I own it, I did that, not proud that was me, and when I face it, a little dignity, not looking for excuse me, I just want to be free from power, weakness head on me.

Free, free, free, free, free, free.

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

I'm your host, Gene McCarthy.

I've been writing the blog Unpickled for the past seven years, starting on my first day of sobriety in 2011.

I tell my story there and I invite you to tell your stories here. And if you're

at all active on the recovery-friendly web, which is the umbrella term that's used sometimes to

describe all things sober on the internet, the podcast, blog, secret Facebook groups, Twitter profiles,

inspirational Instagram, Facebook pages, support groups,

wherever you find your support and your people online, chances are that there are one or two

people who always seem to have the right thing to say or post exactly what you needed to hear

when you needed to hear it or they just reveal a level of humor and insight that

you appreciate.

And that is exactly how I feel about today's guest, Shelly, a woman in one of the online

groups I'm in who just seems to shine such a bright light.

Her posts and shares and insights in our group have been so helpful to me and I just keep thinking,

I need to get this girl

on the bubble hour and here she is. So Shelly, welcome to the show. Thanks, Jean and thank you so

much for the kind words. Well, I do appreciate you and I'm really glad that you agreed to

take some time and and share with with the

listeners here because I I know it takes an effort I mean I know that you're even

probably staying up a little bit later than you wish you were at this moment but that's the

...