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‘Scram Bracelet Diaries’ Category

  1. Bittersweet Endings, Happy New Beginnings

    July 22, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Good Morning and Happy Sunday! Sir Higgins woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. His beard is messy, but I always say the messier the beard, the better the sleeep! Clearly he had a VERY restful night sleep!

    Sunday has always been my preparation day. I prepare myself and my family for the week ahead. This week is a BIG week! Probably the biggest week of the past 6 months! Today I am going deep into the archives of my closet and I will pull out all of my business skirts and professional dresses!!!!  Hello White House/Black Market wardrobe! Oh how I’ve missed you, my Antonio Melani suits!

    I am going to have my toes all fancied up and painted.

    My bathtub will now be transformed back into a bathtub, rather than a giant clothes hamper!

    (Guilty as charged. Don’t tell my mother in law!)

    Seriously though, I had to put it to some other use…every time I looked over at it, I was just taunted by it.

    My son has asked and asked again what day is the BIG day. He is as excited as I am! He told me he has Tuesday off of work….I can’t help but think that this is more than just a coincidence. (That just warms my heart!) AND he wants to go with me! I am thinking about having him video the removal for you all to see, but I will just see how the morning goes and what the situation is like…and if my new local Scram lady is a good sport. I have to say, this whole staffing change sure has thrown my retirement party for a loop. I had big plans, but now that I am going in to meet someone brand new, I just don’t know how she’ll react. She doesn’t know me. She doesn’t know about my documenting this whole experience.

    Listen, Lady…..I am not your run-of-the-mill criminal. This is not your typical ho-hum Scram bracelet removal. This will not just be “another day at the office”, I can assure you. 

    I just wish Matt, the guy who changed my battery and traded my noisy Scram out for my new quiet one, could have just stayed working there until it was time to have my release.

    Now if that’s not selfish of me, I don’t know what is. But come on….PRIORITIES, PEOPLE!!!

    My Scram skin is so nasty. Sometimes it itches and itches….and I scratch and scratch and SCRATCH AND SCRATCH….until I am bloody (ew). I can’t help it though. It feels amazing to scratch! Kind of like chicken pox. (Yes, I come from the generation of kids who actually got the chicken pox. We did not get a vaccination. It was a rite of passage.)

    Let the healing begin!!

    This week I will make my final 2 calls to Pecharelyse….After that, we won’t start our mornings off  together three days a week with our brief little exchange any more. It is kind of sad. What will become of her? Does she miss hearing from me the 2 days of the week that I don’t have to call her? I wonder if she thinks of me as endearingly as I think of her, or if I am just another one of the many criminals she has to talk to every day. Maybe our morning “conversations” don’t mean as much to her as they do to me. Who knows. Maybe I’ll never know. I get sentimental over the dumbest stuff sometimes. Farewells are especially tough for me. What will become of my dear Gabriele and her sidekick John, my superheroes extraordinaire? Will the future Scrammers treat them well? I sure hope so…..wait, they BETTER! Will Batwoman and Robin miss calling to take my money? Will they still think of me from the Bat Cave? Oh dear, as Scarlett O’Hara would say….

    “I can’t think about that right now. I’ll think about that tomorrow”.

    Category Noisy Scram, SCRAM, Scram Battery Change, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  2. No Goodbyes

    July 22, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Y’all know we are hopefully getting ready to move, right?

    Well, when this whole process started I was so excited and had no clue it would be so long and drawn out. As soon as we found our dream house, my mister called a pool guy, we picked out our refrigerator, checked on a rubberized flooring to install in our new garage, got a quote for custom blinds, and I began packing boxes. I figured that since we already had our pre-approval letter, the hard part was over. Oh boy was I wrong! Buying a house is a grueling process that takes LOTS of patience. (Patience is NOT one of my virtues!)

    While I was preparing dinner tonight, specifically the salad, I got my lettuce out to wash and reached down to get my salad spinner….guess what y’all. It’s packed away in a box, ready to move in to our new house that we may or may not get! Ooooh dear. My lettuce is sitting in my colander drip drying as we speak.

    See here, the lettuce for our salad is drying...Ghetto Style!

    I washed my cucumber, cut the ends off of it, and went for my peeler and you guessed it….it’s packed! Mouse turds!

    Luckily I had everything I needed for my homemade french fries and they made it safely into the oven with no issues. Hallelujer!! For those who don’t know (MOM), that is the ebonics version of Halleluja – instead of YA say YER and really put some major emphasis on your YER.

    I know you are following along aloud, mom. I can just hear you!

    *and I’m laughing…..aloud!*

    Hopefully everything will go through….and according to our timeline. We are still scheduled to close on August 8th….tick tock tick tock, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage peeps!

    So I know that in my last post I started writing some Thank You messages….which I am not done with. BUT have no fear, this is no indication that we are saying goodbye to one another. I am still going to continue with the Scram Bracelet Diaries, post-Scram. As I said, my journey is not over. It is just beginning.

    I am sure you want to see how this sobriety thing works out for me.  Frankly so do I! I value, appreciate, and need your support. Am I excited to be getting my Scram off in 2 short days? Of course! But I am also scared to death to get it off too. Right now at this very moment I do not want to drink. I know where I’ve been and I see where I’m going. But I also know that alcoholism is a very real disease and that there is no doubt about it, I suffer from it. There is no cure for alcoholism. I will live with it and battle it every day of my life. I have made the decision to do everything I can to overcome my biggest demon.

    My mister and I have had many conversations, while I was drinking and now that I am sober, about my struggles and he definitely supports me. We had gone round and round with the same conversation about the 100%, all or nothing commitment I am making. I am happy to say that after much discussion, we have come to a place where he totally gets it. Whenever we would talk about it, he would always give me the scenario of having one drink and for me to imagine that if I drank any more than one, the Scram Bracelet would go back on my leg for the rest of my life. Well, in theory I suppose I can kind of see the point he is trying to make….kind of. BUT, I think he finally understands my retort of “but why?” Why even go there? Why do that to myself? Why tempt myself? Why tempt fate? Why toy with the inevitable….that maybe for a week or even a month, that may work, but not for long. At some point, I am going to reason that I can have just one more. One day, just one drink isn’t going to be enough. One drink is going to give me that tingle that I feel run down the side of my neck that feels so good. That tingle that runs down the side of my neck that I get from one drink is something that my mister doesn’t understand. *Actually he laughs at me :) * But whatever. I laugh at him for stuff he does that I don’t understand too. The tingle in my neck is like some sort of an ON switch in my brain that says “woooah dude, this feels gooooooood! More please! And on the double!….wait, I meant make it fast but while you’re at it…… MAKE IT A DOUBLE!” That is the ON switch that was enabled on June 8th after that first double vodka and lemonade that made it okay for me to tell my fiance (now my mister) “Yes honey, I’m going to bed. Goodnight. Talk to you in the morning.”  and then turn to my friend and say “Let’s go get into some mischief, shall we?”. That is the ON switch that said DRIVE! You’ve got places to go, people to see! Drive that car while the party is still hoppin and the drinks are still flowin! That is the ON switch that tells me on Sunday morning that the hangover from Saturday can go away with a beer. You know, my favorite saying (next to “It’s never too early for a drink”) was always “The best detox is a good retox”, also referred to as “the shampoo effect” – washing out a hangover with more alcohol. It seemed to work great, but when you become a “responsible” adult it turns from innocent fun to irresponsible, out-of-control, dysfunction.

    Okay, maybe in a previous post I said that my “weak” employment history/job hopping ways were due to being in school for so long, which is why the bank didin’t want to count my earnings in our household income. The truth of the matter is (and I’ve recently come to get really honest with myself  and now you on this one) I am the reason I have a “weak” employment history. There were times I went to work still drunk from the night before. Please, people….no one is going to have a good job, much less keep a mediocre one very long with that type of behavior. I have been 100% honest with you the entire time I’ve been writing this blog, but I wasn’t being honest with myself. I truly thought and wanted to continue to believe that my weak employment history was because I was a lifelong student earning this amazing education and multiple degrees, and how dare the bank not feel that my income is stable and dependable enough to figure in to our household earnings…..

    I guess you could say that the lightbulb has come on. The closer I get to being 100% accountable for my own choices, I have really become aware of where sobriety has gotten me. I am able to identify, to connect the dots that all of this time I have been running in place, spinning my wheels, merely existing in mediocre jobs rather than beginning and growing in a career, and that is 100% attributable to this disease that I never understood or identified as a disease.  I always thought  it was just me being a normal twenty-something, doing the things that twenty-somethings do. Somehow, despite all that alcohol, I managed to earn a Bachelor’s Degree and then a Master’s Degree. It probably wouldn’t have taken quite as long had I not been concentrating so hard on my drinking career. I have resented my Master’s Degree, even recently. Thinking “yeah, a lot of good this has done me, it has gotten me nowhere but in student loan debt.” What I have finally realized is that it was the drinking that got in the way of my education really paying off! Now, even in my early sobriety,  I am really seeing the benefits of the education I worked so hard for. Each day that goes by, I see so blatantly how much I am growing and excelling in my career and it feels amazing! (So amazing that I JUST may have some really big news for you next week!)

    I NOW know that the forward motion I am experiencing in my life and in my precious relationships is because I am sober. The successes in my life right now would not and could not be possible in the presence of alcohol. Giving in to my addiction is not an option for me.

    I am SO thankful for this revelation.

    I have never felt more ALIVE!

    I know that my mister and I will never need to have the just one drink chat again. I think he needed some time to mourn the loss of his drinking buddy, but he understands that this is what needs to happen, that the success of our young marriage and the prosperity of the family we dream to continue to build together depends on my sobriety. He knows that I choose HIM over and above a Sunday afternoon in a bar with beer and football. I promise I’ll be an even better football buddy without alcohol! And our bank account AND OUR LIVERS will thank us both!

    I don’t know if I have given my mister quite enough credit over the 6 months of Scram. I try not to be that sickening newlywed, so I don’t go on and on about how great he is. But he is. He’s great….and hot too! He has stood by my side through it all. When I had to tell him what had happened, his reaction just reaffirmed that this was the man that I was supposed to marry. He didn’t blame me or point fingers at me. He was supportive and stood by me at every turn. As if the first year of marriage isn’t hard enough….throw a SCRAM Bracelet into the mix and if you survive that, you’re golden!

    I love my life, I love my family, I am so incredibly blessed and grateful!

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | 1 Comment

  3. Southern Fried Catfish

    July 21, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    We went someplace new for our weekly Friday night dinner out on the town last night. Note to self….never let your mister choose the restaurant. Especially if you’ve never been there!

    First of all, it was a Buffet. THAT alone screams “NOoooo, DON’T DO IT!!”

    This place advertised down home southern style food. (Clue number 2!)

    When we walked in, it was wall to wall carpet. (Clue number 3…I have a thing about carpeted restaurants. Sometimes when we are choosing a restaurant and my mister asks where I want to go, I say simply “anywhere that isn’t carpeted”…sure wish I’d gone with that this time)

    When we ordered our beverages, I asked for a coke and was told they only have water, tea, and lemonade. (Clue number 4!) I told her I wanted tea, half and half. Now, normally when I go to a restaurant and tell them this, they come out with half sweet, half unsweet…..we live i the south, remember? Not this time! I thought the color looked funny and sure enough….half and half at this place meant half lemonade, half tea. Luckily I love a good Arnold Palmer so I was just as happy, although mystified.

    When I looked for a nice table for us to enjoy our dinner, everywhere I turned there was a metal bowl or bucket on the table, the chair, or sitting on the floor to catch water dripping from the ceiling. (Do we really need any more clues?? I mean, this was more than a clue, more like a….big flashing neon sign saying DON’T EAT HERE!) It was so gross!

    I was SUPER grossed out by the fried catfish….

    Maybe I have just never seen southern fried catfish before, but EW, was I grossed out! Of course this wasn’t the exact catfish they had….it was the best picture I could find that looked close to theirs. Theirs was ickier looking. I would’ve taken a picture while at the restaurant, but I don’t think the lady at the next table would have appreciated me photographing her plate. The fish on her plate still had the silver skin and fins on it and everything. The fins were sticking up off her plate. I was waiting for them to reach up and slap her in the face. You know how when you see a dead person in a casket and you know they are dead, but some part of you is just waiting for them to sit up and go “rawr”…..maybe I am the only one….well that’s like the catfish on the plate. I was waiting, almost expecting it to start flopping around, fins going everywhere…eventually slapping the lady in the face. It was so gross! Maybe I’ll go back JUST to photograph the catfish so you can see exactly what I ‘m talking about, since this picture that I found doesn’t even begin to describe it.

    (Sorry, all you fried catfish eaters out there….I have just never seen anything quite like this before.)

    That was the quickest Friday night family dinner out on the town we’ve ever had! We were in and out in no time! We practically RAN out of there!

    Sir Higgins has been really going to town on his favorite frisbees….

    We’ve had to take them away from them since he’s been biting chunks off. We definitely don’t need anymore $200 emergency vet bills. So, while I was wandering the aisles of Walmart today, I found him a brand new Higgins-proof frisbee! And he LOVES it!

    He loves it SO much, in fact, that he won’t even let me get a picture of him with it…I just barely got this one! And he won’t let his brother Fletcher play with it either.

    I have 2 phone calls to Pecharelyse and 2.5 days, a mere 60 hours before my release……I just can’t believe it!

    I didn’t get to go meet the lady here in town who will take off my Scram on Tuesday. That means my bracelet is STILL storing all of these readings….since LAST Friday! Crazy, huh! My Gabriele said that it would be okay. They will just download all of the readings when I go to have it removed. Apparently this new local Scram lady is a very busy person….always in court. Gabriele gave me strict instructions that I needed to be at the office Tuesday to have this lady remove my Scram before 8:30 am. I told my Gabriele I’d be there at 7:45 am if I have to! I am ready to be FREE!! My freedom doesn’t just mean that I can take a bath with 2 legs in the water, it also means that the CHOICE to remain sober is all mine.

    Looking back at this entire experience, it hasn’t been all that bad. Especially since YOU have been here with me every step of the way! (THANK YOU!)

    When I learned that I was going to have to live with the Scram Bracelet for 6 months, I was in a state of fear, especially after I began researching the “do’s and don’ts”, the “what can happens” and the general tips of the trade. Unfortunately there is not much out there and most of it will make you crazy. It was for this reason, that I decided I would document my own journey and experiences through “scram-hood”. My sole intention was to share with others the TRUTH about life with Scram as I experienced it, to share with you what daily life was like wearing the Scram Bracelet. I wanted to become a subject-matter expert on the Scram Alcohol Monitoring Bracelet…and I feel pretty confident that I am darn near close by now!

    I have tried to make things interesting for you, but honestly my experience with Scram has been quite uneventful. The S.W.A.T. team never showed up…..not once! I have not had a “Tamper” reading. I have not had a “you’ve consumed alcohol” alert (probably because not a drip or a drop of alcohol has gotten anywhere near my face since January 15, 2012).

    I have had my hair colored many times, worn TONS of hairspray (Texas style, remember?? Big Hair BIG HAIR is BEST!), had many manicures and pedicures, slept next to my husband after he has had several drinks, showered, walked on the beach, kayaked and guess what….no problems. Not one.

    I’m no one special. I have received zero “special treatment”. Bascially, my sweet fellow Scrammers….follow the rules, use your head, be kind to your Scram providers and you will be just fine. It’s not SO bad, so don’t be scared or worried. Try to learn something from this, as I have. If you have a problem, well now is the time to recognize it and get some help. If you don’t have a problem and you just made a bad decision well then don’t do it again! Don’t let your friends drink and drive. Be an example to them. Take a stand on drinking and driving! Use this experience as an opportunity to learn and grow, don’t waste it by being bitter and resentful that you are being punished. This is your perfect opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those around you. Your attitude and outlook on this will make it a positive experience or an absolutely miserable one. It is YOUR choice.

    Now that I am nearing the end of my Scram Journey, I look back and see how much I have grown and evolved. I see that my Journey has actually just begun. When I took my last drink on January 15, 2012 I didn’t realize it would be my last ever. I thought it would just be my last one until late July. I have so many people to thank.

    Dear God: Thank you for the much needed intervention. You definitely know what you are doing! Clearly you have plans for me or I wouldn’t still be here.

    Dear Officer Police Man, Sir:  Thank you for valuing my honesty. Thank you for not taking me to jail. Thank you for not letting me go, either. Thank you for coming to the scene of the accident so quickly. Thank you for sending me to the emergency room in an ambulance. That ride sure was more expensive than a taxi would have been.

    Dear Judge: Thank you for recognizing that I needed help. Thank you for not sending me to jail for 48 hours, or any jail at all. You must have known a.) they would have eaten me alive and b.) my problem was far bigger than simply a drunk driving offense.  Thank you for giving me six months of sobriety. I don’t know if and or when I would have gotten sober, had you not given me my Scram punishment. Thank you for giving my parents back their daughter, for never letting my new son see what a disaster I am capable of becoming, for allowing me to be honest with him while at the same time being a huge example for a young man about to turn 21 years old, and thank you for giving my husband a pretty dern cool wife  ….all because I’m sober! You have NO clue the gift you have given to me by “prescribing” the Scram Bracelet as my punishment.

    Dear Attorney: What can I say, you are a badass and so is your junior attorney, Jhasta! (I don’t know if that is what she is specifically called, but she is the one who actually went to court with me and spoke on my behalf. She was AWESOME every step of the way and calmed all of my many many fears.)

    <—–That’s Him, isn’t he cool lookin?! He kind of looks like he should live in Miami and be a plastic surgeon. Okay, maybe I’ve watched too much Nip/Tuck. He’s even more suave and intimidating looking in person, I promise!….he’s awesome!

    Thank you for knowing about the Scram Bracelet and using it as a “bargaining tool” in my case. Thank you for being so dang cool with such an unbelievable staff to support you so that you can continue to do what you do…and charge lots and lots of money for it so that I’ll never want to do it again even more! It was worth every penny of the money I am now paying back to my father. (THANK YOU DAD!)

    Dear BMW: Okay, you guys are a bunch of Bavarian geniuses. You make an amazing machine that is not only beautiful but is incredibly safe! I swear, I will never drink and drive again…..can I please have another one ? (Hey, if you don’t try you’ll never know!)

    Okay, I have tons more thank you messages to write, but for now I’ve got to go start dinner (NOT catfish!) before my boys get home so I’ll stop there and get going on my wifely/motherly duties.

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, | 2 Comments

  4. Retirement is Getting Closer

    July 20, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    I just have to say, my mom is awesome. You already knew that though, right?

    She is absolutely hilarious. I have had something she told me in my head all day long and I just have to share it with you.

    You ready?? You sure?

    Okay, she calls thong underwear “hiney floss”….HAHAHA Oh my gosh! She is just too much! I have heard the words “hiney floss” so many times in my head today and I’ve giggled to myself many many times. She likes to use the word hiney. Does anyone use that word anymore, besides my mom? What’s really really REALLY funny is when she adds the word “hole” to the end….hiney hole! That is just too dang funny!

    Guess what, yall….I just attended my very first AA Meeting….online! There is a website called “In The Rooms” that my friend Maggie told me about and they have video AA Meetings. It is so cool and you don’t have to let anyone see you if you don’t want them to.

    Tonight’s topic was on Fear. I learned a lot and heard lots of great people share their feelings, as they relate to their alcoholism and how they used alcohol to help them deal with their fear.

    It really helped me see that I am not going to be able to do this sobriety stuff alone. Along with the support of my family, which I already have, I am going to need the support of others in recovery.

    I think the In The Rooms group sessions will really be good for me.

    It turns out it wasn’t just the charger on my Scram modem that got fried, it was the whole shebang that didn’t survive the electrical storm we had Friday. Remember how once I got my new charger in the mail, Scrammy seemed to be a bit disoriented? Well, I figured it would just correct itself. I thought maybe it would reset or something. Well, it didn’t and Gabriele was calling me yesterday to let me know my modem had definitely called it quits. She told me some troubleshooting tips, which I tried, but no luck. It didn’t work. Since I am SO close to my “off date”, there is no sense in her sending me a new modem. I will be going over to the local office tomorrow to get hooked up to their computer so that the readings can be dumped to the mothership.

    Not only did I get the bad news that my scram modem was kaput, Gabriele also informed me that my local Scram dude who changed my battery AND changed out my noisy Scram for my quiet Scram is no longer with the company! WHAT??? Oh dear.

    Gabriele assured me that I will NOT have to make the trip back to Tennessee next week and that she had already contacted the old Scram dude’s replacement. Y’all, a stranger is going to be taking my Scrammy off! Eek! That’s so not the way I wanted it all to go down, but at least I will get to meet her tomorrow.

    I’ll let you know how that goes!

    Category Noisy Scram, SCRAM, Scram Battery Change, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | 1 Comment

  5. Gone Fishin’!

    July 14, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    The difference between sober living and well, the way I was before?

    This morning we woke up at 3:00 am to go deep sea fishing in St. Augustine. A year ago, I’d be just leaving a bar. And then I’d go home and possibly be ready to drink some more, depending on my company. (Super honest here, I know you are cringing…sorry mom & dad!) That wasn’t life. THIS is LIFE, y’all!! And I’m loving every second of it! SOBER!

    My mister, our son and I are headed here.

    I plan to bait a hook for the very first time and possibly even touch a fish! I won’t make any promises that I will do either of those things cuz YUCK! BUT, if you’re gonna go fishin, I s’pose you should do all the dirty work that goes along with it. And I’m all about getting the full effect! (Clearly! I mean, look at my ankle y’all!….seriously)

    I hope they don’t worry about letting me (the criminal extraordinaire) on the boat. Hopefully they don’t look down at my ankle and think I’m a loose cannon, a threat to the safety and well being of their passengers. I’m not typically dangerous, I’m just a drunk who didn’t know how to stay out from behind the wheel of a vehicle when I was impaired! BUT NOW I DO! I’m not dangerous anymore! I swear!!! I’ll shake your hand and kiss your baby! (okay, that would be scary, seeing as how I’m not running for any type of political office)

    I am going to catch a ginormous fish today. Positive thinking! My positive dog is busting at the seams today. I’ve been feeding him like it’s Thanksgiving! …And thank goodness for that because I was struggling to give him even a nibble about a week or so ago. You know that saying “when it rains it pours?” Well, that’s me. It seems that lots of life’s crappiness happened all at once. The friendship I cherished with S is gone. (Notice she’s not pink anymore? Yeah, it’s THAT serious!) Finito. Like Scrammy’s modem. AND We got some bad news and had to switch from the local Credit Union for our new home loan to Wells Fargo and that was super stressful. Especially when we are supposed to close on our new home on August 8th. Time’s a tickin folks, let’s get this thing done!! It turns out that since I have spent my LIFE in school earning an education (in order to GET the good job that I NOW have) and my job is so new, the Credit Union is refusing to recognize my earnings as part of our household income. All that time in school and NOT working, to them says weak employment history. Really? Gimme a break! School IS work!

     Well, sorry to break it to ya folks, but it’s real live money! It’s green and spends just the same as anyone else’s pay check.

    I’m hoping the peeps at Wells Fargo will see it that way, but we’ll see.

    Excuse me while I wax profound for a moment….

    Luckily, after the smoke clears and the initial shock of life’s crappiness wears off, I can fully understand and in my heart I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. Everything works out the way it is supposed to. The friendship that I cherished reached it’s expiration date. We were supposed to be a part of one another’s lives for a period of time and that time has come to a close. There was a purpose and that purpose has been fulfilled. That chapter of my book of life is over. And now we move on. Maybe we aren’t supposed to get a new home just yet. Maybe there is something better for us. Maybe something is going to happen that we shouldn’t get a home right now. Maybe we weren’t supposed to go with the Credit Union for some specific reason. I am not sure what is supposed to happen with the house situation, but it will all unfold in due time. Patience is hard, but a true necessity in life.

    Woah, that was deep….and now I’m done :)

    Oh, I can’t forget to update you on the situation with the fried modem….I called my sweet Gabriele yesterday. (Not sure where John was.) I told her we had a storm and that the green light on my wall charger was not lit, that I had tried many different outlets in the house, and that it still said “Check AC Power”. Sure enough, she confirmed it…the charger got fried in the storm. She said that my backup battery would not hold long, but that is what it was running on and that it did in fact download all of the information at it’s regularly scheduled time of 3 am that night. She said that she would UPS me a new charger and that it should be here by Monday or Tuesday.

    I asked her if Scrammy’s memory is good enough to last me through the weekend. She said that Scram can ultimately hold 3 weeks worth of readings, but at that point it would be difficult to transmit all of that data to the mothership. (She likes my lingo!) So basically, no worries! As soon as I got home from work yesterday, the backup battery was still functioning, so I quickly did a manual download which entails “waking the bracelet up” with a big fat magnet that they give you. The light on the bracelet flashes green and then it vibrates and the modem says “reading bracelet”. It dials in, dumps the info to the mothership, and we start over with fresh memory! Luckily I did that because shortly after, the backup battery was kaput too.

    Well, wish me luck on the deep seas today, y’all! Stay tuned for pictures of my big catch!!!

    Hopefully we don’t capsize and end up like Gilligan. Hmm, am I more of a Ginger or a Maryanne? I think I would have an identity crisis!

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,, | 1 Comment

  6. Fried

    July 13, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Eleven days left and Scrammy is really going to miss me.

    You know how I know?

    Because things were going along completely uneventful since the battery change, the switching of the loud Scram for the quiet Scram,  and the rubber “buckle” piece broke off. Scrammy couldn’t let me say goodbye without one last (hopefully the last) hurrah.

    It stormed here this evening. The thunder was crashing, the lightning was flashing, the dogs were trembling, the satellite TV went out, and then I heard a loud beeping coming from the bedroom. Nothing too concerning, this always happens when I unplug my Scram modem to travel and when we have lost power in the past. I just pushed the center button and it stopped beeping.

    It wasn’t long before the TV came back on and everything was up and running again, but Higgins and Fletcher were still shivering. They were having a meltdown and so was Scrammy.

    I moved the modem to different power outlets. I’ve checked to see if the outlets work and they do. But I’m afraid Scrammy is…how should I put this…. kaput, finished, finito, donezo, dead, unusable, unworkable….it’s FRIED!
    Crap! I was SO close! Now what?

    I guess Scrammy decided “I’m not done with her yet!”
    I will be calling Gabriele and John, (Batwoman & Robin) my superheroes tomorrow. They always know what to do, they’ll have the answer.

    I wonder if I might just be able to go over to my local Scram dude’s office every day to “dump” until it comes off.
    My mister suggested that they should just go ahead and take my Scram off now. He’s dreaming. That’s not going to happen. Plus, I want to finish what I’ve started. I will be 100% in charge when Scrammy and I part ways…..SCARY! I am not sure how I feel about that.

    I’ve said it before, but I can’t say it enough. The Scram Alcohol Monitor has not only saved my life, it has given me my life.

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,, | 4 Comments

  7. Sweating My Scram Off!

    July 8, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    My mom came to visit us yesterday. She’s lucky she left when she did, she got out just in time….

    I got out of bed this morning and it was so hot in the house, so I went to adjust the temperature. The air conditioning was set at 75 and the thermostat read 80 degrees inside the house.

    GREAT

    The air conditioner is broken.

    We’ve turned the AC unit off for now, since it’s not working anyway and the temperature continues to rise. Lovely.

    Ew, gross! I need to take a rag and some bleach to that control panel! DIRTY!!

    We are all irritable and waiting for someone to come fix it. Needless to say, our positive dogs are all starving at our house today.
    All I want to do is dive into a big pool of icy cold water, but I can’t so I’ll just settle for an ice cold glass of good old southern sweet tea. That’ll just have to do for now.

    15 days left!

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,, | 5 Comments

  8. Feed Your Positive Dog!

    July 2, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    This is what Sunday afternoon looked like at our house….

    everyone was sacked out…with the golf tournament on TV. (It made me want to sleep too!)

    We went to Ocala Saturday to hang out with my parents and the other senior citz, but we couldn’t spend the night  because I left Scrammy’s modem at home. I am not entirely sure of how good Scrammy’s memory is and didn’t want to push it, so we just came on home. BUT not before we played a round of golf….and I was on fire! I had one of the best golf games yet! (My mom said that she heard my dad bragging to some of the senior citz today about how well I did!)

    Oh, and by the way, my dad is STILL wearing the paper booties when he comes into the house….

    It’s a great thing that we came home last night because I had tons of errands to do today. It was an unwashed hair, no makeup on, hat day for sure. It was hotter than the hinges on the gates of hell.

    Was it hot where you are?

    I ran around town, buying groceries and NOT making any friends in Georgia! :)

    Hee hee :)

    (GO VOLS!…you can take the girl out of Tennessee, but you can’t take the Tennessee out of the girl!)

    Have you ever realized that everything in life happens for a reason? Have you ever noticed that some things, although they may seem completely unrelated, are timed just right in relation to each other?

    I’m having a tough day. It’s nothing serious, just the dumb junk that sometimes happens between friends. From time to time, you’re GOING to get your feelings hurt. That’s just a fact. We all know it, it’s just part of life. But it doesn’t make it any easier when it happens. I try to always roll with the punches and pride myself on being very easy going and accommodating to others….sometimes to a fault. I would rather “let things go” when they happen, than make a big deal of them and have some big dramatic “ISSUE”. Typically I find it pretty easy to do. But sometimes you just have to speak up for yourself….and then there is bound to be a little unavoidable drama. (EW! I just hate that! Makes me cringe!)

    The issue that happened was with S. Remember my best friend that I’ve told you about? Well having this particular issue with her was definitely a huge trigger, possibly one of the biggest since I’ve been sober….I wanted a drink….AND BAD!  It is as if I am literally like a pressure cooker. I felt like a pressure cooker, ready to blow. Adding alcohol releases all of the pressure inside. The desire is so strong and that is the best way I can think to describe it. Can any of y’all relate?

    (Brace yourself, mom. Stop and BREATHE. It’s OKAY. Don’t freak. It will be Ooohh-KAAYyy. – I have to do that, I’m sure her blood pressure is through the roof right now as she’s reading this. She worries about me. She’s my mom!)

    If it wasn’t for Scrammy, it would have been a real struggle for me. My immediate thought was this thing will soon be off and I’ll be able to fall off the wagon. Bad thought, y’all….very very bad thought. I just can’t let that happen. And, while I’ve got 168 days of sobriety under my belt and didn’t think I’d need anything like AA after Scrammy’s retirement, I see very clearly that I am still very vulnerable to my old pal, BOOZE. It was a knee jerk reaction that, had I been Scram free and had I indulged, would have been a huge mistake. I definitely need to seek out some local support after Scrammy’s retirement.

    Okay, enough of that….so while I was feeling all down and out today, I packed some boxes, made a lasagna for my family, and then decided that I’d better prepare for tomorrow. What is tomorrow you ask? WELL….the organization that I work for has a slew of “policies and procedures”. Within our office, we have decided to take them one by one and learn them. We have decided to each take one of the policies and educate the group, one week at a time. Tomorrow it is my turn…the policy I chose to present is “Disruptive Behavior”…how appropriate, huh!
    Well…. little do my co-workers know, I’ve got big plans for my lesson on Disruptive Behavior!

    Everyone is getting one of these….

    Okay, without the mustache…..

    But I made one for everyone! How fun, right?

    As I carefully cut out each of my smiley faces, I did lots of thinking and I felt my attitude begin to change to a far more positive one. A wise woman by the name of Lisa once told me…you have to FEED your positive dog…..and then she gave me this guy so that I would always remember….

    We adopted this expression because of a story told by Jon Gordon. The story is about a man who travels to the village to speak to the wise man. He says to the wise man, “I feel like there are two dogs inside me. One dog is positive, kind, loving, and optimistic and then I have this fearful, pessimistic, and negative dog and they fight all the time. I don’t know who is going to win.” The wise man thinks for a moment and responds “I know who is going to win. The one you feed the most. So feed the positive dog.”

    I may just tell that story tomorrow!

    John goes on to say that we all have a negative and a positive dog inside us, it’s just human nature.  The key is to feed the positive dog and starve the negative dog.  He says that the more we feed the positive dog, the bigger it gets and the stronger it becomes. We need to make it a habit and do it every day. It needs to become a part of who we are. He gives several ideas of things we can do to feed our positive dogs and as I looked through them, I do many to most of them! (Yay!) You can find the entire list here on his blog.

    Many have commented on my attitude and outlook toward my punishment of 6 months on the Scram Bracelet…..it turns out, I am doing just what John Gordon says to do….”Decide to make a difference” – when you help other people with their problems, you forget about your own. For me, helping other people with their problems, has meant sharing the limitations, the do’s and don’ts of Scram through my own experiences. I can tell the new Scrammers who are scared to death that they will set this thing off….YES, you CAN use hairspray!! Wahooo! And you DON’T have to be afraid of life with Scram. You can function pretty normally, you just have to be cognizant and cautious of what you expose yourself to. Read labels, but YES, you CAN have your hair colored, YES, you CAN get your mani/pedi sessions! (YAY!!!)

    That is just one of the ways that I have helped others by not dwelling on my “problems” *or so I hope!*

    It’s just funny how life has a way of working itself out :)

    Have a great Monday tomorrow, y’all!
    And I can’t wait to tell you how it goes with my lesson….

    It is my hope that afterwards my office peeps will just be overflowing with positive energy!   *fingers crossed* 

    I hope they all have their coffee tomorrow, because the Mary Poppins in me will be ON IT!! :)

    Oh, by the way, my mom ordered my necklace from The Vintage Pearl and it has shipped!! Hopefully it will be here this week….impeccable timing, I must say! (22 days left! It will be here in time for Scrammy’s Retirement Party!!)

    Category Getting Real With Addiction, SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | 4 Comments

  9. Makin’ the Best of Debby!

    July 1, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    I am happy to report that the house no longer has the smell of Higgins’ stinky bootie….


    ….and he is feeling like his old self again, thanks to the old-school vet! AND we can all breathe again! Who would’ve guessed such a cute little cuddly looking fella, all of 15 lbs, could produce such a wretched smell that would run you out of your house??….But he did. Now we all know what he is capable of!

    (and ew, it looks like I may need to run the vacuum, is that a dust bunny I see?)

    Sir Higgins is back to playing with his ducks, squeaky toys, & bunnies and wrestling with his brother.

    …and YES, that duck he is playing with is wearing a Christmas hat and scarf, no judgements!

    We’ve had nothing but rain for days, but it has finally stopped. Have you been following the news? Tropical Storm Debby has been here with us. Have you wondered if I’ve floated away yet? Well, not yet, but I kept saying that by Friday, I’ll be able to take my kayak to work!

    One good thing about all of the rain is…. it makes everything GROW!!

    I visited the farmer’s market last weekend and brought home some beautiful fresh fruits and veggies! They were so pretty, I just had to get out a platter and make an arrangement with them …and of course it didn’t last long because I just HAD to get down to business and make something yummy….

    Homemade Salsa is what I made with this amazing farm fresh produce!! For some reason, cooking is extremely therapeutic for me. Especially chopping and dicing. Maybe I’m strange…..probably….but whateva :)

    All of the rainy weather has really made me want to take a bath, which makes me even more excited for July 24th! (Scrammy’s retirement party!) It will be here before we know it! I have big plans for Scrammy’s retirement party. The last time I saw my local Scram dude for my bracelet change, I told him I had plans for the day we remove Scrammy. He said “just don’t go out and get yourself in trouble again”…..like I’m going to celebrate with booze…oh dear! CLEARLY he hasn’t been reading my Scram Bracelet Diaries! He’s got me ALL wrong, that’s for sure!

    Well I’ll show HIM! He’ll see….when he never sees me agin!

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  10. War Stories

    June 20, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Well, he made it. Fletcher did great at his dental appointment and came out with some fabulous pearly whites!


    Now tell me, y’all who wouldn’t want a kiss from this sweet little mouth??

    (That is my thumb AND my sore. I always get blisters when I kayak….I need to get some yakin’ gloves.)

    My mister loves to read over my shoulder as I’m writing to you and he was less than thrilled by the picture I’ve posted of Fletcher’s teeth. He said “hey, what if I did that to you??”

    …..and then he did….

    I told him that picture didn’t work out so well. He told me it didn’t work out so well for Fletcher, either….I suppose he’s got a point.

    This Scram experience has been so very enlightening. Not only have I learned a TON about myself, I have really learned a lot about other people. I have kept my Scram my secret, hidden under my pant leg, from most of my work peeps. I have chosen to tell a select few about this secret. You never know how someone is going to respond. I have found that everyone has a story.

    On a couple of instances, when I have shared my secret hiding under my pant leg with someone, they in turn share with me a skeleton that lives in their closet. Not because I ask them to, but it just comes out. It is funny how when someone finds out that you have flaws and have made mistakes, they trade war stories with you, and there is instantly a certain comradery that is felt. It’s kind of cool! I have traded war stories and learned lots about people, thanks to Scrammy. No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. We all have demons.

    I’m enjoying life without hangovers. I woke up in the middle of the night with an upset tummy. That really makes me think of being hung over and how I don’t miss it one bit. I think of the times that I felt so sick, I didn’t know whether to kneel in front of my porcelain friend or sit upon it. Such a nasty feeling!

    …..if only it was THIS much fun the next day!

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

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