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Hey, my name is Patrick and I'm an alcoholic.

And thank you very much Jen and Liz for asking me to be here tonight or else I would have probably I probably wouldn't have made it to a meeting tonight in all honesty and it's good that I it's good that I'm here because I know quite a few people in this

room that love me pretty much unconditionally and I feel the same way about them

they've helped me I've been of service to them here in Oakland over the last four and a half years and that's quite, that's something, you know, because when I got here I was toxic.

I, the only faith I had that I was too broken to be fixed.

And... I had that I was too broken to be fixed and I couldn't stop drinking you know I couldn't

trust myself to go to the store and get a pack of cigarettes without coming out

with a pack of cigarettes and bottle of ancient age.

And the only thing I didn't really think about what I was going to say, but there is one thing that struck me, and that is if alcohol continued to work for me, if it continued to produce the state of mind that I

grown accustomed to over decades that I became a subject matter expert on, then I wouldn't be here, you know? My liver and my heart and you know my legal dealings everything would have went south before I was forced

to seek a solution and and I say that because I didn't do this you know I didn't know how to get sober

so I

was born in New York City grew up in the 70s in the 80s during the general criminal mischief.

You know, Drake it was just kind of part of it.

You know, we just had a lot of velocity.

We got into stealing booze before we started drinking it a lot of matches

...