This past weekend my husband and I drove down from New Jersey to Virginia and surprised my mother for Mother's Day. It was awesome! She never saw it coming and it made Mom's day that much more special.

I love listening to Pitbull rap about how much money he makes. "You can't catch me boy. I'm overseas at about 100 g's for sho'..." I'm sure his life wasn't always like that - his mother was a single parent who kicked him out of the house for being a drug dealer.

Practicing the twelve steps has added so much to my life that it’s hard to imagine how I functioned before I became familiar with this miraculous design for living. One of the biggest contributions it has brought me is the constant reminder that I have choices: I can choose to let someone take up free space in my head. I can choose to be angry.

What the heck is the difference between self caring and being plain old selfish? Sometimes, it's clear. Like, say I have a 105 degree fever and someone asks if I can help them move.

Since getting sober and having the willingness to work a program, I often struggle with feeling superior towards many of my fellows who do not have a program. This is because, in addition to spotting my character defects, I’ve also gotten into the habit of spotting other people’s character defects. This is pointless because it inevitably leads to me getting puffed up with self righteousness which then leads to anger which is one letter away from danger.

Here is a list of things that, just for today,  I'm okay with being powerless over: 1) The weather. (I should probably mention that it's 79 degrees outside and sunny.) 2) Having to climb the stairs because the escalator in the subway was out of order. Here is a list of things I'm powerless over that I'm having a hard time accepting: 1) That certain people have loads of money just handed to them and others don't.