excelsior!

Welcome, true believers! It’s your trusty-ish, neighborhood alcoholic, back for another thrilling adventure of derring-do the likes of which I’ll remember this time! Ready to continue? Then read on!

Step 12: having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

It’s late, and I’m back from a full day of C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo). So, my feet are sore, my eyeballs are telling me I’m slightly dehydrated, and I’m concerned my lower back won’t let me out of bed tomorrow. On the upside, I did meet R2D2.

And I had a really fun time. It was a solo adventure, as no one I knew wanted to go. Which is cool; we don’t all like the same music, or support the same sports teams. There’s no need to self-judge the things I enjoy, as long as they’re right-sized, even when they’re Hulk-sized.

Self-consciousness and self-pity leads to hesitation and disappointment, followed by acceptance of my self-imposed “lot in life.” It’s a, “I’m less than…” mentality which causes me to eventually shut down as a basic survival tactic.

That’s what I love about the massive gathering at C2E2 today. These comic conventions are like immersion therapy.  In every direction, people are loud and proud and have gotten used to and over with whatever it was that society deemed was wrong with them. They’ve either lost the societal prism that dictates the pausings of a normal’s behavior or never had it in the first place.

However, I am not of these people. I wish I was of these people, but sadly, I am terminally unique. I have yet to leap over the creek of death onto the bank of reason and join my brethren on the sunny side of the hill. The more time I spend in their company, the less I worry about others and their opinions and my reactions to those opinions and so on and so forth.

Today’s message: If I can’t feel at ease surrounded by grown men in spandex, when do I expect it to happen?