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Savoring the Ordinary
Vegas Vows, Divorce and Sobriety in San Francisco
August 24th, 2024
Yesterday was my seven-year wedding anniversary and I completely forgot — pretty wild considering I just finalized the long-drawn-out divorce papers for that marriage days ago. Life has a sneaky way of carrying on while you’re still catching your breath. In the midst of early recovery like grieving, sometimes the best you can hope for is that time starts to blur again and simply existing won’t seem like such a monumental task.
I was walking my dog to the beach to meet my partner, who was surfing his first wave of the “San Francisco Summer” which marks the end of the season for the rest of the country. The day was perfectly uneventful — sunny, mellow, predictable just like the day before and the day before that. Not long ago, I preferred to pass my time chasing adrenaline, distractions, and bad decisions (with pickleback shots). Anything for escapism in the form of alcoholism. And when the comedowns became unbearable, I started fantasizing about something different. Something simple. Wholesome, like the sitcoms I’d watch when I was hungover. The last few years, I could finally see the appeal of a life like Modern Family and less like Rock of Love starring Poison frontman Bret Michaels.
Addiction convinced me normal was out of reach — that I’d never find joy in the…
