I own it, I did that, not proud, but that was me, and when I face it, I take back a little dignity, not looking for excuses, I just want to be free from power.

Weakness had on me.

Free, free, free, free, free.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the bubble hour where real people tell real stories of addiction and recovery.

I'm Gene McCarthy, recovery author, blogger, and podcast host.

I've been chronicling my adventures in life after alcohol since my first day of sobriety over nine years ago in my blog Unpickled and in books like the Unpickled Holiday Survival Guide and

my poetry collection, The Ember Ever There. I tell my stories there and I hold space for your

stories here. And today I'm holding space for Jennifer, who has quite a story to share with us

and we are looking forward to getting to know her and sharing her lessons and insights with all of you. So hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the bubble hour.

Oh, hi, Jean. It's so exciting to be here.

Aw, I'm honored to have you. We connected through an online group in which I caught wind of

something kind of interesting that it happened to you

and right away messaged and said, would you come and tell your story on the bubble hour?

And you're so gracious to comply. Thank you so much.

Oh, the pleasure is all mine. This is truly unexpected and amazing. And I just am so grateful for the space that you hold every day for

all of the guests that you allow on your show. Oh, thank you. It's my honor. Well, let's spend

some time getting to know you. Tell us about yourself and tell us your story. Thanks so much.

First, I want to say that this comes from a place of having been

where every person is right now, probably where they're gearing up to go take a walk and they're

putting in their earbuds and they're getting ready to load up the bubble hour and take that

next step on this journey. I was that person one year and almost two months ago,

and I have a not very exciting story to tell, I don't think.

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