Little to Report.

Life is good. I’ve written very little here because I’ve been happy. Happy is good. Things with my girlfriend are proceeding very well. This feels like a serious relationship with real potential. We’re travelling internationally together over Thanksgiving. It’s a good holiday to travel. We’ll be going somewhere warm and beachy, surrounded by saltwater.

Work is going well. I’ve been lazy the last couple of months, and am having a bit of trouble with general working motivation. But it doesn’t stem from any dissatisfaction. Simply from six straight months of work with only one day off, and a heavy travel schedule on the weekends (not that I’m complaining about that). One paper received a “revise and resubmit”, and had one extremely positive review. I’m feeling confident about its prospects upon revision (resubmitted about a week ago). Another paper, after two go-rounds with the editorial board at a major glamour journal appears destined for rejection.

I’m going to a conference next week in Washington DC to present my first simulation work. I’m hoping it’s well received. I’ve submitted the same work to IMSH 2014, which I hope will accept it. I had a poster there last year, and this year I’m probably going to be part of a panel on discrete event simulation.

I have lapsed some in my communication with my sponsor. It’s hard, having him so far away. It is time, I think, for me to get a local sponsor. I know who I want to ask. He already has a couple of sponsees, but I’m pretty sure I’d be a low-impact assignment. I’ve done the steps and the work, and in my maintenance phase. I just need to be checking in more than I am now. Accountability is important for us alcoholics, and I’m not feeling especially accountable right now. Not in the program. So I’m going to take action. Because that’s what we do.

But this little lapse in active sponsorship has not led to any desire to drink or feeling of discomfiture. I’m just aware that it’s not the best situation for me to be in for a prolonged period. Similarly, my Wednesday-Sunday meeting schedule isn’t really working. So I need to find another meeting to go to. It’s hard to find meetings where I connect. A new city and a new “flavor” of AA. It feels a little weird. I just need to acclimate.

But overall, my life is better than I have any right to expect it to be. Yesterday I ran for 64 straight minutes without stopping, covering 6.2 miles. Unbelievable. I feel fantastic, and I am happy. The gifts of sobriety are myriad and limitless.