Sunday, August 30, 2015

Blackout: Remembering The Things I Drank To Forget by Sarah Hipola


Sarah Hipola (pictured) loved being a drunk. I loved Sarah Hipola being a drunk too.

The title of Hipola’s book, Blackout: Remembering The Things I Drank To Forget is ironic because, in fact, she remembers practically everything, and tells us all about it in prose almost too good for the topic. I guess when you’re as clever a wordsmith as Hipola, who has been writing for salon.com for years, you just do.

Like some people who are more interesting when their drunk, Hipola seemed more interesting when she was talking about being drunk. Her drinking-and-drunk stories had the intensity of creeping by a really bad wreck on the highway. Her getting-sober stories felt more like born again navel gazing.

Raised in Dallas in a stereotypical middle income family, Hipola claims she didn’t start drinking when she was seven years old because of abuse or some other childhood trauma. She started drinking because it was there, and she liked the taste. Her first blackout (a space in time erased by alcohol poisoning) was when she was 11-years old.

She continued to drink, relatively unnoticed, through junior high and high school. Then it was off to the University of Texas in Austin, honing her writing skills at The Daily Texas (where the sign on the door said, Where GPAs go to die), and The Austin Chronicle, where being high was practically a job qualification. In spite of, or perhaps because of, her drinking, Hipola managed to survive and even hold down jobs. But at some point, the bar scene wasn’t enough (and too expensive), and it became just her and her cat and her wine bottles, in bed, for days.

Over a period of about seven years Hipola staggers back and forth between Alcoholics Anonymous and drunkenness, cigarette chain-smoking, stinky clothes, ugly sex and lost time. Eventually AA and the alcohol both wear her down, and her story starts to sound like the AA script (There’s nothing to see here folks. Move along). And we stick with her to the end, out of respect for her fortitude.

One thing I want to add is the issue of drinking and sexual consent, which was brought up in Hipola’s book several times.  Although Hipola doesn’t specifically blame alcohol for her pretty messed up sexual experiences, before and after sobriety, she does talk about it a lot. More and more I see cases of rape, particularly involving college-age kids, where blame is placed on alcohol – he or she drank too much and lost their judgment.

And then there’s the blackout expert who says to Hipola, When men are in a blackout, they do things to the world. When women are in a blackout, things are done to them. When we tell our daughters and sons to be discerning about when and how they have sex, we’re assuming they won’t be drunk. 

I recommend you read Blackout because Sarah Hipola can string words and stories together in exquisite ways – even when she’s talking about a disease that wrecks so many lives every day. And I recommend you read it because it is a reminder there are family, friends and strangers struggling with alcoholism in ways we can’t even imagine – and that will hopefully make us more empathetic and kinder, and lord knows we always need more of that.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler



I swerved around Amy Poehler book Yes Please when it first came out and then snapped it up one night six months later as I felt myself slipping into a I’m-nearly-out-of-books panic attack. Sometimes life is fortuitous.

Before I read Yes Please I knew Amy was on  Saturday Night Live, in the movie Baby Mama, and co-hosted the Academy Awards with Tina Fey.

Now I know Poehler is a high-speed rail ride, in a spa, while on crack, and getting a foot massage. What I mean is, she is incredibly quick, sharp and snappy while coming across as a laid-back yoga guru. Her wit, which alternates between self-deprecation and self-love, makes you feels like you are the target in a punch line darts game. But her character just seems so centered and settled.

While being pelted with Poehler’s alternately hilarious and heart-wrenching stories of getting into and surviving the comedy business, I kept wishing I had her license to say anything to anybody, anywhere, anytime. Things I typically can only say to my BFF, when no one else is around, and after a couple of stiff drinks. 

Amy Poehler is not only funnier in her book then she comes off on TV, she’s smarter, and charmingly philosophical. Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be. I decided early on it was not going to be my looks.

Treat your career like a bad boyfriend. It likes it when you don't depend on it. It will chase you if you act like other things are more important to you.

Your creativity is not a bad boyfriend. It is a really warm older Hispanic lady who has a beautiful laugh and loves to hug.

And sometimes, Poehler is just a very funny comedian. Please don't drive drunk, okay? Seriously. It's so f*cked up. But by all means, walk drunk. That looks hilarious.

I like Amy, and I like her book – well, except for the name, which just doesn’t say anything about her or her book. 

She should have named it You’ll Like Me.

100 Things I Want to Tell My Children and Grandchildren: #13


When bad things happen, you have two choices. You can get upset, or not. Which feels better?

How many times have you sunk to the bottom of despair, thinking things couldn’t possibly get worse? Now,  think about how many incredibly wonderful times have you had in your life since then.

We are hardwired to react. Emotions are very difficult to control. But getting our panties in a wad over something doesn’t make the situation better. It usually just makes it worse.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote this about NapolĂ©on Bonaparte, It was a whimsical economy of the same kind which dictated his practice … in regard to his burdensome correspondence. He directed Bourrienne to leave all letters unopened for three weeks, and then observed with satisfaction how large a part of the correspondence had thus disposed of itself and no longer required an answer.

Does #13 work every time? No, sometimes I’m so overcome with anger, anxiety, fear, I loose sight. Sometimes it’s just too much. 

Does it help? Yes. Sometimes it is downright life saving.

Someone once said to me, Can you honestly get un-upset about stuff just by choosing not to? I’d give anything if all I had to do was choose not to obsess. What’s your secret?

I think my secret is two-fold. About 30 years ago I survived the greatest heartache of my life. I didn’t think I would live past it, I wasn’t sure I wanted to live past it. But I did, and I think that made me somewhat bulletproof. That point in time is what I always look back to, to remind myself of what I can withstand, how strong I am.

Second, I keep myself so busy I can’t dwell on the things that cause me anxiety, fear and pain. I may not always be able to control my emotions, but I can offset them.

So when bad things happen, you have two choices. You can choose to get upset, or not.

Which feels better?



Bibliotherapist


Bibliotherapy: An expressive therapy that uses an individual's relationship to the content of books and poetry and other written words as therapy. Wikipedia.

Are you weary in Brain and Body? Do you desire a Positive Cure for your Pessimism? Do you require Bronte to re-boot your Broken Heart? May we administer Austen to curb your Arrogance? Hemingway for your Headache? Are you Shy, Single, Stressed or Sixty? May we massage you with Murakami? Ease your pain with Woolf or Wodehouse? 

An A-Z of Literary Remedies
by Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin

When a friend introduced the topic of Bibliotherapy to me via her daughter, who saw an article in The New Yorker, Can Reading Make You Happier by Ceridwen Dovey, I nearly jumped out of my chair! Of course I thought! (Illustration By Sarah Mazzetti).

Aside from being entertaining (mostly), reading takes me away and reminds me of the beauty, melody and magic of words. It gives me a grander context from which to view my own existence, increases my empathy and compassion, exercises my mind and fabulously expands my knowledge. Self-help books are one of the largest genres published. We consciously and unconsciously pick and choose books all the time as tools to help us deal with life.

I was particularly taken by the following statements in Dovey’s article:

Berthoud and Elderkin trace the method of bibliotherapy all the way back to the Ancient Greeks, who inscribed above the entrance to a library in Thebes that this was a ‘healing place for the soul.’  

The new, adapted ailments are culturally revealing. In the Dutch edition, one of the adapted ailments is “having too high an opinion of your own child”; in the Indian edition, “public urination” and “cricket, obsession with” are included; the Italians introduced “impotence,” “fear of motorways,” and “desire to embalm”; and the Germans added “hating the world” and “hating parties.” Berthoud and Elderkin are now working on a children’s-literature version, “A Spoonful of Stories,” due out in 2016.

A 2011 study published in the Annual Review of Psychology, based on analysis of MRI brain scans of participants, showed that, when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves. We draw on the same brain networks when we’re reading stories and when we’re trying to guess at another person’s feelings.

Let’s see … feel like your life sucks? Read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Self-esteem problems? Read Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett. Need a hero? Read Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. Need to laugh? Read A Walk In the Woods by Bill Bryson. 


The doctor is in!

You're Invited: The Annual Virgo Party, Sept. 12


My gal-friends, Emma Lou Linn and Nan McRaven asked me to extend an invitation to the Very Smart Gals to:

The Annual Virgo Party 
Sept  12
Hyatt Regency Austin
7- 11 pm
Playing:  Rotel and the Hot Tomatoes
Food Catered:  Hyatt Regency
Plenty of food, dance and fun! 


Please come and invite and bring along ALL of your friends. 


A Note:  The party will be hosted by Peggy Garrison, Emma Lou Linn, and Nan McRaven. The cost of this party is totally paid by these ladies.   We are hoping that you will be generous with your donations.  Every donation will go directly to Breast Cancer Research at MD Anderson in Houston.  Every gift will be greatly appreciated.