After a delay of a few weeks, I am able to announce that I am back to blogging.

The long version of the story (there is no short version):

I relocated in October to be closer to my girlfriend, who I met in an online Catholic dating website. This was facilitated by my finding a job in early October.

So far, so good. Unfortunately (or not, depending upon how you look at it) I had to begin this job right away. So for a few weeks I had to split time between staying in my old place (200 mi/320 km East of her) and in accommodations near her. The weekly 3.5 hour commute was tiring and my free time in the old place was spent boxing up and packing, not blogging.

When I was able to find an apartment (which took up my time while I was in my new area) I thought I would be able to resume blogging by early November. But no! My girlfriend’s sister had decided that she no longer liked the details and situations involved with home ownership and wanted to move out of her house. She offered to rent her house to me at a fraction of the mortgage, with the notion that after my girlfriend and I marry in early-ish 2008 she’d move in (as wives do tend to live with their husbands!) and we’d pay the rest of the mortgage. Good deal. But, there was some misunderstanding or miscommunication about when I can move into the house, and although I thought I’d be living there by the end of November, it turns out that it won’t be until towards the end of December.

While I was under the original understanding of a November move, I decided that I wouldn’t bother with turning on all the utilities as I would be leaving in a few weeks anyway. So no gas heat or Internet at the new apartment. I didn’t want to go through the whole unpacking and setting up of my Mac for just a short period. I’m not that much of a computer geek concerning hardware. I could have blogged from my girlfriend’s computer, but she has an old “1990’s style”, dial-up connection 🙂 and I didn’t want to tie up her phone line for the hours that I would be on. An alternative was to have written blogposts offline an uploaded them later, but I chose not to do that.

Perhaps that was a bad decision, but I’m sticking with it as in all honesty, I’m not sure that I could have focused on Sober Catholic as much as I’d like to. So I’d just login to Blogger once in a while and write a short post to let anyone interested that I’m still alive and that the blog will return. I figured that new Sober Catholic readers would just spend the time getting caught up with old posts and older readers re-reading them, as many are long. Or everyone would avail themselves with exploring all the links in the sidebar as I occasionally exhort readers to do. After all, Sober Catholic is about using your Catholic Faith and spirituality in staying sober. The links are comprehensive sites all about the Faith, so why not explore?

At any rate, personally I was trying to cope with a whole host of new things all at once, and it was an effort to maintain sanity and sobriety. Figure this: in the last 2 months I moved from my hometown to get closer to my beautiful, holy, prayerful future wife, and all the discernment that is necessary for that, get a handle on a new job, get settled into a new place (or make that places, as I will be in this apartment for another month, I decided to get gas heat last week and early this week Internet access. I thought there’d be additional hook-up charges but was wrong. If I’d have known that a few weeks ago, I’d have gotten them done then) and how to get around a new area.

I was never in danger of relapsing, but getting used to many major, fundamental new things all at once was trying and stressful, and a test of faith and sobriety. Not a test inasmuch as losing either, but of a strengthening kind. At least regular blogging can resume, and perhaps within a few weeks can develop into a daily effort. My new job is 2nd shift (3:30-11:30 PM) meaning that when I awaken each morning I shall spend a good part of it writing. I wasn’t able to do that before, hence the average 2-4 posts a week. I have aspirations towards writing fiction, but after my morning prayer/breakfast/hygiene rituals, blogging will be first as it is a great way to get the brain engaged. I have plans to start another blog related to Sober Catholic. Early afternoons and evenings off will be devoted to fiction. My lady and I have plenty of time daily for each other, too.

So life is good and getting better. If this is God’s will for me, then my dreams are starting to be realized. If there is any lesson for anyone in all this, it is that you shouldn’t lose faith in your dreams, if they are meant to be, they will come true. Perhaps in God’s time and manner, not yours. Persevere and things will turn out well and the time it took to achieve them may have been fruitful. Maybe not the way you want, but in the way you need.

I apologize to anyone who didn’t like Sober Catholic going silent for nearly 2 months. I hope you accept and understand my reasoning, even if it might have been flawed at points. Be that as it may, I have engaged in a tremendous amount of growth and have an increased understanding of sobriety. I have learned to cope with negative developments and situations in my life these 5.5 sober years, and now I was tested with positive changes. They can be equally threatening to sobriety. I hope to bring that to Sober Catholic and hopefully the blog will be better as a result.

I had mentioned that I will be moving again in the latter half of December, that move however won’t be as disruptive. I doubt there will be any interruption in blogging, or at least not much.

Anyway, I’m back here. Enjoy Sober Catholic, and the new blog as well, which will be at http://the-four-last-things.blogspot.com sometime in December 2007 or January 2008.

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)