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.

I tell my stories there, and I hold space for your stories here.

And today I'm holding space for Victoria Vanstone.

She writes the blog, Drunk Mommy Sober Mommy, and she has a new podcast coming out, Sober Awkward,

and she joins me from Australia. Hi, Victoria. It's

great to talk with you. Hi, Dean. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me on.

It's a good pleasure to talk to you. It's really, really neat when we can connect from around the

globe. And I love how we just get to know each other's

stories. And you've got a lot of humor in your story and you're very down to earth. I'm so

excited that the listeners of this show are going to get to know you. I'm excited too.

I have spent the morning reading your blog. I've listened to your new podcast, which is great,

highly recommend it, sober, awkward. I love the title.

It is all about being awkward a little bit sometimes, though, isn't it? We have to admit.

Until, so awkward until it feels normal.

And then it's all awkward. Yes, our motto is to feel the awkward and do it anyway.

So it's a positive message.

...