Trudge Report
Four friends, all in recovery and living in South Florida, come together to discuss a variety of topics aimed at enriching their lives and those of their listeners. With a focus on sports, recovery, trending cultural phenomena, and daily life tips, they hope to inspire their audience to live better lives. Drawing on their own experiences and camaraderie, they aim to be informative, inspiring, vulnerable, genuine, and humorous. They encourage listeners to join them in exploring new interests and perspectives, while also fostering stronger connections with their friends, families, and communities. Their shared journey through recovery bonds them together and forms the foundation of their friendship and the podcast's message of growth and improvement.
Trudge Report
Ep. 122 - The Wonder Days: Our Experience In Early Sobriety & What Kept Us Coming Back
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Welcome back to this week's episode of Trudge Report. Thank you for supporting the show. We go around the horn. Corey rolls in fashionably late. Dan tells us how a local festival that was supposed to be family and community centric was taken over by teenagers where a handgun went off and local businesses were robbed and looted. We talk about how Ticketmaster and Live Nation continue to be public enemy number one for fans and concertgoers.
The recovery segment is all about each of our experiences in the first 30 days of sobriety. Mostly not including when any of us were in rehab, but when we all got to the rooms of recovery and started to hear the message. Each of us talk about those experiences and what those days were like. For all of us it was a very simple time. We discuss how certain moments and certain key people in those days were finally important and without them, we don't know where we would be. We each take a turn describing what “kept us coming back."
Sovereignty is the God given Providence to experience life and its gentle loving path laid before us. -Dr. Scott S.
Don't forget to like, share, rate, and download the podcast on all of your listening platforms. Check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel, @trudgrereportpod, for other content surrounding sports and trending topics. Trudge on good people.
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Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to another episode of Trudge Report. This is a recovery-based podcast. I'm joined by my good friends and fellow Trudgers. My name is Sean. I'm your host. Please remember to listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you may get your podcast. Videos will be posted each week, so you can always watch episodes on YouTube and Facebook. But as always, please be sure to download on your listening platforms. We are brought to you by Stellamix Podcast Management. And please remember to subscribe. If you haven't subscribed already, get a friend to subscribe. We'll we'll we'll we might even do like a three friend, a three friend giveaway. You get three friends to subscribe. We'll uh we'll send a pair of Greg's used underwear in the mail or something like that.
SPEAKER_02You gotta pay for it. You gotta pay for it.
SPEAKER_00I think just by receiving the underwear, they'll have paid for it. But um but tell a friend, if you like what we have and you like the content and you uh find us mildly entertaining and remotely helpful in the recovery arena, please tell some friends about it. Uh and my buddy Corey's not here, but but we I would tell him this would be the point in the show where I'd tell him, Corey, smash that like button. You have consent, like you're Brandon Davies. Go Mormons. So, gentlemen, good evening. Welcome. Corey will be joining us at some point, uh, possibly, or he might have just quit and not told any of us. Danny P, let's start with you. How are you tonight?
SPEAKER_03Uh, we're good, man. We're good. Yeah, I just got in from Thailand, my neighbor's uh bathroom and worked all day, and then we had practice from 3:30 to 5, and it's uh steamy 90 degrees and sun blurring today. Got got pretty roasted. We had a game yesterday too, got pretty roasted out there. But um uh nothing crazy this week. I had uh I had the girls paint my fingernails, you know. That was that was fun, that was eventful. They had a blast doing that, and we had uh we had a good week, man. Alyssa starts work next week. So things are things are trending on the up, ready to roll. So you got a you got a riot going on down the street from your house or what? Oh, yeah, forgot all about that. Yeah, yeah. So we uh we got this event called Fun Fest, is awesome. It's not St. Catherine's Church. Every single year we always go. It really is a great event, which is now called Gunfest. All right, we everyone's had switched the the name of the uh festival to Gunfest. So they have I I guess these new things called team takeovers. Have you guys ever heard of these? I saw I saw some videos about it.
SPEAKER_00Um I believe I know what it is, yes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so apparently just basically a bunch of gangsters came probably like 500 deep to Funfest, and there was a fight. Somebody had a gun, they chased him down the street, they arrested him, then they closed the whole Funfest down, everyone was fighting and all that stuff, and they pushed them down into uh on Main Street where I live, and they uh looted CVS, they looted uh Chipotle and another restaurant, and um they'll literally they closed down Main Street and it had to be, I mean, over a hundred squad cars on Main Street, uh up and back. And this is dude, and it's an event that you know me and Maya were going that night, and I was like, ah, you wanna know what? Let's just go to the pool instead. I mean, families there with little kids and all that stuff, man, and everyone was in a full panic, and all these kids uh and all these hoodlums, man, who were getting pushed into these suburban areas that everyone has young kids and all this stuff, and I mean, and all you hear, like you know, it's like, oh, it was mostly peaceful and all this stuff, like on the on Facebook, on the Facebook stuff, and um, like people are just so like every single one of those kids needs to be arrested, man, and they need to they need to be put in court, you know. Like it's uh I think there was like 11 citations, you know, because everyone's scared to do anything and the kids are just gonna keep doing it, and then when and when you say kids, they are kids in the sense of like under 18.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So my whole thing is what the hell are the parents doing? Yeah, like where you would just I mean and again, I I get you can't patrol your teenagers every second of every day. I understand that, but like if you you should have been instilling them with the values long before that, uh yeah, but okay, hold on a second.
SPEAKER_00I mean we all we were all the three of us were we were instilled with values and we were little shits growing up.
SPEAKER_02But we weren't we weren't taking over uh stores and well I mean I was I mean I was burglarizing the hell out of places, but yeah, well I was stealing, I was stealing, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I but like think but I I get it, but I agree. It should be instilled at home, but you're okay. I'm telling my mom, oh mom and dad, I'm going to Johnny's house, like some a place I go all the time, and they're like, okay, be back by whatever time, you know, it's all good. It's a Sunday afternoon. They have no idea that I'm going to rob Fun Fest or whatever the hell it is. So I I get it, but there's no way those parents can police that. Not to that extent.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's a whole attitude though, man. It's crazy. Oh, it's nuts. Yeah, and I agree, they should be arrested. You know, like when we were fight, we were fighting people or whatever back in the days and stuff. You're not going to the church fun fest, man, where all the families are with kids and all that jazz and stuff like that. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's just a total blatant disregard for anything. That's the big difference.
SPEAKER_00That's the big difference, is they're going to places like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02We we did steal a golf cart from the Portage County Fair one year. Oh, I love that. No, we didn't take it off property, we were just having fun there, but yeah, we got banned from the fair for that.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I love that. Dude, they did it in Toledo the the day after uh the fun fest here. They did it in Toledo, 12 people got shot. 12 people. Like that's that's that's where we're at. You know what I mean? Like, that's like oh that was that was just the other day, right? Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was the day after that uh happened here. Yeah, yeah. The same thing, teen takeover. It's all on TikTok and all that stuff, and all these people. It's like, dude, there's literally people, and this is like how we're scared to police society. There's people that their job at the police department is social media, yeah. So they know it's happening, they know it's going to happen, and there's nothing that's being, you know what I mean? Because, like, oh, it won't be that bad, or something like that. It's like, bro, just line up the all the squad cars before that even happens. You already know what the end result's gonna be. Just tear gas them all. Yeah, that too. Water cannons, bro. No, I'm a big water cannons man. Water cannons all day.
SPEAKER_02This is why I like to go vacation out in the woods out in nature. Yes, yeah, yeah, give me hawk and hill hawk and hill bar water. Guess what? If that does happen, yeah, we'll we'll we'll just we'll meet in the woods and we'll let God sort it out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. We're finna not need the police.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you guys remember Bubba Sparks, the white rapper? Oh, absolutely, bro. Okay, I forgot.
SPEAKER_02I still bump Bubba Sparks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, don't say that. We don't know.
SPEAKER_02Deliverance suit deliverance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Do you remember his most famous line out of that one song?
SPEAKER_02Booty, booty, booty, booty rapping everywhere. Or was that him?
SPEAKER_00No, that wasn't him, was it? That was him and the yin yang twins, dude. Um, don't worry about the law. They can't arrest us all, essentially. Oof, right? That was the video where their big mob scene. I forget which one might have been the ugly song that he did. Yeah. Um, which was like his first big hit or whatever, but uh, which was a terrible song, guys. Let's let's be honest with each other. That stuff was not that stuff was not. He had some talent, he had some talent, like as a freestyle, like flowing, but those songs, the mainstream ones were not very good. But that was the video, though. Man, the video was popping. Don't worry about the law, they can't arrest us all. I that was my mantra. I that was like my anthem growing up. To get enough enough of us in a crowd, I'm getting away.
SPEAKER_02You know, it does remind me. It was so funny. We went to uh we were in Texas last month and uh visiting Lauren Spring. We went to this like country western like bar where they do like actual like line dancing and whatever, you know, massive, massive place. But they had this whole wall of like where when back in the day when like they used to have concerts there, I I guess they still have concerts there, but like they would do like these cement forms and have like the artists' handprints in there. And it was like there was a Johnny Cash one, Willie Nelson, like all of these country legends, right? And then right smack dab in the middle was Paul Wall. Oh yeah. Like, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Come on, come on. That's amazing. That's hysterical. That's funny.
SPEAKER_00What's up with you, Greg? We didn't really get to you yet around the horn. What's going on?
SPEAKER_02Nothing, man. Living the living the dream, man, and starting to enjoy summer. Um, it was a it was a chill weekend, honestly. I I got some uh work done around the house. I got some work for work done. Like I have like a bunch of uh e-learning courses that I have to take for my new job, learning all about bobcats and power moving equipment. And uh, so that's that's all fun and dandy. So yeah, but just a just a chill weekend, man. Enjoying the the summer weather.
SPEAKER_00Good stuff, good stuff, all good around here. Busy. I was telling Danny and Janine pre-show, like summer, and Danny was saying it, like summer does not I almost like school season is actually a quieter time in a way because it's more structured. There's it's just busy, man, and it's fun. We had a great time. We uh birthday party yesterday for the kids, um for their friends, you know, their friend's birthday party, which was awesome at the children's museum. And then today we went to the the fountains and the splash pad where uh you know where we got married actually over there at Indian Riverside Park, and we had a friend of mine come with his family and their kids, same age, just a you know, it's just a lot. It's just a lot, it's a busy day, but it's all good. We got family coming in town in a couple weeks, or actually next weekend. Um and then we travel, so it's gonna be it's gonna be through the middle of July. It's gonna be uh it's gonna be a busy summer, so but all good. Everybody's doing well. Um, we have a uh special guest star that has just arrived. Um I think that's Bruce Springsteen's grandson, possibly. Oh, so you want to get political again. Um Corey Springsteen, is that you?
SPEAKER_02Shut up. It's the assistant to the boss.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you you almost killed me. I almost killed you? Yeah, when you were like, doesn't look like traffic. I was texting you back. Oh, really? You mother? And then somebody cut me off just then and I almost died.
SPEAKER_03Well, you want hey, you want to know why they cut you off? Because I was gonna make a comment about that. Your gap distance between the car in front of you was way too big, bro. Way too big. That just happened because I'm gonna be able to do it.
SPEAKER_00That gap distance was too much.
SPEAKER_03You're inviting it in, man. Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?
SPEAKER_00Close up. Was I speeding? No, you were going 20 miles below the speed limit. Corey, we've all we've all gone around the horn. It's your turn. How are you, Corey? Welcome. Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01Fine. Uh, you know your wife just scared the shit out of me about an hour ago, right? I figured that might startle you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That was funny. Just by calling him is what he's saying. Well, call calling me twice back to back. You thought you thought something happened to me, huh? Thank you. Hey, you know what? That means a lot. That really means a lot.
SPEAKER_01I didn't say anything.
SPEAKER_00You want to know what's funny? Is I I almost for a fact knew because she came in, I was in the shower, and she was like telling me something, and she was like, Oh, Corey's calling me back. And I was like, that mother effort probably thinks something's wrong.
SPEAKER_01Well, Catherine doesn't call me on a random Sunday night very often. And I told her to go back to back. No, that's fine. And uh so that was fine once I figured out what it was, but I I saw that she called me twice, and I was like, oh shit, and then I called her back, but she didn't answer. Or or didn't get to the phone in time, or whatever, but like didn't answer, and then I hung up and I was like, Okay, if something's not wrong with Sean, is something wrong with Gabby? Why wouldn't Gabby call me? So then I called Gabby and I was like, hey. And then as soon as I said hey to Gabby, Catherine's calling back and I said, Hold on, Gabby, and then I uh yeah, the rest is history.
SPEAKER_00But long story short, we might be going to Noakon.
SPEAKER_01Which I told her you don't deserve that because of all the shit you talked, but whatever, it's fine.
SPEAKER_00I would love to be on a night with my wife. That's all I care about. I truly I would love to be afforded the opportunity to ruin it in some capacity by throwing something at you. I truly could care less about him. Although I am open-minded that maybe I'll enjoy some of his music. But I would like to I would like to accompany my beautiful wife to a concert she loves to go to. So I really think you should give it three more listens. Maybe I'll start. I'll start at the concert, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01You never know.
SPEAKER_00But no, we're trying to get the big thing is getting child care. We're trying to get my mom figured out and all that. And if we can get the somebody to watch the kids, we'll I think we'll pretty much for certain be there.
SPEAKER_03So do anything. I mean, you get someone to watch the kids, give me a night out, man. Where are we going? That's that's what I mean by I don't care, bro. I'll go watch soccer. I will watch a soccer match.
SPEAKER_00We'll have a really good opportunity, Dan. The the the World Cup starts in a couple of days. Uh no, I'm gonna bring my green card. For over a month, you'll have a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_02And speaking of which, we were we were actually Dan and I were discussing it with our friend Mark the other day. Oh, yeah. These the ticket prices for all this stuff, not just the World Cup, dude. Yeah, like the home run derby. You're what what was it, Dan? It was it was they were like for for nosebleeds in foul the home run derby. No, it was like three thousand. Oh, was it? That's just wild. It's ten thousand dollars to go to the the the Knicks game tonight. It's insane, it's like it's not even real money anymore.
SPEAKER_03I'm like, who has you have to get two tickets? You're going with somebody. So that's twenty thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_00You know what a lot of it is, it's corporate sponsorships. These corporate entities they get dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of tickets. It's the same way with like the Ryder Cup, Dan, for the P the same thing last year at the Ryder Cup at at uh oh god, where was it? Beth Page? I I don't even remember where it was now. Um, yeah, I think it was Beth Page. The same thing was happening. The ticket prices were astronomical, but what's happening is they're selling bundles to all these corporate and business entities, and then they're doing whatever they do with them.
SPEAKER_03So it's just somebody needs to step in then because that's I mean, that's just egregious. Well, we've talked about that kind of stuff on this. We had to regulate that for yeah, we have to it's disgusting, man. You know, we all everyone know everyone's fine with everyone making money, but that's just it's disgusting.
SPEAKER_01They go way over and above.
SPEAKER_03Way over Yeah, like you know you're gonna pay a premium for a premium game, but like, come on.
SPEAKER_01I do like that that as a country we're starting to attack Ticketmaster and Live Nation a little more than we used to.
SPEAKER_00Well, Corey, the country has you to thank. I mean, you're the one that brought it up on this podcast. Spearheaded it, if you will. Yes, yes. You're and also in all seriousness, all kidding aside, I didn't know any of that stuff was really. I mean, I knew prices were going up, but I didn't really know the evilness of those corn until you and Greg started talking about it that one.
SPEAKER_02The A the AI bots, the software that they have that'll just like buy up a bunch of tickets when they first go on sale.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for the not the non-event ticket stuff. You know what I mean? Like, I just want to pay for the ticket, man. You know, we don't gotta make everybody.
SPEAKER_02Here's the deal. Right, and like Dan and I were talking, like, and I get it, you have to make some money off of this kind of stuff, but like the home run derby. Yeah, come on. The home run derby, like that'd be that should be something like every dad, or you know, if you're if it's in your city or near your area, like take your kid to it. It's a fun event, it's that less than a hundred bucks, right? It's not a competitive event.
SPEAKER_00It's all it's part of it, also like let me ask a question. Then I feel like we've asked this question, Corey. Why was Dave so cheap for us then? And I know we got him on resale kind of, but even going to the website, remember it was like less than a hundred bucks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because here's the thing. He's not a gouger, dude.
SPEAKER_01Well yeah. I mean, yeah. I Dave Dave's cheap because I sit there and hawk the internet and look for the people that can't go all of a sudden.
SPEAKER_00But even on the website, like I said, remember I got on the I Think Amphitheater website, it was like 90 bucks. He for for that's uh that's a lot that's a lawn ticket ticket. That's a lack of a lot of things. I know, but but I mean compared to other concerts.
SPEAKER_02That's not that's not yeah, it was 90 bucks to go to West Palm.
SPEAKER_00Well, that was Stub Hub. We got it for like 65.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, it was like 65 bucks to do that. So listen, I have a life hack.
SPEAKER_01Dallas. I have a life hack here. So if if we bought one night tick one one ticket for one of the one of the shows for Dave from uh Ticketmaster, it would have been $72 after fees. I found out nowadays. That's yeah, it's very standard. I found out just by coincidence, um, I went to the box office on night one to get a ticket, and they charged me $54. I was like, what? Are you serious?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it's like it's like Vegas is with their hotel rooms. When it gets to a certain point, they just want to off the tickets. You know what I'm saying? They don't care, you know. So why am I about to pay $300 for no airline to a tour?
SPEAKER_01Uh they're they're not gonna have tickets at the box office. They're sold out. They don't sell out.
SPEAKER_00But even on Stub Hub, why am I about to pay $300 if if 90 is standard? Is it that because it was lawn? There's no lawn. No, because somebody's retailing.
SPEAKER_02Or it's because though they jacked the the rates of the ticket up because the artist is extremely popular. So at this current time, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I was on the original sale for this concert, and lower tickets were 180 bucks. I just couldn't get them in time. Like the bots buy them up so quick and you can't get them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So it's really lower like pavilion or lower bowl, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah, it wasn't too bad, but you can't buy them in time because the bots are quicker.
SPEAKER_02That's still to me. If I'm gonna pay 180 bucks to sit in the bowl, I'm gonna just spend the 70 and go sit on the lawn.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. That's like only four dollars a gallon, so you know, everything went up.
SPEAKER_00What I don't know where you're looking at gas these days, Corey, but it's it's it's 379 here and uh Sean. A week ago it was four dollars. Today it is better, I guess. It's been under four dollars for I think a week almost. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00Still a dollar more than it should be. I'm just gonna throw that out there.
SPEAKER_04So is this the time?
SPEAKER_00Is this the time where we talk about the Strait of Hormoes, Corey? Is that this part of the show? Please God, no. Open the straight.
SPEAKER_03I had a political discussion with a bunch of nine-year-old girls today because I had my I had Craig, I had my socks on.
SPEAKER_02Oh boy.
SPEAKER_03You know the socks, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I was Mr. T on the socks, and they said you should put the word lazy next to his face. I was like, what nine-year-old knows about politics? That's wild.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so you don't mean Mr. T, Mr. T. You mean the Donald Donnie T. Okay. I thought you meant Mr. D.
SPEAKER_02Real nice pair of socks.
SPEAKER_03Are you the best feeling socks you've ever felt? Uh yeah, the French fries at the bottom.
SPEAKER_01Those nine-year-olds don't know shit about pitying the fool. Uh that's who I thought you were talking about first, too.
SPEAKER_03No, dude, I one thing I I was talking with my neighbor about it too, because after that, because like it's so wild to me, and I think it's absolutely, absolutely horrendously disgusting. Uh, my knows nothing about politics, and I'm so proud of that. I'm so proud of that, man. Because I mean, like the stuff that I hear kids say that are under 10 years old is so egregious and all parental, like it makes me just so mad.
SPEAKER_00We we were just having see that's Greg to your point earlier, like instilling that's that's where we need to like grassroots raising our children better. Not not teaching them this is the correct way to believe versus this way, but like teaching them like this those straight up values and yeah, no.
SPEAKER_01My biggest problem at nine years old was like, oh damn, it's raining and I can't go play in the woods today, or whatever. Or maybe I still will go play in the woods today because it's raining. Who the fuck is it?
SPEAKER_00I hope my mom lets me go play in the woods when it's raining.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's what I said. I was like, I was like, guys, you want to know what? I said, you want to know what I did at nine years old? I said I played at the park. I said I had no clue what the fuck.
SPEAKER_00But here's the big difference, and I know we've talked about this in various forms. It's all the social media technology age, like all this stuff is available to them. I mean, Dan, how many of those nine and ten-year-olds probably have a cell phone or have access to some form of the internet or some type of social media? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03So we we specifically asked them, so like, how do you guys even know about politics? Every single one of them said mom and dad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I was I was listening to something uh the other day. I wish I could quote the guy. Um, he he is a doctor. Um, but I was listening to something the other day. Um had done uh a study where it said like um that cell phone usage by children under the age of 13 increases risks of depression, anxiety, and suicide 249%.
SPEAKER_01But and you know why, dude? Because it's not it's not just the phone call anymore. It's it's like the world on your fucking disposal in your phone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my I don't I again, I know we've talked about this. My kids are not, there's they're still years away from getting a cell phone. I don't care. Uh you can tell me all you want how much safer it could be because their location, they're not going anywhere that I don't have like the direct parents' phone number. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01So I heard. Sean and I and I'm asking for a personal reason. Not a personalized and I won't say it, but I heard am I wrong that you give Soph a cell phone or something to go when she goes to sleep over somewhere? Like a not to keep, obviously, but just when she's that's not you. Nope. That's somebody.
SPEAKER_00We have we have uh Amazon Kindle for they both have a Kindle, yeah, but the Wi-Fi is like turned off. Like I can turn the Wi-Fi on, but they don't have the ability to go on any type of Wi-Fi or internet and download anything. Everything that's on there has been pre-downloaded, and it's all games. It's like it's like if there's not even any, there's no even like videos, it's all games. We do have two cell phones, old cell phones, that are here that are that have all the apps taken off and that just connect to Wi-Fi, and they have like the phone, the camera, because they love taking pictures, and um, and they have um YouTube kids. But the cool thing about YouTube kids is you can set it to their age, and it actually like they both have their own profile and it has their birthday, so it gives quote age appropriate stuff. Now, I still go on there every so often and check because you still find it's not crazy bad, but there's some weird ones on there, and I'll block that specific channel. Yeah, but that that YouTube kids usage is very is very monitored and never never given to them to go sleep over. And do they honestly?
SPEAKER_03Because that's like my like same thing, the YouTube kids and all that stuff, dude. There's a lot of awesome stuff that she learns, phenomenal stuff from there. She says she says things, and I'm like, where did you even learn that? But yeah, you just gotta monitor it, man. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00But they definitely don't go over to any anybody's house when they sleep over and absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01No, yeah. So Lucy's Lucy's doing her first sleepover tomorrow night, and we trust where she's going and all that, but but she is gonna take her tablet and she can she can message us if she has if she's on wire by there.
SPEAKER_03It's messenger, baby. Let's go. Yeah, love that you're that can be monitored though. Like you can you get notifications on everything.
SPEAKER_00And she month she messages Maya all the time, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. But it you know, it does I I can't lie and say it doesn't freak me out to have her go overnight somewhere for the first time.
SPEAKER_00It's it's so fun for them, dude. Like they're gonna she's gonna be just she's gonna love it. It's such a cool like independence moment.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Maya has like the phone, but like it's not like a phone like that she can use, right? You know, so she like takes you to the park, and like you just said, she doesn't have Wi-Fi, so she takes pictures, so she knows what times it is. Because we let her go to the park with her friend, she'll walk there. Hey, you gotta be home by X, take your phone with you. They take pictures and videos, and but she can't use it outside of the house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yep. So what else, guys? Anything else in uh anything, Corey? Anything you're gonna talk about? Alright.
SPEAKER_01I thought I thought we were talking about me. And then you guys just hijacked the whole fucking show.
SPEAKER_00Well, you you you lost 10 minutes of that by being late, so how did how'd it go tonight? How did your recovery talk go tonight, Corey? Was it was it one of your better ones?
SPEAKER_01One of my better talks? I I wouldn't rank it up there, but it's never really bad.
SPEAKER_03You know, what was the high what was the high point?
SPEAKER_01When I started bitching about Dave Matthews band? Yes. Did you really? Oh yes. No, you did not. Briefly I did, yeah. Briefly. I also um God, what else did I say? Oh, I I said something along the lines of like how I was under the impression when I got sober that every old timer with you know, many years sober must know what they're talking about when they speak in meetings, and that is not true.
SPEAKER_02Half of them are senile.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, half of them well knows. They're still drinking. Yeah. So there was that. Because actually, Dan, that was about that I mentioned you tonight, Dan. Because I I always like mentioning the guy that said that you shouldn't make friends in treatment, which obviously we know why that notion's out there, but like I'm just and I always say, like, you know, I you know, I don't know for sure, but there's a slight possibility I could have died if I hadn't met Dan. Dan, through Dan, I met a lot of people and got a lot of help. So um, you know, there's that. I but I mentioned like I I I me met the right friends in true. Like I didn't I didn't hang out with the guys that were spending their food stamps on Red Bull and I love that. That's the classicest line ever.
SPEAKER_04And it's straightforward too.
SPEAKER_01They were so classic. I'm like, you know, I hung out with the people getting jobs and actually showing up for their jobs a few minutes early and shit like that, you know. Walk into meetings and recovery events and whatever.
SPEAKER_00Well that that's actually a really good segue because tonight we're talking about our each of our experiences in the first 30 days of our sobriety.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I teed that up real good. That was legendary, bro.
SPEAKER_00That was legendary. Um, you can come back next week if you want. Yeah, you gotta do traffic more often. Yeah, right. So this is first 30 days in recovery, not including treatment or rehab. Now I know some of that might like overflow a tiny bit because you do you're setting it up, but first 30 days. Um find treatment. Rehab.
SPEAKER_03Let's just talk about seven days in detox. That's exciting.
SPEAKER_00You know what, Corey? You go take that any direction you want, my friend. This is a this is a this is a free country, guys. Freedom of speech. We can say we can say anything we want on here, right, Dan?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Corey's taking his kids to the protest next week.
SPEAKER_00Noah, hold this sign. Yeah. So mine was I I like I Dan, first off, Dan, thank you. It was your idea. It was I think it was a great topic, great idea. And I know we've probably talked about some of this stuff in different episodes, but never like devoted a specific segment to it. So I'll kick it off if you guys don't mind, because I was I've actually been thinking about this since you brought it up the other day. I I got to the halfway house on Monday, May 9th, 2011. My sobriety date's May 8th, 2011. I I'm I was trying to think like I truly had absolutely zero idea of what I was getting myself into. Because I, as you guys know, I've never been to treatment or rehab or detox even. I have been hospitalized many times and I have been to jail, and I did obviously go to a foreign country for boarding school for quite some time, but I've never actually been to like a traditional rehab or whatever the case may be, been baker acted, all that stuff. But so I went literally straight into the halfway house and the story of how I got there, it's not really important, but I got there, and uh I never I can like vividly remember the hard kitchen bench because there was a TV. I had a small TV in my bedroom, uh, which I think I think I've shared this before. It was a s it was literally like the size, I mean uh 12 by 12. Like it was a small ass TV with the VHS. Corey, that's uh uh for for videos, um, just so you know. It was had the VHS built into it, and guys, it had a pornography movie in the VHS already, which was like awesome for early sobriety. You know what I mean? Um that's a god sign, dude. It was it was pretty cool. Like, like whoever left it, you know, shout out to them. Hope they're still sober. But stick around, son. But it was really small. So I would go out in the like kitchen, living, dining room area, and watch TV, and there was a hard wooden bench that was super uncomfortable. And I'll never forget, actually, it was one of the Miami years that I think they won the the Miami Heat won. I remember you know, in May watching the playoffs, you know, into June and all that stuff. But um, I was really scared, I didn't know what was going on. I I uh God, there was a guy who I'll who shall remain nameless that came into that halfway house and he was responsible for helping me get like acclimated to recovery. You know, he took me to a lot of meetings, he took me to Sonic all the time, he took me to the movies every now and then, but like he took me to a lot of meetings. He really helped me get introduced to a lot of people. I met Papa Ron, as you guys all know, through not through him necessarily, but through the meetings he took me to. Like, he helped me get a job, he helped me uh earn some money before I got hired at that job. Like, there was like I was just like thinking about that. There was a lot of stuff, and and my my first few weeks, I can remember, and maybe this sounds funny coming for me now, but I can remember sitting in meetings, uh, recovery groups, and being like, I I just I just wanted to know people. I just wanted it's gonna sound weird, but I just wanted friends, and I just I didn't know anybody. It was a new area. I was like, I didn't because I had never gone through treatment and had never really been in recovery before, it was all really a lot of, I mean, I'd been to some meetings before, but it was really truly brand spanking new. And um there was a couple guys that put their hands out. There was a lot of people put their hands out, but there was like two guys in particular uh that I could bump cigarettes off of, and I always looked for those guys at meetings because it was comfortable. But I I truly was like, like when you guys met me, it was the total opposite, you know. Like I had a lot of I knew a lot of people, I knew a lot of things. I was in a lot of ways, uh, you know, a leader of certain groups and of of that stuff. I was not that way when I got here, guys. I was scared, I was felt out of place, I felt like my clothes didn't fit, which technically they didn't because I was super skinny and and coming off of of drugs and alcohol, but like like I every like every that whole idea of like crawling out of my skin, I did not feel comfortable. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. And um, and it took it took a little bit, um, but that changed. And I don't know. So deep reflection. I'll I'll pause there, but deep reflection um for that topic, Dan. Thanks for that. And I'll kick it to you next, Dan.
SPEAKER_03All right, all right. Yeah, so because when I met you, I was like, this guy's loud and so annoying. I don't even want to be around him right now. We we hated you. Yeah, he was so loud. That's fine.
SPEAKER_01Oh, look at this guy in a stupid beard. I know. He's like, Yeah, I don't even know if I had one back then, did I? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02It was it wasn't as uh as glamorous as what year are you guys?
SPEAKER_0015, 16? 15 and 16, Greg? Yeah, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_03All right. Since he stood up, I was like, this freaking guy, Jesus. There he was. Oh man, yeah, dude. Those, I mean, I honestly like the you know, the same thing as uh I never went to rehab, I never did anything, and I had no clue what to expect. And you know, I'm my life was never really burned down to the ground as to where it was at the point when I went to Florida, you know. So like I had my lows and all these things happen, and you get fired, and all these jobs, you know, I mean, like all this stuff happened, but like I was finally at my lowest point where I was homeless on the street, had absolutely nothing, everyone hated me, wife kicked me out, can't see my kids, the whole nine yards. So going down there, I mean, it was really just a case of like F it, why not, man? You know, and like you did you do detox, you do rehab, you do all that stuff, whatever. Groups meetings, cool, you get a little separation from the drugs and the alcohol and all that jazz, you know. But um uh Corey said the the same thing, man. Uh if I didn't meet Corey, I don't I don't know if I'd be here today, you know, because God puts these people in your life, you know, He really does. And you know, all you guys, man, like that's a the first 30 days makes me like deep reflection on like I love you guys like brothers, man. And and I don't know if I would be here with every single one of you not in my life, and that it really means a lot to me because that's that's what it was in one beginning. It wasn't doing the work in the meetings with my mentor and do all that stuff, it was what Sean just talked about feeling comfortable in my own skin. And what started that point of comfortability was you guys, you know, and that and that's that's what honestly what kept me coming back. And you know, I started going to you know the old hall man walking in there was so tight, 6,000 people in there. You talk about feeling uncomfortable, and then you go into this sweaty hot box with a bunch of people that stink, you know. It was like it was like uh I don't know if this is for me, man. And then uh I mean, but just simple stuff. It was like uh Corey was talking about too, is just doing different things, you know. We would walk to the gym every single day, you know. And Corey, I still think like one of the coolest things, you know, in that portion of our our recovery was walking in the gym E and you every day, and then after how X amount of months, it was like 12 people walking with us, and like that's one of the cool transformations that happens in this is that teen takeover of the team. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I had the I remember I had the iPad shuffle, the little, the little square, the little square thing, right? Yeah, that uh my my mom mailed to me and the two dollar a day phone that I was paying for.
SPEAKER_00Um, I had to pay as you go phone too for a while.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, two dollars a day, man. Oh, that's so wild. But yeah, I mean, me and Corey used to we used to walk to meetings, man. We walked everywhere we had to be, and then I met somebody, you know what I mean? Like Sean said, I met somebody that had a car and he took me to get food and he took me to this guy's house. And one I'll never forget in uh you know the first six months or whatever it was, I think it was I think it was a New Year's Eve party. New Year's Eve party I went to at West Palm. And uh we went there, and you know, that initial in your head is like, yeah, really honestly, the what I was most scared of is how I'm supposed to enjoy life without drugs or alcohol in my life. And you know, how am I gonna have fun? Like, yeah, I could just survive and white knuckle it, you know, dry drunk it, and I'm gonna be fine, but like how am I gonna enjoy and have fun? Because I've done this my whole entire life. So how how am I gonna do this differently? And going to that New Year's Eve party with a bunch of people in sobriety and in recovery and having an absolute blast and dancing and and doing all these other events too, man, with a bunch of people that are sober, and that was like really what like like you know, this is really possible, man. And and that's like for me, like it early on in the beginning is that feeling comfortable, you know, people are gonna reach out, you know, because we all know like you go into meetings and stuff like that, and you go to your recovery groups and you see the people that are newer and stuff. They all know that feeling, you know. We all know that feeling, so that's why it's on us to reach out and to say hi and just you don't got to say anything else. Hey, how you doing? My name's Dan. That's it, because that's all it takes is that that invite them to dinner, invite them to whatever you're doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, hey, come hang out with come stand next to us.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yeah. Denny's has amazing state. Let's go. Amazing steak. That's the best. Yeah, but no, I just want to say, like, I mean, that topic comes from like I love you guys, man. I really do. I appreciate you guys in my life, and it really means a lot because that early on sobriety stuff is really about what we have here that it's developed into. Is it's pretty freaking cool, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Thank you, Dan. We love you too, buddy. Greg Ori.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, oh you real quick, you want to talk about first impressions. The the first time that I saw uh Dan and Corey, uh, I I I wasn't even I I was still in treatment.
SPEAKER_00I was in the We flashed that picture up on this podcast.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, dude. Uh the it was a Wednesday night meeting speaking. You guys didn't like me. You guys were the punks. Mike, Mike Lum was speaking at this. Oh man. And and these two are RIP. And uh and these two sitting right next to each other. Uh one of them's in a cut-off mesh tank top. That would be Dan's annoying guy socks with they had some kind of neon, I don't know, whatever color they were. I was like, what cartoon did this guy just walk out of? And meanwhile, he's sitting next to a dude who looks like he's in an in sync cover band just not fucking successful, okay? All right. And the the first impression, it was you it was you with your chain and your white teeth.
SPEAKER_00Oh god, and the hat, the backwards hat, and the backwards hat.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. Um we were crushing it. Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_00Probably some shell toes on.
SPEAKER_02Suffice to say, I I did not meet either of you two that night. Um, because there would have been words, but uh but no.
SPEAKER_03Um Wednesday night was not the place for it, anyways. Wednesday night was a rowdy, raucous place, boys.
SPEAKER_02Um so yeah, I um I did 10 days in detox, 30 days in in in uh lockdown treatment, and then another 30 in Iop. So I was about 70-ish days sober going into uh you know halfway house, a sober living community. And I can just remember um that first week was kind of cool. That first week to 10 days is like meeting a whole bunch of new people. I had a couple people from IOP that came over. Um, our our buddy uh Luke and his wife Krista came over from the same Iop into the the that sober living community. So I knew a couple people, and uh, you know, I'm I wasn't doing it. I I had worked a bunch of day labor when I was in Iop, and so I was like focused on getting a job. I was actually very blessed. Uh a dude that I went to Iop with, um, older guy named Harold, God bless him. He bought a car while he was down in it just just for Iop, just so he could get around to the grocery store and wouldn't have to rely on people to drive him and stuff. And then he gave me that car nice uh when he left. And and uh I mean I don't know if you got I know Sean probably remembers it, but the sunfire was a beast, yeah. You could hear that thing coming from four miles away. It was the thing. The fact that that that car lasted me a good like year is an absolute miracle. Um, but it always sounded like it was about to explode. And um 97 Pontiac Sunfire.
SPEAKER_03Legendary. I legend you the that and the T bird should be retired in a museum, yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But uh, but yeah, I went into that halfway house. I had the car, I had a job lined up at the on the island at the Marriott. I remember that. Um I was I was meeting new people. Uh met Bill, our good friend Bill, met our good friend Mark. I was doing a lot of uh drinking Red Bulls and and uh hanging out. They had this thing in the middle of the uh in the middle of the grounds there. It was like a screened in gazebo. We used to call it the chicken coop, and we'd sit out there all night long playing cards, drinking Red Bulls, talking shit, you know, smoking cigarettes, everybody trying to, you know, one up each other on their war stories and whatnot. And you know, looking back on it now, it's just like, oh, that was so dumb, yada yada yada.
SPEAKER_00But like you know, like yeah, but such a simple time though, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02A simple time, and I think that like while I was like connecting with all those people, and man, like so many, dude, so many people that aren't here today. Rich Picana. I met Rich Picana in the chicken coop one night talking about a comic book or something like that, like something dumb, you know, and it's like things like that, man. But I got real miserable real quick. I've been real candid about this. It was a probably I was like probably week two in there, and I just I was like, there's gotta be something more because I'm I'm now X amount of days into sobriety, and I feel terrible. I I I feel like I'm coming unglued out of my skin. Um, I couldn't sleep at night. Uh and and it was just that old, like it's it's what we all know today, is is like that's that spiritual malady, that's that restless, irritable, and discontent. The obsession was having its way with me, and and the the problem was is that I didn't have anything to medicate it with. And I just I'm I'm so thankful that because there were a whole lot of people in that community, God bless them, for that were there for different reasons and whatnot, that weren't doing shit and never went on to do shit, you know. Um they were still fun to hang out with in the chicken coop and talk shit with, you know, but they weren't going anywhere and they never did.
SPEAKER_00Seeking shelter, not recovery. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I and I'm I'm very thankful for Bill. He was he was the manager of that um uh place, and he basically like he every single day just rode my ass. You go into meetings, you're not going to meetings, don't bullshit me. Like, you know, and he started waking me up early in the morning and making me go to the early morning meeting at the hall, and that's that's where I met Sean. And uh, you know, I was I was a hot mess when I went in there, and and you know, and here we are. But it's uh it was one of those things that I thank God I got put around that group of people, you know, the good, the the bad, the all of it, you know, because I needed that that real quick realization. Because I I you know I had been to some meetings, like I said, in in Iop and I'd gone around and I'd you know seen a couple of you guys and stuff like that, and I saw that people were living the right way, but I was like, is it really is it really for me? I feel all right right now because I was still in a sheltered environment. I still like it's Iop, but every night I'm you know, every day I get to roam around, every night I gotta go home and take a breathalyzer and still pee in a cup and and still have like that sheltered environment. And like it did not take long getting out on my own before I was like, dude, this I'm a I'm a wreck and I need some help. So yeah, I'm I'm thankful for that. The rest is history.
SPEAKER_00You're in your first thirty days again, aren't you? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01He was in traffic.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, traffic. Oh, your first thirty days like Corey. What do you remember from those days? Nothing. Alright, back to you, Dan. I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01I guess um the first thirty days outside of like inpatient rehab would be appropriate. And uh but dude, you know, I I think I look back on the entire first year as probably normal people look back on college. You know what I mean? Like I look back on it with with such like fondness and like oh those were the days like you know more of a grind back then, you know what I mean? Like things were you're figuring everything out, right? Whatever, and trying to get a job. And like I got, you know, I was um actually the guy who introduced me tonight told the room that I got sober at twelve as a joke. I obviously did not, but I was young, I was 19. Sure that got some laughs. It did. Dude, that was a hard room to get to laugh, man. They they fucking hate everything there.
SPEAKER_00Or I'm just not funny, which I just I don't Maybe it's just maybe they've heard you putting their own their entire city down multiple times on this podcast.
SPEAKER_02Oh very publicly, I might add.
SPEAKER_01No, I I did it tonight too. I told them, I did tell them that they're terrible. But um good. So I'm hoping to help somebody, Sean. I wouldn't want you to change, Corey. Definitely wouldn't want you to change. I said, you know what's funny? I just told my mentor recently that I don't think we need to help you people. So anyway. Um back to what we were talking about. What did he say last week? They all smell. They do smell. Whatever. But yeah, so I look back on the first year with a lot of fondness in that respect. Like, those those were the days where I started figuring things out, and like simplicity, yes. Yes. Simplicity. I mean I mean, uh none of us were paying an electric bill when we were in halfway. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00We weren't paying for gas either.
SPEAKER_01No, no gas exactly, Sean. No gas, no fucking four dollar gas. Uh but you know what I mean? We had like one bill. Like all I had to do was make enough money at the car wash, and hopefully with the tips that we would split every paycheck, that I would be able to give the halfway house their $125 a week, you know?
SPEAKER_00Which to think back on that's what it was, that's what it was the price, it's that's crazy because it's not that anymore either.
SPEAKER_01No. But um, so that's kind of what that was like. In the first 30 days outside of rehab, it was I mean, a lot of what Dan just said. Like, I I met Dan shortly, God, I don't know. We were in impatient together, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we just yeah, we didn't really click together until we got to IOP. Yeah, and uh I was like, these guys are clowns, man. This is the only one I got left.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, dude. It's gonna be worried I'm going out. I was the only one not bringing heroin back to the IOP house. So everyone figured we could be friends.
SPEAKER_03It's so funny, man, because like I was like old and Corey was like super young, you know what I mean? And then like the uh everyone was just so immature, man. Like, I was like, dad, dude, and I was like, I was acting like a hood rat, and I was like, bro, you guys, I will dust you all in the street. Stop, bro. What are you guys doing right now? Big remember Big Nate? Oh my god, like all those people, man. Oh man, uh took my girl from me, dude. No, uh Corey, dude. That's I mean, when we met, because we were just so what went to do the right stuff.
SPEAKER_00So, what was like, Corey, like one thing, if you could, and maybe this is an unfair question. I I have mine like one thing or event or or meeting or meeting someone, like one big thing that you think was like the most influential. I would say in the first 30 days, but but expand that to that first year. Like, what was that? Like, and is there is there some so for me? I was like 60 something days sober. The guy that managed our uh yeah, managed the halfway house, he wouldn't let me so on as you guys know on Sunday nights here in in Stewart, we have a uh a young people's recovery group. Uh it's still going today. Um, a lot of those young people are a lot older now, but still going today. And that's where like I'll be honest, that's where like the pretty girls were. That's that's where the and they were at other meetings too throughout the week, but that was like the one main meeting a week at our local clubhouse that you knew the girls were gonna be in short skirts, and you know, there was it was more of a social event rather than a recovery group, which we could have that conversation we kind of have already. But the guy that managed my halfway house, he wouldn't let me go to that meeting. He made me go to a Sunday night um meditation group where they meditated and they talked about prayer meditation and like real stuff of substance and recovery, and not to put that young people's group down, I know some of the members, and there are some very solid members through the years, and but it was it was definitely uh the only reason I wanted to go was because of the girls. And uh I'm at this meditation group. I had been going for a good few weeks in a row, and after the meeting, you help clean up, you know, you clean up chairs and stuff like that, put stuff away and all that, and I'm helping clean up because that's what I was told to do. And at this point, I'm 60-ish something days, clean and sober, and I'm trying to follow directions as best I can. Um, I have a temporary sponsor at this point, and uh there was a guy and a woman, they were a couple at the time. The woman has since passed away, R.I.P. But the guy is he's very well known, still is today, around these parts in recovery. Maybe self-proclaimed well known, but very, very well known. He's got a large personality. Not everyone's cup of tea, we call him an acquired taste, but he's but he does truly help a lot of people. And what he talks about is he talks right from our literature. He's a strong personality, and he said, I won't say the names, but he goes, Oh, look, so and so, this one just might stay sober. He's doing service work, and he called me by name, and like I didn't even know he knew who I was, and I know that seems but back to like feeling uncomfortable and not knowing anyone and wanting to know people and wanting to feel like I fit in, having that recognition, it like like it's gonna sound cheesy, but it was truly like life-changing in a way, and I'm not trying to be hyperbolic with that, but it it made a lasting, lasting impression on me. Uh, so that was mine. I'm sure there were many more over that first year, but that was like the one big one. Like, he knows my name. Like, I'm I'm starting to fit in, kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't know. I I would say it's it's kind of like low-hanging fruit for me, but like Dan really was.
SPEAKER_03Did you just call me low-hanging fruit?
SPEAKER_01I you are yes.
SPEAKER_02It happens with age, dude. They just hang low. Hang low, sweet chariot, baby. That was the sweetest.
SPEAKER_00That was the sweetest, most admirable uh put down I've ever heard. It was that was that was good for me.
SPEAKER_01I you guys no, but it's it's just like a combination of like different events or whatever, but like through Dan, we went to a ton of recovery things together, and then I met his mentor who introduced me to the guy who introduced me to the guy who introduced me to my mentor. And like all if all that doesn't happen, like I don't know what goes on, you know what I mean? So it's kind of interesting, and like yeah, I mean, especially in in in the first year, as far as like the trajectory of my recovery, I don't think between those three people, and that's whatever, I I have comments on the side, but between those three people, meaning Dan, his mentor, and my mentor, I don't know if if anybody helped me more at the time, you know what I mean? Because like it all happened because of certain events within that.
SPEAKER_00Well, you kind of gotta say, like, meeting Gabby too. I know, I know there's that there's that conversation about relationships and early recovery, but but again, that doesn't happen. Just like not meeting Dan, like who knows where you are today, you know what I mean? Who knows where she is today? Who knows where she is today, you know? That's the real question. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, absolutely. And then like, and then you and uh you and Greg followed shortly thereafter. Like I said, Dan and I hated your guts, but whatever.
SPEAKER_00I still remember I still remember that.
SPEAKER_03We still kept coming though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I still remember meeting meeting you. My first time meeting you was at New Hope. Remember? Yes, yes. You were like four months sober, and I think Dan, you might have been there with him.
SPEAKER_01He was, he was I was I was, yeah. Here's the thing, Sean. We would show up to the porch on Tuesday nights, and you would be at one end of the table, and Brian would be at the other end of the table, and we were just like, Oh, these dumbasses think they run this meeting, which you quite literally did. I mean, it was Brian's house, so like it was like whatever. But yeah, and but Dan, it's funny you said that because no matter what our judgments, we were there the next week. So it's something something something kept you coming back.
SPEAKER_02How long did it take for him to learn your name?
SPEAKER_01Oh well, Sean didn't learn my name. I was pretty good with that stuff.
SPEAKER_02No, no, not Sean. Brian, God bell.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I was about six months into dating Gabby last year.
SPEAKER_00He knew Gabby's name.
SPEAKER_01Gabby's name. The first week.
SPEAKER_03I still remember he he knew Alyssa's name before he met her.
SPEAKER_00I still remember at being at work. I still remember being at work one day, and Corey, you and Greg called me like an hour apart, not knowing that the other person had called, to basically tell me like you had Brian all wrong, you had finally gotten to know him, what an awesome guy he was. But but I'll never forget that day because I remember you guys, especially you, Greg, like talking like ah, you know, like just because he he could be he's you know, he's whatever, he was out there, you know.
SPEAKER_01By the way, once you got to know him, this is very off topic, kind of, but shout out to Brian and R.I.P. to Brian once again. Because um we bought a pillow last night, and every single time we buy a pillow, I I say it, I say it to Gabby every time we go buy pillows at fucking Walmart. I talk about the story about when Gabby and I were very early on in recovery and I was staying at her halfway house, which is way too much. Way too much, but I was and um we Ubered to Walmart to buy pillows, and we happened to run into Brian there in the checkout line, and he was with some girl. Don't know who she was. But um But we had we like this is probably this is probably yeah, true. This is probably around the time he started learning my name. But he goes, Oh, what are you guys doing? And like, oh, we're just buying some pillows. He goes, Buying pillows, huh? That's some adult shit right there.
SPEAKER_00And uh that was that's always funny. Yeah, um we're kind of we're running up against it. Greg, what about you? What was what was something that just kept you coming back like me for Corey?
SPEAKER_02There's there's a lot of stuff I would say again, like not to jump on the low-hanging fruit kind of thing, but definitely meeting Sean for sure, um, and getting to know him. I I I won't say that I would be uh a dead man if I didn't know Sean and didn't meet Sean, but I certainly would not be the human and the man that I am today. So um and then just all the stuff that came along with that, right? Like getting integrated into the fellowship and and and really, you know, so not just spending the one-on-time, one-on-one time, like you know, just all the the the stuff we did like the the dinners afterwards and the you know the dumb stuff and the steak at Denny's and the just the you know and the the the you know good laughs at Flanagans and all that, and and then what led into you know our uh our very first uh mountain retreat, yeah, which was you know uh my birds can't put it together, man. Yeah, I mean, uh but yeah, I would I would say certainly um if if I had to pick uh a person that was most impactful, it would be Sean. Um you know, or um, you know, I I don't ever give him enough credit because he's not really around anymore too, but um being roommates with our good buddy George, old one-handed George, man, like that guy, he was a strange he is, uh was is a strange fellow, but man, you want to talk about some deep talks, you know, because when you share a room with another dude and you guys are trying to go to sleep and you're not quite at that point where your body chemistry is leveled off yet enough to just be able to fall asleep, man. Yeah, you just uh yeah, so deep talks with old George, so yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Good stuff, Danny P. Yeah, I mean, for me it'd be Brian, man. I had two moments with Brian. Um, you guys remember when I got all that money, I got like a lawsuit for my bike accident, and I got like whatever, like twelve thousand dollars and stuff. And he didn't say much, man. But the fact like he didn't know my name, you know what I mean? I sat at his porch meeting for probably like what, like eight months. I didn't say a word, you know what I mean, for like eight months. And uh he called me. I remember my mentor had him call me and he just said, Hey man, what are you doing tonight? He's like, uh, how about you coming to my house for the meeting? Because he knew I'd just got the money in. And that's all it took. Just to, you know what I mean, just him to because I probably wasn't gonna go, you know what I mean? Not saying I was gonna go, you know, even get hired, do this or do that, you know what I mean. But I was like, I got money now, I can go do stuff, I can have fun, da-da-da. And just that just that call. And just as you guys know, you know what I mean. His words carry so much weight, you know what I mean, just who he is as a person, you know. And then uh also uh after the eight months or whatever of my sabbatical of talking at Brian's porch and just coming there every single time when I actually said something at the meeting. I remember Brian coming up to me after the meeting, like you were saying, Sean, like that validation of like, you know what I mean, like I'm doing the right thing, like I'm in the right place, man. You know, and that kind of gave me a confidence to go after this thing with everything I got that like I'm going, man. You know what I mean? And it's just like those two little things are so were so instrumental and so small, but so instrumental for me. You know, it was definitely Brian, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, those are some good years on that porch, man. Yeah, yeah, that was some fun stuff.
SPEAKER_01Fun stuff. I wish I wish that we could spend an hour on this podcast talking about all the mountain stories and stuff. Oh nobody will ever understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yep, yeah, yeah. Some special times. Special times. Hey, especially with you and Russ, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you guys had some special times.
SPEAKER_03No, I think like the coolest thing ever, man, Corey really honestly is like, dude, I I mean, we were like brothers, man, because we went through everything, you know, re you know, IOP halfway, kicked out, this, that, you know what I mean? All these things, like for a full year non-stop, just all kinds of stuff. And in normal life, we would never be friends. And uh, that's the coolest thing in the world to me. You know what I mean? You're 19 or whatever, I was 30, you know what I mean? Like, and it's like totally different sports, like this, that, and the other thing. And that's always the coolest thing in the world to me, man. Is that you know, like bitch just I mean, literally, like a brother for a year just talked about everything, every facet of life, and that's really we know what I mean. Go running through that with you, that's definitely the you know what I mean, so instrumental, and it's super cool.
SPEAKER_01We are definitely got go ahead. What we definitely got into our fair share of like trouble, quote unquote. But like, never we were still we were always still looked at as like the responsible ones in the IOP program that like, oh, you got you're with Dan and Corey, you guys are fine, you guys can stay out past curfew tonight. And it's like Yeah Dan's just a slut, no one cares.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. I wasn't gonna say it, but like, you know.
SPEAKER_03That's accepted.
SPEAKER_01Maybe not the shining example in the uh category, but yeah, not everyone checks all the boxes.
SPEAKER_00Well, I guess the bottom line is it's up to us now to make that impact on the next person that comes to the doors, right? Make them feel welcome, no matter what city you're in, Corey. Put your hand out, invite them to things, get them acclimated, introduce them to people. It's our responsibility to be that for somebody else. So good episode tonight, guys. Corey, we're glad you made it safely. Whatever. We are, we're glad you made it safely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Shout out to our listeners. Please like, follow, and share on all socials at TrudgeReport Pod. Email us, TrudgeReport Pod at yahoo.com. Send in your mailbag requests or topics, questions, comments to any of these handles. Remember, we are all here if anyone wants to talk about our experience, recovery, or if you're struggling with some form of addiction or anything that the spiritual solution can help. Uh, thank you again to Janine and Stellamix Podcast Management. Good night, God bless. May you trudge the road of happy destiny. See you next week. Cheers.