The Friends We Left Behind

from Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Recovery Meditations for Hard Cases by Barry L.

To recover, the program taught me that I would have to change my playthings, playgrounds, and playmates. One of the things that made recovery scary for me was giving up those intensely close friendships I used to have, like, for example, drinking with my very dear friends. I have never felt so close to another human being as I did one night at a science-fiction convention in Philadelphia. As usual, I was camped out where the free booze flowed, and I was sitting on a couch with a friend, who was also drinking. We were talking about very important stuff; meaningful, relevant, deep. I was having such an intellectual and emotional rapport with this fellow, I could not imagine how anything could blemish it. My friend then looked at me, vomited in my lap, and passed out, his face splashing in my lap as he collapsed. I looked down at my lap, saw my friend slumbering there, became thoroughly grossed out, and barfed on my companion’s head.