Note: this post, and any other post in the “30 day nephalist” category, has been moved from from an earlier blog that documented an important experiment – not drinking for 30 days.

It’s been a while since my last post.

The exact measurement of a “while” – 11 days.

What has happened? A whole hell of a lot. Or should I say, a whole “helloween” of a lot.

Because Halloween happened. It was an amazing time and I didn’t think about drinking for more than a few seconds. There were two dance parties happening in my house, and I was a clown. I’ve been talking about what a great party it was to anyone who will listen.

Digression

Costumes are amazing things. When I think back to the first time I felt like I was my own person, with my own identity, it is tied up with what I wore (plaids and army boots). When I decided to go to my first college, I chose Bard College because I liked the way the people there dressed. (This may sound shallow, but at that point in my life, it was as good a reason as any. I didn’t know what I wanted or even who I was, so how was I to decide which college would fit me best? Besides, Bard is a great school, so it worked out fine.).

I’m not ready to fully digress, so here are some ideas about costumes:

• We grow into our costumes.
• Costumes are how we identify with a group.
• Costumes make us more aware of the image we present to the world.
• Costumes say something about us.
• Clowns aren’t always creepy.

The Rest of the Week

Monday I decided to take the advice of Timothy Ferris, author of The 4-hour Workweek, and set an impossible goal.

I was going to write my business plan in one day.

It actually took me about 20 hours, which I spread over 3 days.

The business plan is for my writing coach/tutor business.

On Tuesday, I began to design a new blog! It will be called Dreaming Right, and it will be all about my favorite person’s encounters with self-help books, programs, and blogs.

There will be more on The 4-hour Workweek, as well as 12-step programs, concepts learned from Zen Habits, and maybe even a GTD post.

I am a slow typist and a CSS/HTML noob, so I spent a lot of time figuring out how to do simple things, like create nice looking navigation tabs. I am still working out the bugs.

Also on Tuesday: Obama.

I’m sure you’ve heard enough about the whole political scene, so I’ll just say: It’s nice to see Americans hugging each other, and crying with joy. The last time I remember seeing that, it was in black and white.

Speaking of black and white, here’s what I think of red and blue:

On Friday, I went to our local film festival’s opening night and say a Buster Keaton film with live performers doing the musical score. The crowd was local and enthusiastic, and Buster Keaton was our hero.

And, I smoked my last two cigarettes.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday – I dealt with cigarette cravings.

It occurs to me why so many people have trouble quitting. They are faced with a choice: Smoke a cigarette or continue to feel CRAZY. The first two days, especially when I wasn’t busy, made me feel like I was possesed by a smoker. He was trapped in my body and calmly but persistently demanding satisfaction.

But I still haven’t smoked.

30 day nephalist, overcoming addictions, what it's like to be me