still about me and what I could do to be more like you. But I didn't do for others. I didn't think of others first. It was always me, was always about self,

you know, and what, what was it that? And there was this big gigantic hole in me. I remember trying to do so many different things that filled that up. And whatever I achieved, whatever I did was never enough. It was always more. I needed more. And so none of them worked for me. All those achievements

I did very well in school throughout all my school years, but it was never enough, whatever I did. So I remember taking my first string very well. I remember my first drink was when I graduated from high school. And the reason I waited so long was because I didn't know, you know, what it would do for me, but number one, but I just didn't. I was busy achieving things, so I didn't even think about drinking. But that was what we did when we graduated. And so I went out and I was just so characteristic of

everything that I did, the way I drank. After that, I went into a blackout quite soon and they told me I was funny. I don't remember anything. I woke up the next morning and I was still in the same place as I started drinking. I was in a cabin up in the woods where everybody went and there were just a few of us left. And I thought, well, I woke up and I had a terrible hangover. And

that was

just in just so like I said, characteristic of the way that I drank after that. Now, I wouldn't often, I never knew exactly when I was going to go into a blackout, but pretty much all the time that I was a blackout drinker. And certainly for the last years of my drinking, I was a blackout drinker. I lost, you know, people will talk about

obviously the Vietnam War was going on at that time and I knew it was going on, but I mean, I didn't realize any of the land, any of the news items,

the music was there. I didn't know any of the singers. I mean, people will talk about their past. I think I was just total blank because I was in such a period of just

not being present at all in my drinking. I didn't. I drank whenever I could, but I wouldn't say that that I was

that, you know, I didn't, I didn't wasn't a daily drinker obviously right away, but I just drank whenever I could. Went off to college and found that crowd that we do,

you know, when we search out alcohol and

justice. Kind of Fast forward into my first job, which I thought was going to be the the answer to all my problems because I didn't think I had a drinking problem. I just knew that I like to drink and I thought that there was nothing wrong with it because I didn't really get into trouble then. I just drank and had fun. I thought. So I had this job and it was in Seattle, and it was,

you know, I was kind of at the top of the world because I thought, you know, it was the greatest job in the world. And there was nothing really that could stop me.

And oh, I forgot, let's go back to college.

So it's really an important part.

I was I was about a junior and I this

boy that I'd really had liked for a long time. We ended up getting married. Sounds kind of boy. I liked a long time

now it was kind of important.

See, I skipped that because I really don't want to count that marriage, but I really have to.

And we had a daughter and it's really

yeah, I skipped the marriage and the daughter

's so I don't know how I did that. But anyway, it's and I don't like to really count the rage because it was a very it was one of those where friends around us were getting married. It was at that time and I think in the world with the war going on that we just all decided that we were a lot of folks thought they were going to get married. I don't know. There was something about war that does that. And so

we were only married for about

eight months.

And after I had my daughter, then I decided that I was

that this was, you know, I was not going to ever be in a relationship again. She was going to be the person that was going to be my, my one and only, you know, attachment in any relationship. And so men were completely out of the picture. I was so disgusted with this guy. He drank, by the way.

He drank much worse than I did, so

I was not and I hadn't drunk at all when I was pregnant. So I was very righteous about all of this. In fact, if I have found Alan on, I probably would have joined and been a star Allen on at that point. But I didn't know about it. But I did leave and so I had my daughter and that's when I went off to the big job.

And so when I, when I was there, then I began my drinking. I started, I returned to drinking then and it started to kind of escalate and

when it did, I began to get into trouble. This is a new side of my drinking and I just couldn't predict when I was going to

act out, be angry. My drinking had just changed the character. I wasn't fun anymore, so I had to I I just kind of sidestepped the relationship bit because I knew that I had to have somebody in my life that would be near me and really watch out for me

home do those things, you know, that are an alcoholic needs. So I had I had three men that were I was dating at the time, and one of them was it was complicated. It really was

because if you drank like I did, you really can't remember who you have a date with until they show up.

And one of them was Seattle police detective and one was because I was live in Seattle at the time. And one of them was a Pi, a Private Eye, and the other was an FBI agent,

so I was covered.

But not for long, because they got kind of disgusted that I was so irresponsible that I really didn't know who I was dating. And then they found out about the others and you know how that goes. So I, I actually ended up with the the worst drinker, of course, one that really didn't care. And he was a Seattle police detective. He was,

he wasn't. He was. Looking back, I mean, he wasn't as bad as I was, but I thought he was worse

because I always had to look at somebody as being worse. And it was his temperament that was worse. It wasn't his drinking, you know, So, but I thought that I was at a point where I needed to have somebody in my life. I thought if I, if I get married, then I will not drink as much and I will be able to stay home, take care of my daughter and things will be better. I mean, that was just my quick solution

and besides that I was losing my job. So.

So we got married and

that was that was an answer for me for a while.

All I can say is if you know alcoholic marriages, which many of you, then you know that this is this was not successful at all. As a matter of fact, it was

so ugly at all points.

You know, the fights and the the blaming and the accusing and, and, you know, particularly when two people are drinking the hiding of liquor. I mean, I had liquor all over the house and places that

nobody could find, not him either. And there was always, you know, that difficulty and challenge of making sure that they were in the right place so that you could find them and drink privately. So he, he worked a course and then he, he was still a Seattle and the Seattle Police Department.

He got injured quite severely. One time he got shot. And when this happened, I was at home and the police came to the door. And whenever the police come to the door, then you know that there's, it's serious. And so they told me that, you know, he had been injured, he'd been shot. And we went to the hospital. And so when I went to the hospital,

then they first thing they did when I sat down was they came to me with his

clothes and his personal effects. And so I thought,

well, he's gone. So I was planning the funeral and thinking, you know, how sorry everybody was going to be for me because, you know, I'd lost him. And, and it was really great because, I mean, I was not in love with this man, obviously, but I was thinking, oh, this is great. And I know he's got insurance and I'm going to be OK, you know.

And I mean, this is this terrible thing to say, but it was truly running through my mind. And the next thing that happened was that the doctor came out and said, well, he's ready to see you now. So,

you know, I don't know why they did that to me, but

they did. So I he got well and so, but he,

he recovered and so we,

we continue to drink together. He was out of the Police Department then with a disability because he was severely injured enough to where he couldn't work for the Seattle Police Department. But he got another job. It was wonderful. It was a liquor inspector for the state of Washington,

so our lives were charmed. Really. We went to the middle of Washington. That's the only problem. We went to the middle of Washington from Seattle and I did not know anything about

this area. It was very remote and hardly anybody in the West Coast knew about this area. It was up towards the Canadian border and the only thing that was around was that there were a couple churches and a couple bars and small little. I mean the bar was in the in the liquor store was so small it it serviced about 3 little towns around there. So it was really difficult to come up with enough excuses to

to really, you know, visit the, the liquor store enough times to where you weren't really noticed immediately. But

I wasn't going to church at that time. And I want to talk a little bit here about God because

I was raised in a very comfortable environment with, with a religious family that it was, it was a way of life. It was a way of life. And in fact, I went to church up through college and stopped really at college when my drinking got worse. And what I did was I feel very strongly that I left

my God. My God did not abandon me. I just simply left because I was filled with so much shame and I knew the way that I was living was not compatible with what I was raised with. And so when I ever, whenever I saw church, I was not going near it. I was not going near it because I knew that I wasn't deserving. I knew I was not living that the way of life that I should

and so God was completely out of my life at that point.

Um,

it was a time when that was the most critical of my drinking. I drank every day because my drinking, obviously I didn't work, so I drank every day. It went from the afternoon drink to the morning drink to where, you know, all of those times you say, well, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to be like that. I'm not going to get that bad. And you do and I did.

It was a time when I had a three-year period that I lived in that that town that I don't have any recollection.

I went back to make amends years later. I couldn't even find my house. I lived in the only place that I could recollect being at was not my daughters school. But I could remember where the liquor store was. I could remember where that was. I could drive right to it. And I remembered where the bar was. And I could go to bars in because, and I hadn't really been a bar frequenter, but I, I could do that then because my husband was a liquor inspector and they knew that if they

me out or if I was not, you know, the most pleasant person to be around, then

they get closed down. So it was perfect. I could just sit there and I could drink and nobody said anything.

I woke up one day because I was a daily drinker and I had a moment of clarity. And the clarity that I had was that

I knew that I, I knew that I couldn't stop drinking.

And I wanted to, I, I couldn't live that way anymore. But the second thought that came into my mind was

it's him.

You know, if I just leave him, then I will not drink and my life will be better. So I packed up everything that I had, which was little, and I went to Seattle because Seattle was going to be the place where I would work and I would get busy back into work and I become productive and, and not drink. Well, we all know that's what the story was there. I changed my hours of drinking and I was at work whenever I could be at work

whenever. My hangover just didn't prevent me from doing that and that lasted for about 6 months.

And

one my boss who later I found out his mother was in a A and had I known that before? I mean, you know, all of these steps at my higher power led me to to help me along the way to where I got sober.

He told me one day, he said, Phyllis is I think you need to try a a. He said you, you have a problem with drinking. And I couldn't believe my ears. It's the first time I had ever had anybody tell me because by that time, see, I had excused everybody from my life. I wasn't contacting my mother anymore, my sister.

Nobody in my life was really close to me, close enough to where they could tell the truth. You know, I just put them to sign so they didn't know.

And so when I heard that, then

I, I thought, well, the only thing I knew about alcoholism at that point was I, it seemed days of wine and roses. And so I thought, OK, so I know that I can call a A and they'll come. That's what I had figured, but I wasn't quite ready yet. So I I had gone to a bar that night and I never went to bars because I was so afraid of going there and getting into trouble that I was a home drinker.

I come home, I pick up my daughter from from the sitters and I come home and I close the doors and I drink. But that night I went to a bar and when I was there then I.

Decided it's time to call AA.

And I was almost in a blackout. Not quite. And I called and they said, well, everybody's gone to a meeting now. That's what I remember. I'm sure that's not true. Why would everybody be at a meeting if you call the answering service? But that's what I heard. And so I thought, but it made sense to me that everybody would be in a meeting and and that they would call back. So I went back and I was drinking and pretty soon the bartender said, is there a Phyllis in the house? And I said, yes, it's me. And they said, well, Alco

is on the line.

So evidently I left my number for them. And so and I thought that's what they did. I thought that's made sense to me. So I talked to a woman that

she asked me. She said you take a cab home and we'll talk in the morning. You call me. I remember that and remember. And I didn't know, but I'd scribbled her number in my book

and I thought, well, why would I take a cab home? I mean, I got my car. I need to get the car home. So on the way then I ran a red light and I got stopped.

And the policeman said

he I told him, of course. I said, well, you know, my husband who he wasn't my husband anymore. But I said, my husband is a Seattle policeman. I used those kinds of things a lot. And they said, oh, OK, well then we'll just take you home, which they did.

I started going day A and I was there for I went to a A for for about

three months. And you know, I was, I can remember going to my first meeting, raising my hand and thinking it was the best. I mean, I heard, I heard about my disease. I heard how you felt and how you how you got sober and how you were inside and all of those things I identified with. And I was amazed because as a first time I ever heard anything about myself,

the truth about myself. And in three months I was, well,

I mean, I just, I mean, because you, because then I started hearing about all the things that you had done that I hadn't done. You know, you'd lost your jobs, you'd lost, you know, you had broken marriages. You know, you've gone to jail, you've done been at the hospital and saying this. I mean, you've been all these awful things. And in my mind, all I had done was just drink at home.

Now, I didn't realize or I didn't acknowledge the fact that I had in fact, lost marriages. I had, in fact, almost lost a job. I quit before I lost my job. So, but the justification, the rationalization was all there. I wasn't ready yet. So I drank off and on for the next three years. And I came into a in 1977

in January. And I did, I did the most ridiculous geographical,

I mean, I most people are, most people will go long, long distances, you know, And I just did it in kind of a circle in Washington. And I just kind of lived in different places with different people trying to get sober in different places because I didn't want to be a failure in one place. I just had to move around a lot.

You know, we talk about the Yetzen and a lot of people don't like to talk about yet or hear the yet, but believe me, I have to talk about them and I have to talk about the progression because I could not believe how fast I went spiraled down when I thought I'd reached bottom. I didn't know what bottom was until I reached it for the very end. I had all of those yet happen. Every time I drank it got so much worse and it was almost like this sign in front of me. It's time to stop now.

And none of those things, and it was talked about with other speakers, none of the consequences made me stop.

You know, it just it never did. I went through two treatment centers.

I lost custody of my daughter, which was the biggest heartbreak,

the very biggest heartbreak that I've ever been through.

And that made me drink more

because I could not believe that happened to me. I was homeless, I'd gone to jail. I'd done all of those things. I asked to be put in Western State, which is our mental institution for the state of Washington. And the woman that that ran that organization or that institution, she talked to me and she said, fellow, she's the only thing that's going to help you is Alcoholics Anonymous.

A judge told me the same thing. I was on probation for a year after an incident where I had I became quite violent when I was drinking because I was so angry with myself.

I hated myself. So then when I would drink, that would all come out, you know, with my drinking and I took it out a lot on, on cars.

I actually, whenever I would be driven to detox and I would always attack the car. I don't know why, but I, I just, I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to go wherever they were taking me. So windshields would go and, you know, whatever else was around would go broken legs. I mean, I just, I just was a crazy, crazy, out of control drunk and nobody wanted to be around me.

And you didn't want to be around me. Believe me. I went to so many AA meetings and you know, I go in drunk and I'd leave and I'd wonder why I couldn't stay sober. You know, you had to tell me what was wrong with me. You know that I couldn't stay sober. And I wasn't through drinking. I hadn't reached bottom.

I did not stop drinking until I had that last drink, which I call that was

my absolute last drink because I wanted to stay sober long before my last drink. I wanted desperately to stay sober, but I couldn't. So see, I know the grace at this. This program gives people.

We talk about the newcomers in this program

and we treasure and honor the newcomers when they come in because we need newcomers to remind us really of where we are. And also we want them so badly to stay sober and have what we have. But the newcomers are the people come back again and again and again just as well. You know, if I hadn't have had that opportunity to come back so many times, I wouldn't be here today.

And if you didn't, a few of you didn't welcome me back,

I wouldn't be here today. You know, with all my geographics, I remember going to so many different towns and meetings where people would say if I would have like a month or so, and many times I'd have like a couple months. And,

you know, remember to welcome that person. They're a newcomer.

This program is this. One of the the most important parts, I think, of our program is that we can come back. We can come back. Not everybody is blessed with that sobriety the first time they enter our doors. Not everybody is,

and so I will always remember that. Well, I made a promise to God when I took the last drink. I woke up that next day and I I took step 1-2 and three all at once.

I had totally given up.

You know, I had no more answers. And I told and I promised. I said wherever I'm needed, you know, whenever I'm needed, I'm there.

And there were so many times after that that I really had to do things that and at times that I didn't want to, you know, I had to make sure that I kept that promise so many times. And every time I did, I got gifts back. You know, I was filled with so much more than I ever gave, so much more. I had to get right into 12 step work. I had a sponsor that was just

like steel. She was gentle, but she was firm and she knew how to how to sponsor me because I was so before I was so determined, you know, to have my way. But now I was just filled with with absolute grief over the fact I'd woken up to the fact of what I had done. I looked at all the wreckage of my past and I could hardly sit in a chair. I was just, I felt like I didn't deserve to be there.

She gave me enough strength and a connection to a higher power that I had hope

that I didn't have to drink just today. Just today I didn't have to drink and I couldn't do anymore right away and I couldn't expect more right away.

And gradually it got better. It got a lot better. And but how it got better was, and this is the only reason for me, and this is just my story, is that she put me in front of people so that I could be helpful. She stood me by the Dorangches. You're going to be the greeter now.

Didn't want to be the greeter. How could I be the greeter? I had nothing to give, you know, I had nothing. I felt empty. And she said you have a couple days more than that new person coming in the door. So you'll be the greeter and you will welcome people to come in this meeting. And I did. I made coffee. I went on 12 step work and you know, I didn't go. She said never go alone. She says you'll just go with me.

And I loved it. You know, I could share my, my story

and which I'd share just a very small part of it, but I shared, you know, that I was new and yes, I, I understood how they felt and, and there was an answer and there was hope. And, and she said, you're much closer to that drunk than I am. At that time, she had 15 years. So and she was right. She was further away from that, that drunk than me. And I learned that absolute gift that we have in a, a about being able to give,

you know, we're the only ones that really can give to each other and, and tell our stories

and be able to share that way. So the 12 step work kept me sober. It absolutely kept me sober then. And then I started, as we call, hanging it out and hanging out and just really sticking with the winners. And I have this wonderful Home group that I, I was again, is it was a gift from God that sent me in the right direction to belong to this group that got me active

and kept me active and kept me connected. And I started learning gradually, you know, through the time I started really listening and learning about our program of recovery

and learning. There was more and oh, what do you mean? There's traditions. We have stepped or we had step study and we had traditions night once a month. Traditions, what are they, you know, So I learned about them. And then of course, like some of us do, we become experts.

You know, I not only had to learn about these things, I had to really know the truth. And so I began to start hanging out at the traditions meetings. We had a lot of workshops when I was in new and sobriety. The first five years of my sobriety, that's where I spent my time was just going from meeting to meeting to meeting, a lot of meetings, a lot of 12 step work and really sharing with others and learning more about the program.

And my sponsor told me, she says, you, you have been given this great gift of sobriety and now it's your job

to pay it back. Says this is not a free gift. And it says in our big book, you know, into actions and working with others.

And so that's exactly what I did. I was following instructions and that's what I did. And I loved my old timers because there are the people that taught me

and they still teach me today.

Um, being available

for service day a is it led me in so many other directions that have given me and filled my life full of such tremendous joy. And they were painful, a lot of them to go through because they were lessons learned. I had to actually just sit still and learn them and know that I was going to get out the other side and I was going to be a better person.

And you know, through working the steps, it allowed me to to have that strength to do it.

You know, I want to talk a little bit too about the steps.

You know, obviously, you know, anybody, any of us that have stayed sober for a while know the steps are not something you just do once. You do them again and again and again. And I believe that

for me, step five, of course, was so critical. You know, I had so much resentment, so much anger towards myself and others that was so hidden. But I I had to do Step 5.

But I think that the the step that was so freeing for me was step 9 because I had the deep resentment that I really couldn't get through in Step 5. And mostly it was from my ex-husband who had took custody of my daughter

at the time. And he did it through resentment for me and trying to get back at me. And so when I went to him to do a men's, I had to do it in a forgiving heart. I couldn't just say the words. And my sponsor was very careful with that. She said no, She says, you're not going to just go and say those words. She said you're going to go with a spirit of forgiveness. And there was nothing harder in my life than to forgive this man. And I couldn't worry about what he told me. And it tells us

a big book, you know, it doesn't matter what the how they receive it. It's that you are in the right spirit to give the and the right frame of mind really to to go in a spirit of forgiveness. And I was finally able to do that at two years sober. Took me that long. But when I did, it was the most freeing thing that that I was able and I was. He did not receive it well.

He came back at me just like I thought that he always would, but it was OK.

Now the real blessing is for me, the gift that I got was that I was able to do that just in time because he died six months after that. I never would have had that real feeling. I could have written the letter, but I never would have had that feeling that I had in going to him personally. There are other men that I made, but this one was the really the very biggest one.

My, I want to tell you a little bit too about

being available to AAA because I believe that this, the program that we have been given

and I believe we have been given this and allowed to have it. So many of us out there that are drinking today aren't able to receive this gift. We, you know, I mean, we are as truly a gift because others are not able to get sober. We know that. But that is, that is 3 legacies that we've been given. It's not just a program of recovery,

it's a program of recovery, unity and service.

And with all of that, you know, we have such such a responsibility

to be able to carry that on to the next person who we sponsor and let them know, you know, that we do have three legacies. I remember when I came in, there was, we still had circle and triangle and it was up on the wall and it had recovery, unity and service in the circle and triangle. And we knew immediately what that was. And it was just all a part of of what we did in a A. It wasn't just recovery.

Well, we lost a circle and triangle

and when we did, I think we really lost a large part of our three legacies. So it's really such a great responsibility as we sponsor to make sure that we say that who we are. We have 3, not just one. And

you know, I think that today in our services we talk about that more. I am so, so grateful that we do because we, you know, that is

what we've been given and our responsibility.

I want to talk about being available to a A and the reason I want to talk about available to AA is because each one of us has that opportunity to do this.

And that's the great news, I think is that each one of us has a place in AA to give back, whether or not it's sponsorship or through a committee or through a GSR or whatever. I was, you know, I was given the opportunity to be GSR. Now I know a lot of us will will kind of reflect on those kind of opportunities as yes, I was railroaded. I was out of the room and somebody put my name in. And I mean, now you hear all these stories. Well, in my Home group, I have to tell you,

I don't know. I was in the right Home group because that's where I needed to be. For me.

They kind of stood in line to be GSR. We had a huge Home group, but everybody was just, you had to be two years, you had to have two years of sobriety to be GSR. And so I could hardly wait till I was two years so I could be available as GSR. I wasn't elected the first time. What a disappointment. You know, I really wanted to be GSR, but I was the next time and

then I was able to serve my group. Now I come from Washington State and I forgot to mention that that's my original where I grew up in sobriety, where I got sober. And so I served in in the Washington area. It was one time very, very large area and then it divided into two. But when I was active in service, it was the one large area

and it was, you know, I, I saw the people that were serving there and there was what I saw was attraction.

I hope you see that too. I hope we always see attraction in service. You know, it's, it's not a choice, not a job. It's really a great opportunity for, for fuller fellowship and an opportunity to give and share. But I saw this, this joy there of giving that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I didn't see it in the rooms of recovery. I saw the recovery joy, but I didn't see the other.

So I kind of followed that attraction and really wanted more of what you have

said. I knew that the only that the way to get it was just to be of simply there, be present, be available for whatever was next. You know, there was, there was going to be next to my life. So after GSRI began to serve in other areas, committee work, I went into corrections. I loved corrections, different than any other opportunity that I've ever had

and still love it, but I don't have the opportunity to go in as much now. I worked in Pi and public information

and the cooperation of the professional community when that came into being, all those committees gave me so much more breadth of AA that I never saw before and a way to connect. But the main thing is that the responsibility of carrying that message out to people that really weren't able to get it any other way to say who we are, the people that really are there to help us as Alcoholics as we get sober.

So I served my area in different ways and was delegate for Panel 47

and justice simply by being available and being able to be part of the greater group conscience that you give us that opportunity to do.

I, I served as Pacific Region Trustee for four years and served on the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous. And you know, like Conley's doing now and and others have have done before, it is just an amazing experience to be able to serve on a board

that serves all of AA. You know the group conscience of all of AA. And today I'm I'm serving as your general manager of your general service office in New York now coming from Washington state. First follow me tell a little bit about the Coulter shock. Now, I'd been there visiting before, obviously when I go for board meetings as a, as a trustee, but

it's from a from a state that is more rural. And I was living in Olympia, WA at the time and had been for a number of years.

And moving to the city of New York is very different.

I'm not,

I found that I'm not a city girl. And so I moved out of the of the city. I stayed there for a year and then I moved out and I'm living now in Croton, which is up the Hudson. And it's a long commute, but it's really worth it once I get there because there's peace and quiet and more of a serene setting. But

my work at the general service office,

what an incredible, incredible gift I've been given. What a responsibility and an opportunity to be of greater service. And I believe it is a service because it's a dedication of time. And myself,

it's a first job. I mean, when the first thing that struck me was that I've had jobs of foreign and a have we all know when we work the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, how much it it reflects on the work we do because we bring all of the principles that we learn in a a into our work. And our work is just better and better and more opportunities that are are come about to where when we work the principles in our actual work,