Chapter 2: Resident

First full day in professionals’ rehab...

 ...Small group ended, as it apparently always did, with a group embrace and the Serenity Prayer. I was huddled up tight with my new siblings, complete strangers to whom I would eventually be forced to bare my soul, reciting the prayer loudly and emphatically.  As far as I was concerned, there was a lot I could change and very little I couldn’t; therefore, in my mind, serenity was not nearly as important as courage. Courage to get through this all at the top of my class, with no demerits, and move on to restore my life to the way it used to be, the way it needed to be once more. This was going to be a few months unlike anything I had ever experienced before, that was for damn sure. The session ended, the door opened, and we broke for lunch. 

12:00: Lunch 

I walked across the quad to the cafeteria, books and binder under my arm, with Eddie, RJ, and some of the other guys. Eddie, who happened to be in my small group, and I sparked up a conversation about running, races we had participated in, and our exercise plans while “guests“ at the center. There was an agreement with a local YMCA to let campus residents who were off detox status and in good standing use the facilities. Naturally, we were not allowed to go alone, so we utilized the buddy system during free time (before eight thirty in the morning or after five o’clock at night) on alternating days with the women. I really didn’t see the early morning workouts as a problem, since back home, Tiberius and I went on daily early runs in the early morning darkness (even during my heaviest drinking days). Eddie, RoboKarl, and a few others were as methodical about their fitness routines as I was. Since I was going to be stuck to a lecture hall chair all day, every day, I decided I may as well start the day getting some excess energy out on a gym treadmill. 

The male professionals generally took up the same two lunch tables each day in the dining hall.  I sat quietly that first full afternoon and watched, amused, as another one of my peers, Monte the optometrist, consumed two burgers, three milks, and several pieces of pie while continuously spewing forth crude and offensive jokes. Monte was a big man with a buzz cut and a face with huge features; he was large in personality and the life of the party. He enjoyed loudly farting while exclaiming who in the cafeteria he’d like to have sex with, how, and where. Thus, he became known among the peers as Dirty Monte. Like many groups, we had ourselves a mascot....

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