Shoes

Tonight at AA, we read a story from the “Big Book” (aka the AA Bible) where a lady described being so drunk she woke up outside, in winter, without her shoes- and no idea where they went. I’ve never done that, but it reminded me of something... when I was drinking, when I woke up in the morning and my shoes were off it was a good sign. It meant that I had enough working brain matter at bedtime to take them off before going to sleep. If I woke up and my shoes were still on this was a bad, bad sign and I’d work hard to try to remember going to bed, how I got home, what I did that night, etc... This habit goes all the way back to my “glory days” drinking in China. To this day, every morning my first thought is “Are my shoes still on?”.