Joe and Charlie Were Right — I Get Two Lifetimes in One – Misty S.

About This Speaker Tape

Misty opens with a prayer and a wink — "a menopausal member of Alcoholics" — then walks the room from a Honolulu childhood into a sobriety date of September 14, 2021. Born in 1970 to two alcoholic parents (only one would claim it), she was the first daughter and granddaughter in a Japanese family whose grandmother lived through Pearl Harbor. By eight she was sneaking sips of her grandpa's beer; by sixteen she was using and telling her parents straight out, "I'm an alcoholic." Her father flew her from Hawaii to California and put her in Scripps Memorial in La Jolla in 1986, where she remembers being in treatment alongside Gregory Hines and Eddie Van Halen. She ran.

Back in Hawaii at seventeen she went to work in a bar with stages and lights and a Vietnamese owner, took money from men, ran with tattooed crews, drank tequila and racked up 74 arrests without ever spending a night in jail — the judge knew her family and handed her five years' probation instead. She fled an abusive partner to South Carolina, poured liquor into styrofoam cups behind a restaurant counter, and drove drunk for years. The last two years before the rooms are missing. She comes back to herself tied down in a hospital bed in a blue gown, IVs everywhere, recovering from a medically induced coma, seizures and hallucinations. Looking up at the lights she made the bargain: if her Higher Power kept her sober, she would do anything asked of her.

What was asked was a recovery house — Living America, then Atlanta Women's, where she walked in entitled, ran a finger across the counter for dust, and got loved through it by Jennifer, Tim, Brandy and Randy. She drove the "druggie buggy," had her blood pressure spike her into Grady, and a CT scan caught a lung nodule that vanished by the follow-up appointment — the doctor told her he'd only seen that once before in his career. Today she is the director of Atlanta Women's with 45 residents, runs a 9 a.m. Big Book study every morning, and is working Steps 6 and 7 a second time with a new sponsor. She closes with the "new employer" passage from the Big Book — less and less interested in herself, more and more interested in what she can contribute — and tells anyone confused in the room to hang around until they too are reborn.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opens as 'a menopausal member of Alcoholics' and asks her sponsor up to read the set-aside prayer
• 2:30 Sobriety date September 14, 2021 — National Sober Day; born May 15, 1970 in Honolulu to two alcoholic parents
• 5:45 Eight years old sneaking her grandpa's beer outside; parents thought it was funny and let her keep doing it
• 9:20 Sixteen, first use, tells her parents she's an alcoholic; father flies her to Scripps Memorial La Jolla in 1986 with Gregory Hines and Eddie Van Halen
• 13:40 Seventeen, working a Hawaii bar with a Vietnamese owner — stages, lights, taking money from men
• 18:15 74 arrests, never a night in jail; the judge knew her family and gave her five years' probation
• 24:30 South Carolina restaurant — pouring everything she could into styrofoam cups and driving drunk
• 30:10 Wakes in a blue gown, tied down, IVs everywhere — looks up at the light and surrenders to her Higher Power
• 38:50 Walks into Living America entitled, runs a finger across the counter for dust; later moves to Atlanta Women's under Jennifer
• 47:20 Lung nodule disappears between scans; doctor says he's only seen it once before in his career
• 54:00 Reads the 'new employer' passage from the Big Book and closes — hang around until you are reborn