When did your life change forever?

When I contacted the NYT to be the subject a puff piece.

Now I’m a star.

The night Chicago died.

August 15, 1991

The night the lights went out in Georgia

May 14, 2011, when I got very drunk and high on Adderall, alone. (Coke was my upper of choice, however.)

I stopped drinking and drugging for good on May 15.

What happened, r5?

r6 around that time, a friend of mine died of brain cancer. He was a dire alcoholic and had been for many years. I think part of the reason he died was that he was having symptoms and ignored them for a long time due to his drinking.

I'm not entirely sure what changed on May 14, or what was different. I'd been getting hammered every night for almost years -- I'd take a break maybe once every three months. The coke was more intermittent, because I was working a shit job and didn't have the money to spend on blow. But something happened that night and I just felt ... totally out of control. That, in combination with watching a friend drink himself to death (if I remember correctly, his memorial service was on May 13), created a perfect scenario in which to quit.

I don't think I meant for it to be long-term. Initially, I was just "taking a break." But a day turned into a week, and a week, a month, and now it's been almost 10 years.

Tuesday, December 31st, 1985.

Officially came out of the closet, and got struck sober at approximately 8:40 PM.

(There was a clock on the wall.)

r7 should read, "I'd been getting hammered every night for almost three years."

June 20, 1996.