Day 916 - A Wedding Celebration Filled With Compulsive Gamblers

Good morning,

Sorry I did not post here last night. I got home from my Gamblers Anonymous meeting, watched the end of the game and my Padres win again, and was going to write a little when I got an e mail from a reader here that was hurting pretty badly. I won't mention a name, or even a region, but he asked me to talk with him for a while, so I did. He was at a pretty low bottom in every way after losing many thousands of dollars on internet Blackjack! I personally never trusted internet gambling of any sort. I had to SEE the cards. Of course, that never worked either since whenever I won anything I just gave it all back. I also liked the casino better because as I have talked about here many times I needed to be a "big shot" and be at the table laughing it up during a winning streak, and then blaming everyone around me when the cards turned.

Anyway, the good news is this man is a recovering alcoholic (we have a lot of AA members in GA also), and knows what he needs to do. Now it is just a matter of him doing it.

Today is a beautiful day on the beach in San Diego. As I type this at 0920 hours it is clear blue skies and already 75 degrees outside! A little later this afternoon I will be headed off to the wedding of a GA member who just celebrated his 24 years without a bet on Thursday. He has recovered from his gambling problems very nicely in all areas, including financial. As such, he always puts on quite a party when he hosts! There will be likely 200 people there today and more than half will be fellow recovering compulsive gamblers.

This is more than just a beautiful day for the Bride and Groom. It is nice for all of us attending. You see, many people when they first get into GA think they will not want to work the program for the rest of their life. They think that if they do, they will never experience things in life that other people do. Nothing could be further from the truth. My experience is that the longer you stay, the more things I DO get to participate in that in truth I never participated in before. I golf now, we have beach picnics, holiday parties, weddings, we travel together, watch sports together, etc.... All the normal things people do.

And honestly...I think we appreciate them more than many because we missed so much while gambling.

Have a great day. I think I will.

John