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 a decade ago.

In my blog Unpickled and in the books that I write, there's two of them so far and more on the way

at my website. Just check the show notes and you'll find a link. I tell my stories there and I hold

space for your stories here. And today I'm holding space for Jenny Dalton. And Jenny just celebrated

her one year sober verse three. So she's here to tell us her story and look back

over what she's learned in the last year. Hi, Jenny. Welcome to the bubble hour. Hi, Gene.

Thank you so much for having me. This does feel like a celebration for sure. Oh, what a wonderful

way to celebrate. And I know that the podcast is part of your story and a resource, a tool in your toolbox, which is really cool. And I'm looking forward to hearing all about that. So I'm going to just turn it right over to you. Jenny, tell us about yourself and tell us your story. Great. Thanks so much, Jean. So about me. So I am, I recently turned 50. I just turned 50 in November. And I, it's not like this is the total definition of who I am, but I consider myself to be a not mom, but I'm a sister and I'm an auntie and I'm a partner. But I don't have kids. And I feel like in some ways that distinguishes me from a lot

of my peers and kind of also, in some ways, makes me feel like I don't fit in, which is also a big

part of my story. I'm also recently a newlywed, and I am now happily married in my second

marriage to a partner of 10 years. And he's got two kids

who are in their early 20s. And it's been an interesting process of blending our new family

together. Professionally, I am a writer. I'm a creative person. I have my hands in a lot of different projects.

My projects are kind of like my babies. But I'm also a facilitator and a coach.

I work in local and regional food systems development. I do a lot of research and facilitation

of groups there, mostly nonprofits and government groups.

And I also coach women on the cusp of change.

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