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>Am I way out of band or does that seem like a comically small amount of money for the average American? I take home $465.62 a week so it would be a little ove

>Am I way out of band or does that seem like a comically small amount of money for the average American? I take home $465.62 a week so it would be a little over 2 weeks of take home pay for me. I could absolutely use that.

ryanmercer 7y ago
To add to this, I am extremely stressed right now. I have an immune-compromised 67 year old parent, I work in international freight, I have a GED so am not too marketable if I lose my job, I've got a few hundred dollars in savings, I've got enough food for a couple of months for my mother and I, that $1000 even just once would help markedly in reducing my stress. Add to that I'm supposed to be getting married in 68 days and who knows what's going to happen now. I don't even know if the courthouse will be open to get the marriage license (it's only good for 60 days). None of this is good for my sobriety. 7 months 25 days, 15 hours. I got this. I can keep that number growing.
- tjr225 7y ago
  > I have a GED so am not too marketable if I lose my job I'm the GP who started this huge thread but I just want you to know I got my GED in 2007 right before the last recession. Don't be so hard on yourself - you could have a remote job working for a company in SF like me :). It took a lot to get here but almost anyone can do it. > Add to that I'm supposed to be getting married in 68 days and who knows what's going to happen now. I don't even know if the courthouse will be open to get the marriage license (it's only good for 60 days). Why not just go down to the courthouse tomorrow and get married? Can you think of a better time? You're not going to disappoint anyone by cancelling the event. > None of this is good for my sobriety. 7 months 25 days, 15 hours. I got this. I can keep that number growing. Every day I wish I could get sober so in a way you have a wealth that I deeply desire :) Keep it up, it has got to be worth it. Good luck and don't wait for the dust to settle to find yourself in a better position. I'll try to do the same thing.
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    >Don't be so hard on yourself - you could have a remote job working for a company in SF like me :). It took a lot to get here but almost anyone can do it. Unlikely. I'm not a programmer and have no desire for it. Everything else remote wants people with years of experience and a degree in something like marketing or only hires via short term contracts for stuff like customer service/support and doesn't actually want to make you a proper employee. At least in my experience over the past few years. A lot of places just flat out require a bachelors degree (especially startups once they get some investor money).
    - tjr225 7y ago
      I might shoot you an email based on your contact info because this conversation doesn’t really suit itself to this type of forum. I am not a programmer(but do computer things) but I didn’t do this stuff when I got my ged. Anyways I want to emphasize that your sobriety is really amazing and I genuinely look up to people such as yourself who can make it happen.
      - ryanmercer 7y ago
        >Anyways I want to emphasize that your sobriety is really amazing and I genuinely look up to people such as yourself who can make it happen. To get to this length I had lots of shorter ones building up to it. The previous 5 being 69 days, 27 days, 38 days, 127 days, 33 days, now into this stretch. I've actually found this most recent stretch fairly easy, I avoid the liquor aisle like the plague at the grocery, I stopped using one drugstore because the liquor is kept at the counter and I stopped eating out (although that was rare anyway). It's definitely a struggle most days still, sometimes even catching a whiff of hand sanitizer will put me in that mental space but since I've been basically bathing in hand sanitizer as we hot bunk desks at work with another shift, I've not had it trigger me since COVID-19 started popping up in the United States. I think most of my success is just pure laziness. If I'm at home and get the urge for a drink, I'd have to get dressed and go out and then it becomes a 30 minute chore and I find I can talk myself out of going. Using an app has helped a lot too, it gives me notification every morning and I can open it when I want a drink and watch the seconds tick by.

ryanmercer 7y ago

To add to this, I am extremely stressed right now. I have an immune-compromised 67 year old parent, I work in international freight, I have a GED so am not too marketable if I lose my job, I've got a few hundred dollars in savings, I've got enough food for a couple of months for my mother and I, that $1000 even just once would help markedly in reducing my stress. Add to that I'm supposed to be getting married in 68 days and who knows what's going to happen now. I don't even know if the courthouse will be open to get the marriage license (it's only good for 60 days). None of this is good for my sobriety. 7 months 25 days, 15 hours. I got this. I can keep that number growing.

tjr225 7y ago
> I have a GED so am not too marketable if I lose my job I'm the GP who started this huge thread but I just want you to know I got my GED in 2007 right before the last recession. Don't be so hard on yourself - you could have a remote job working for a company in SF like me :). It took a lot to get here but almost anyone can do it. > Add to that I'm supposed to be getting married in 68 days and who knows what's going to happen now. I don't even know if the courthouse will be open to get the marriage license (it's only good for 60 days). Why not just go down to the courthouse tomorrow and get married? Can you think of a better time? You're not going to disappoint anyone by cancelling the event. > None of this is good for my sobriety. 7 months 25 days, 15 hours. I got this. I can keep that number growing. Every day I wish I could get sober so in a way you have a wealth that I deeply desire :) Keep it up, it has got to be worth it. Good luck and don't wait for the dust to settle to find yourself in a better position. I'll try to do the same thing.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  >Don't be so hard on yourself - you could have a remote job working for a company in SF like me :). It took a lot to get here but almost anyone can do it. Unlikely. I'm not a programmer and have no desire for it. Everything else remote wants people with years of experience and a degree in something like marketing or only hires via short term contracts for stuff like customer service/support and doesn't actually want to make you a proper employee. At least in my experience over the past few years. A lot of places just flat out require a bachelors degree (especially startups once they get some investor money).
  - tjr225 7y ago
    I might shoot you an email based on your contact info because this conversation doesn’t really suit itself to this type of forum. I am not a programmer(but do computer things) but I didn’t do this stuff when I got my ged. Anyways I want to emphasize that your sobriety is really amazing and I genuinely look up to people such as yourself who can make it happen.
    - ryanmercer 7y ago
      >Anyways I want to emphasize that your sobriety is really amazing and I genuinely look up to people such as yourself who can make it happen. To get to this length I had lots of shorter ones building up to it. The previous 5 being 69 days, 27 days, 38 days, 127 days, 33 days, now into this stretch. I've actually found this most recent stretch fairly easy, I avoid the liquor aisle like the plague at the grocery, I stopped using one drugstore because the liquor is kept at the counter and I stopped eating out (although that was rare anyway). It's definitely a struggle most days still, sometimes even catching a whiff of hand sanitizer will put me in that mental space but since I've been basically bathing in hand sanitizer as we hot bunk desks at work with another shift, I've not had it trigger me since COVID-19 started popping up in the United States. I think most of my success is just pure laziness. If I'm at home and get the urge for a drink, I'd have to get dressed and go out and then it becomes a 30 minute chore and I find I can talk myself out of going. Using an app has helped a lot too, it gives me notification every morning and I can open it when I want a drink and watch the seconds tick by.