Tickets for The Anonymous People

Hello my friends I just wanted to remind everyone about the Rochester screening of The Anonymous People on April 6,2014 at The Little Theater 240 East Avenue at 3p.m..
I have only been using the power of social media and that has been generating a huge buzz. Tomorrow I plan on releasing press kits to the local media (if you have any connections or have any ideas let me know). One other thing is if you plan on going please reserve your tickets now. We need to have a minimum of 55 tickets reserved in order to make everything happen. Now when I say reserve what I mean is you will not be charged until we make reserve.You may reserve your tickets here http://gathr.us/screening/7225
For those of you who have already reserved your tickets I thank you. For those of you planning  to reserve your tickets I thank you in advance you will not be sorry. Thanks to all of You for helping make this happen
Dave

New Relationships

Allan: What are you doing Saturday?
Woman: Committing suicide
Allan: What about Friday?
                                ----Play It Again Sam

I love this movie,if you haven't seen it, get it. This quote was always one I remembered and actually reminded me during my using days of how I was and the people that I was associating with. It also makes me grateful for the new friends I have made in recovery and  It reminds me also of friends I had before my using days and never really knew of my using but now that I've come out of the shadows with my recovery want absolutely nothing to do with me. Even more the people that have stuck with me during my abuse and have provided all the support and encouragement possible during my recovery.Well I am going to comment on each one of these.
My using associates or we can even say my using friends. These"friends"  well I see these weren't really friends as I thought they were at one point. As an addict I was used to treating myself at animalistic levels. So if I treated myself like this why wouldn't I hang with people that treated me like this? During my "just one more" part of my life that was all that mattered to myself and my so called friends. They didn't care about my well being. They didn't care about my feelings. They didn't care if I lived or died. When I was in ICU not a single one of them visited,called,wrote,nothing not a word. I accept that though because all they cared about was "just one more". I was also in that state of mind during that period of my life. Hell I would walk over them if they needed help. I would take anything they had if it meant I could get that "just one more".There was no loyalty,no trust,no team attitude,there was no love. That's OK though some have stopped and work on their recovery today and that is awesome I hope they do it.Today I love them but I must love them from afar because if we still hung I'd be afraid of that old saying "old habits never die". Some are dead and that is a terrible because they didn't give themselves a chance at a new life. Some are incarcerated and will be for a very long time. I hope they can find recovery while in prison. Some are still playing the game,they just aren't ready yet. For those people I just pray & hope that they can stop before death stops them or the legal system does.
The new friends I have made in recovery are awesome some I consider family. These are people who care about my well being and people who understand what I've done and put myself through. These are people who want to help me with this new life of recovery. People that can call me out on my shit. Give me guidance and most of all love. These are people I would go to the ends of the earth for. These friends know exactly who they are.
For those friends who knew me before my addiction but now that I have stepped out of the shadows and want nothing to do with me, I say that's OK I still love you and I understand that maybe you just can't forgivie for what I have done. I hope that one day you can and see the things I'm doing to be that person I was and maybe even better. Maybe some of you just don't know how to approach me that's OK when you do figure that out I am here and will be thrilled and honored to have you back in my life. Finally some of you just might need some time and that is something I also get and I  want you to be comfortable, just know I will be here living my life all over again clean.
Those people that have stuck with me during everything and continue to support and encourage me everyday.I can't come up with the words that are good enough and deserving enough to tell you how much you mean to me and how much I love each one of you. All I feel I can do is show you how hard I work each day to be living clean and thank god how lucky I am to have all of you in my life. I wake up everyday thinking of how I couldn't do any of this with out you and how sorry I am for any pain that I caused. You are my rock and the air I breath everyday day.
We all make mistakes, we all make bad decisions and those things shouldn't dictate our lives but if you are suffering with this disease of addiction it may seem completely hopeless but I guarantee it doesn't have to be like that. It can change,this disease can be arrested but you have to want it and you have to make that choice and take that first step.

ObamaCare and My Recovery

ObamaCare's Affordable Care Act, now recognizes substance abuse as one of the ten elements of essential health related benefits. This means insurance companies have to provide coverage for addiction related treatments.
If treatment is needed and money or lack of health insurance delays or stops you from doing so, You should immediately go to the government's new website healthcare.gov
It is a pretty easy web site to navigate through. A few basic questions and you will find what policy's you are eligible for. The reason I stress the importance of doing this immediately is open enrollment closes March 31,2014. You can also avoid stiff tax penalties by signing up before this open enrollment ends along with getting quality coverage and being in full compliance with the law.
Once signed up you can now begin your search for the best treatment available in your area that will help lead you to a clean and sober life.
If you have loved ones in your life that are affected by your substance issues inform them to also sign up as there is help available as well.
With the new Affordable Care Act now there is no excuse to get help and begin your new life.
I will be soon posting information on treatment centers available in Monroe County.

17 Months and Counting

As I sit here tonight at a "Recovery" convention and they do their countdown its pretty cool to watch so many people be so proud of their time accumulated and it reminds me to be proud of mine and what I've been able to accomplish.

Powerless Over......

Every day I now realize that there is something else that I am powerless over in my life. Some things are maybe what I think are major, but most things I now realize are really small things that I turn into major "things". I constantly have to remind myself of this and constantly remind myself that I am powerless over many "things".
I am a control freak even though I tell myself I'm not. I want everything to go MY way,even though I tell my self I don't or when I tell myself I always let everybody have their way. Sometimes I even tell myself that just so I don't have to deal with whatever situation it is.
As I read the writing above, I even say "wow you are a crazy mother"  but I'm not just by knowing of the things I do as above and that awareness makes me able to work on those things today.
What do I do about these things? Well first I pray about these things to my higher power seeking guidance and understanding. I also constantly  tell myself when dealing with people is I don't know what is happening in their life maybe at that moment. Sometimes I also  need to remind myself to listen to what other people are saying cause they just might have the answers  I'm looking for.

The Anonymous People

Well hopefully you read the post below and are excited about the movie as I am and now like I mentioned in the post below the page to purchase you tickets is up and running solo without further ado.  


gathr.us/screening/7225

The Anonymous People

I have decided to bring in this awesome movie about addiction recovery called "The Anonymous People". As of right now the screening will be shown at The Little Theater in Rochester,NY on Sunday April 6,2014 at 3pm. Now the date, the time and hell even the theater are tentative until well you know all t's get crossed and the i's get dotted but it will happen and I hope with The Little Theater because I think its the coolest theater around. So maybe you ask, "Dave why are you telling us about this if its not set in stone." Well because I'm taking the initiative because I really believe in this film and what it represents. The documentary is about the more than 23.5 million Americans that are addicted to alcohol and other drugs. Deeply entrenched social stigma and discrimination have kept recovery voices silent and faces hidden for decades. The vacuum that has been created by this silence has been filled by sensational mass media depictions of people in active addiction that continue to perpetuate a lurid public fascination of the dysfunctional side of what is a preventable and a treatable disease.
Courageous addiction recovery advocates are starting to come out of the shadows to tell their true stories. The moving story of The Anonymous People is told through the faces and voices of the leaders,volunteers, corporate executives and celebrities who lay it all on the line to save the lives of others just like them. This passionate new recovery movement is fueling a changing conversation that aims to transform  public opinion and finally shift problematic policy towards lasting recovery solutions.
Keep watching my blog for more info and a link to a page being created so you can actually purchase tickets online. Along with the movie  being shown, a panel will be created for a q & a afterwards.
Thanks

Dance in the Rain

Sort of funny but its raining as I write this and I always felt this way until about 10 years ago and that's when I let the storm get the best of me instead of dancing in the rain. I don't think its got to do with age,race,religion,money,or anything else really I believe we all can make choices in life and are ultimately are responsible for where we end up but I also believe that the beautiful thing about life is we can change at any moment. Some changes may be drastic,some may be boring some may be crazy or insane, some may be smart. The beautiful thing is we make the choice and if we don't like it- fine make the choice to change it. We may be influenced to make certain changes but ultimately it is our choice.
It is your decisions and not your conditions that determine your destiny. The power of decision is what ultimately shapes your experience of life. It is not what you know or even who you know it is what you commit to.
Many people feel that if you want to change your life for the better that this can be a long and drawn out process. We think I'll have to change this and change that.In reality though habits can be changed immediately and permanently or until you make the choice to change again in a year, a decade or a week or the very next day.
"Things do not change,we change"--Henry David Thoreau
If I look at what I really want in life and what has prevented or stopped me from achieving this I will get what I want the most. If I keep concentrating what I don't want, that's all I will keep getting.
Now with me when I focused on being an entertainer that's what I became and when I wanted to excell in that business, I focused on what would make me excell. If I concentrated on the things that wouldn't get me there, well I guess I'd be hosting karaoke in some bowling alley somewhere.
So back to ten years ago I made the choice to pick up a chemical to mask  some type of pain I was experiencing. It might be something that affected me ten,twenty,even thirty years ago who really knows but when I decided to focus on that instead of what I really wanted I just continued to use more chemicals. Eventually causeing my life to be-come completely  off the hook and unmanageable.Drugs are just a symptom of my disease which have now become apart of my addiction and i now know if i pick up again that chaos and complete unmanageability begins or I'll just die. What do i really need to do is I need to figure out what caused me that pain and begin focusing on what I really want. Its not gonna happen overnight I didn't become an entertainer overnight and hell I didn't become an addict overnight main thing is I just can't pick up and I need to learn to dance in the rain again.

If Plan A fails.......

Well here it is my new blog.Now I need to start off by saying I am not writing this blog for you or to gain attention or to impress a single person. I am writing this for myself. Why you may ask? Well it's none of your business actually but if you want to know where I am in life well then you might read this every now and then. If you have an opinion go ahead post one.
OK so where do I start well I am obviously good looking and a funny guy. I grew up with a great family awesome father who passed away seven years ago and their isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him or think what would dad tell me to do? I have a beautiful mother who I am with every day and probably drives me crazy as much as I do her but she is not only my mother she is my best friend and has stuck by me no matter what I may be going through good and bad.I also have 2 sisters and 1 brother who i love dearly and I really appreciate all the family thing. So anyway the title and the picture on this post obviously tell you that plan A failed, well sort of plan A actually worked for about 30 years (well at least I thought so) let's see a little background I suppose is in order (the short version) I was a full time entertainer for many many years which I loved more than anything,did well with it, traveled a lot, met and worked with some great people,performers and dare I say fans.Let's see got married, got divorced,made a lot of money,lost a lot of money,made a lot of friends,lost a lot of friends,made a lot of connections, burned a lot of bridges, drank a lot of alcohol, drank a ton of alcohol, smoked a little weed, did a shitload of drugs. Are you getting the picture? Plan A came to a screeching halt on September 17,2012 - that was the last time I put any chemical in body not by my choice either it was actually my hearts choice which decided to stop working ,no not a heart attack what they call in the medical profession chronic heart failure or better known as CHF .So now you probably understand why it wasn't my choice it actually wasn't my choice untill I came out of a coma 4 or 5 days later ( I can't remember I was asleep) which I couldn't even say I swear I'll never do a drug ever again because I had this tube down my throat and I was strapped to the bed. Now after the tube was taken out  and I was unstrapped and I saw my whole family standing over me and a doctor with my toxicology report and a social worker asking me if I wanted to go into rehab that's when I said never again would I put a chemical into my body again you see today I'm not a rock star I'm not an entertainer, I'm not a husband, I'm not even probably a good friend today I'm a person in long term recovery actually the hell with long term I'm in life long recovery and yes I work and live a twelve step program. Say what you want about 12 step programs all I can tell you is that 12 step program has saved my life. So what have I been doing since that night on September 17, 2012 well I can say it in one word Recovering yup physically I've had to get better past two years I've ended up with a smorgous Borg of health issues from not only the abuse I put my body through but I also was in a major accident where I was hit from behind at a full stop and then tossed into the oncoming lane where I was hit head on ( and for those of you wondering no -no alcohol or drugs were involved at all.) I've had some legal issues to deal with, surgery, and of course I have had to change people,places and things. So now its time to start Plan B.
What is Plan B you ask? I don't know, for right now its taking each day and making it to tomorrow.