Constitutionally Incapable Until I Finished the Sentence About Honesty – Katie B.

About This Speaker Tape

Katie B. picked up her white chip on July 12, 2009, after a first sobriety of eight years collapsed into a six-and-a-half-year relapse at age 35. Raised in Atlanta by two loving parents — her father a later-discovered alcoholic — she was the cheerleader and quarterback's girlfriend who led a hidden double life, shotgunning beers before school and being introduced to drugs by older siblings and cousins. She flunked out of the University of Georgia on her second cheating charge while living in the AO Pi house and waitressing at a strip joint on Atlanta Highway. Her courtroom fines were paid from a Crown Royal bag.

Four DUIs, Atlanta City Jail on Thanksgiving Eve, and nine days at Key Road Women's Prison didn't stop her. She came into AA in 1995, stayed dry for eight years with no sponsor, no home group, no steps — got the house, the convertible BMW, the job — and then one day decided she must not be an alcoholic after all. The relapse took her through an alcoholic coma at DeKalb Medical, collecting her mail naked in heels and sunglasses in the middle of a sunny afternoon, and breaking into a neighbor's house for Grey Goose while the alarm company called her.

In 2009, at Peachford, she finally asked a woman she'd been watching to sponsor her and did everything the way she'd always refused — joined a home group a half-mile from her house, worked the steps out of the book, told her fifth step's one unspeakable thing. Ten months in, she met her husband Trey when he changed her flat tire in the home-group parking lot; they married February 2011. She made amends to her brother before he died of a heart attack on their mother's couch.

Katie's father drank himself through independent living at 80, getting Budweiser from the Kroger with his walker — her friend Barbara, a nurse, had to glove up and clean him while Katie screamed at him about the twelve-pack. She cared for him until he died and now cares for her aging mother. She sponsors women, carries the message into St. Jude's, is active in her home group, and travels with AA friends to Italy and across the country.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Connie reads from page 29 of the Big Book and introduces Katie at the Monday Night Blue Chip Speakers Meeting at Nava Club
• 2:00 Katie opens — sobriety date July 12, 2009; sponsor of women; raised near Lakeside and Oak Grove, third child of loving parents, father a later-discovered alcoholic
• 6:30 Double life as a cheerleader shotgunning beers before school; University of Georgia, AO Pi house, first DUI after an acid hit, friends all claim the cop drove
• 11:00 Waitressing at the strip joint on Atlanta Highway, paying the $331 fine from a Crown Royal bag, expelled from UGA for cheating a second time
• 15:00 DUIs #2 and #3 two weeks apart on quarter-beer night; nine days at Key Road Women's Prison on Thanksgiving Eve 1992
• 20:00 First sobriety April 22, 1995 — eight years dry with no sponsor, no home group, no steps; the BMW, the house, the pride; relapse at 35
• 25:00 Six-and-a-half years in and out; naked-at-the-mailbox incident; neighbor turns out to be in AA and asks if she's heard of Bill W.
• 29:00 Breaking into the neighbor's house for Grey Goose on a dry Sunday; alcoholic coma at DeKalb Medical; mother at the bedside at 11 p.m.
• 33:00 Peachford — asks a woman she'd watched at a meeting to sponsor her; finds the new home group is a half-mile from her house and takes it as a Higher Power sign
• 37:00 Ten months sober: Trey changes her flat tire in the home-group parking lot, she offers to buy him pizza but not his friend; proposal at Fellini's, married February 2011
• 42:00 Father drinking Budweiser from Kroger in independent living at 80; Barbara the nurse cleans him up while Katie screams at the twelve-pack
• 46:00 Amends to her brother before his heart attack on their mother's couch; closing on sponsorship, St. Jude's, and Trey's line about high heels and sunglasses naked on the front lawn