Monthly Newsletter of the Pinellas County Intergroup Volume 5 issue 9 October 2017

Opinions expressed in Plain & Straight are

not those of Alcoholics Anonymous, nor

does the publication of any article imply

endorsement or affiliation by Pinellas

Intergroup or Alcoholics Anonymous.

A.A. and the A.A Symbol are registered

trademarks of Alcoholic Anonymous

World Services, Inc.

Pinellas County Intergroup

8340 Ulmerton Rd Suite 220

Largo, FL 33771

(T) 727-530-0415

(F) 727-530-0416

Editor: Sonya B.

Plainandstraight@aapinellas.org

Inside this issue:

Cover News Cover

Bulletin 2

Service 3

Groups, Meetings and this Month in AA 4

Things to Do 5

Unity 6

Anniversaries 7

Intergroup & Group Contributions 8

Written by Regina Brett of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland OH to celebrate growing

older, she once wrote the 45 lessons life taught her.

It is the most requested column she ever wrote. 1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short - enjoy it. 4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month. 6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself. 7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone. 8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it. 9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck. 10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile. 11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present. 12. It's OK to let your children see you cry. 13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it. 15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye But don't worry; God never blinks. 16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind. 17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways. 18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger. 19. It's never too late to be happy. But it's all up to you and no one else. 20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer. 21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special oc-casion. Today is special. 22. Over prepare, then go with the flow. 23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple. 24. The most important sex organ is the brain. 25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you. 26. Frame every s o-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?' 27. Always choose life. 28. Forgive but don't forget. 29. What other people think of you is none of your business. 30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time. 31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. 32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 33. Believe in miracles. 34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do. 35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. 36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young. 37. Your children get only one childhood. 38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved. 39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere. 40. If we all put our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back. 41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need. 42. The best is yet to come... 43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. 44. Yield. 45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift. "Everything will be alright in the end. So if it's not alright, then it's not the end." Grace is God reaching down to Man.| Faith is Man reaching up to God.

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(Changed Meetings) *******

St Pete Group

All 6pm meetings Now Start 5:30 PM

Various Meetings Mon- Sat.

Kitchen Table

Unity Church 2465 Nursery Rd

Cottage NW Corner

Fri OD 7:00 PM

Monday Night Speaker Meeting

St Luke’s United Methodist Church

4444 5th Ave N, St Petersburg Fl 33713

7:30 OS – Monday

(Deleted Meetings) ********

Talk is Cheap Recovery Is Priceless - WCA

Recovery Epicenter

559 49th St S

St Petersburg, 33707

OD 7:00 pm

COURAGE TO CHANGE

Recovery Epicenter

559 49th St S

St Petersburg, 33707

3:00PM OBB / Newly added

Newly Deleted

Oct 1939 – First central committee formed in Cleveland; 1st example of A.A. rotation.

Oct 1936 – Bill C. a Canadian alkie staying at Bill’s house, committed suicide using a gas stove.

Oct 1942 – First issue of Cleveland Central Bulle-tin is published.

Oct 1944 – First non American branch started in Sydney, Australia by Father T. V. Dunlea & Rex.

Oct 1951 – Sister Ignatia wrote “Care of Alcohol-ics – St.Thomas Hospital & A.A. Started Move-ment Which Swept Country” article inHospital Progress the journal of Catholic Hospital Associa-tion.

Oct 1954 – The “Alcoholic Foundation” renamed the “General Service Board of A.A.”

Oct 1958 – Playhouse 90 TV airs The Days of Wine

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• Archives 3rd Saturday 130pm

Alano Club - Dolphin Village

4615 Gulf Blvd. #112 St. Pete Beach

• Corrections 2nd Monday 630pm

Central Office 8340 Ulmerton Rd #220 Largo

• Grapevine 3rd Saturday 11am

Central Office 8340 Ulmerton Rd

#220 Largo

• Intergroup 3rd Monday 7pm

Holy Cross Church

7851 54th Avenue N., St. Pete

• Literature Committee

1st Wednesday 630pm

Panera Bread | Bardmoor Village

10801 Starkey Rd

Largo

• PI/CPC Last Monday 6pm

Central Office 8340 Ulmerton Rd #220 Largo

• Special Needs Last Thursday 6pm

REBO’s 4001 74th Street N. St. Petersburg, 33709

• Treatment Last Saturday 10am

**NEEDS VOLUNTEERS TO TAKE MEETINGS TO VARIOUS FACILITIES! **

The 1250 Room

1250 Seminole Blvd. Unit #3 Largo

• Website 3rd Saturday 10am

Central Office

8340 Ulmerton Rd. #220

Largo

Corrections would like to Thank:

San Martin, High Point, Ladies Beach Serenity Group

& Seminole Group

For donating Literature in September

You can donate new or gently used literature at the

Intergroup Meeting each month

2018 Annual Fort DeSoto Picnic | 1st Committee Meeting Panera Bread | November 4th 2pm at 2424 66th street north

Topic: Picnic Theme.

The Picnic Committee is meeting to discuss the picnic theme. Join us for this meeting or join us for the whole planning process as a

committee member.

Abe’s Place is Looking for Help

Abe’s Place is trying to Rehab the Log Cabin and needs materials & help to do so. Please contact Terri if you can help.

727=831-0133

The 12 Step Pinellas County

Helpline Needs more Volunteers: Scan the QR code to go right to the sign up page!

Service Opportunities Pinellas County

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(PCI publishes material and articles in this newsletter that are created by 3rd parties. PCI does not endorse or assume responsibility for any 3rd party material or articles.)

Groups, Stories and this Month in AA

SERVICE – JUST DO IT

He said, “You need to put your name on the white board and make the coffee.”

I replied, “I don’t how to do that.”

He looked at me and said, “Then ask someone.” And so I did. By asking how to make the coffee, I made new, fast friends. My new friends and I thought about starting a women’s meditation meeting. So we did. I was asked to chair a meeting. So I did. I was asked to share my story at a speaker’s meeting. So I did. I was asked to sponsor oth-er women. So I did.

My group needed someone for the intergroup position. So I did. Intergroup needed a chairperson for the Unity Saturday Night Speakers meeting and asked for someone to stand. So I did. Service has been a huge part of my re-covery. It has kept me sober, involved, given me opportu-nities to give back and has made me a part of something way bigger than myself.

So when services opportunities present themselves – just do it, you’ll be glad you did.

Jodi O.

After Work Bunch

Page 90 in the 12x12 | Spiritual Axiom??

Before we ask what a spot-check inventory is, let's look at the kind of setting in which such an inventory can do its work. It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us. If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also. But are there no exceptions to this rule? What about “justifiable” anger? If somebody cheats us, aren't we entitled to be mad? Can't we be properly an-gry with selfrighteous folk? For us of A.A. these are dangerous exceptions. We have found that justified anger ought to be left to those better qualified to handle it. Few people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcohol-ics. It mattered little whether our resentments were jus-tified or not. A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective. Nor were we ever skillful in separating justified from unjustified anger. As we saw it, our wrath was always justified. Anger, that occasional luxury of more balanced people, could keep us on an emotional jag indefinitely. These emotional “dry benders” often led straight to the bottle. Other kinds of disturbances—jealousy, envy, self-pity, or hurt pride—did the same thing.

Aren't you glad life is not fair?" OK, let’s just say I go back a while, as I have been lucky enough to live, one day at a time, for a while. Every now and

then I reflect back to some of the best things I have heard at meetings, things that have served me well. I would like to share one of these with you, one that totally changed me. I was new, only about 5 weeks in A.A., and this person (whose name I don't remember) brought up a topic (that I don't remember), but what I do remember is that they thought something that had hap-pened to them was not fair. I also remember silently agreeing with him, thinking in my small mind, “You’re right, that was not fair!" Then this wise man spoke up and said, "I wonder, how many DUI’s do all of us deserve?” He hesitated long enough for me to mentally do my math, and it went like this -- How many do I deserve? To be modest, let’s say every day for 10 years; that’s 3,650 DUI’s! Next he said, "Aren't you glad life is not fair?" WHOA, did that stop me in my tracks! Next, he said, "Don’t pray for fairness, pray for mercy!" That statement changed my thinking from that moment forward. In an instant I became a different person. I didn’t want fairness, I wanted mercy! I wanted mercy for myself and everyone else! Another profound gain had come with this new way of thinking, and that was a gentler me. I thank God daily for the wisdom that comes from A.A. meetings, as this has become the language of my heart. Who could have known that I would come to see the light when all I had wanted to do was stop the blackouts? Marcella | Holiday Isles

Steps 10 - "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."

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Please only send anniversaries for the month. Please don’t send next month’s anniversaries. Also please send only one email with all your

celebrants. Submission deadline 3rd of Each month. GO TO AAPINELLAS.ORG

Travel | AA Things to Do | Get Out & Get Active Don’t see your event or special date? Please submit event info to P &S Editor at Plainandstraight@aapinellas.org

Walsingham Group Anniversary BBQ

Oct . 28 | Walsingham Park Pavilion 1 | Starts at Noon, | Bring a Dish if you can | Speaker 2pm

Keep it Simple Group Anniversary

Oct 29 | Dunedin | At Mease Hospital next to ER meeting RM 1 | meeting at 9:45 AM, celebration after that

We need raffle baskets or gift cards | Please attend in tropical costume

If you have tickets and you can't come please return them to Central Office or call us

Group Announcements

The Blind Pass Group is holding a Thanksgiving Alcathon

Staring after the 5:30pm meeting on Wednesday November 22, 201 |Ends Sunday, November 26, 2017 with the midnight There will be round the clock meetings every 1.5 hours | Thanksgiving dinner will be served from 1:15pm -4pm Thanksgiving Day

New Traditions Meeting

Sunday 5:30 pm | The 49er's Group |Southland Plaza Pin. Park

Never to Late Group | Warehouse

Celebrating All Anniversaries | 9:30 PM | 1st Friday of Every Month

Any event which is run by A.A’s, about A.A., and for A.A’s is an event. Some are under the auspices of regions, areas, or districts; others of central offices or Intergroups or

even groups; and still others of a committee of A.A. members. Al-anons are included in some events. Many of the events are service-connected, others are purely for A.A.

sharing and fun. (News and notes from the general service office of A.A, aa.org website G.S.O’s Frequently Asked Questions

6

9/2/17Grow Up Group@Log Cabin/Seminole Bruce"SD6/82. There's no seniority in AA. I'm a drink away, just like the guy that came in today." Jerry"SD10/77. There's a sign on my fridge I am the problem-I need to be constantly vigilant." 9/16/17Attitude Adjustment/Monday-Saturday@7am@1812HighlandAve Conio"SD9/3/14. Here I am because The Grace of God." Evelyn"SD8/1/89. My prayer every morning is God, Please teach me what I need to know today." 9/23/17After Work Bunch in Safety Harbor 7days/week Joe G"SD7/10/16. The Steps are gonna keep me alive & The Traditions are gonna keep AA alive." Jimmy "My sponsor was always there to answer my call, 29 white chips...cadre...battlefield of the mind." JoAnne"SD5/19/85. I like to call our Book "The Owner's Manual." See page 62 & 449." 9/30/17 Honesty Group Fridays @ 10am Sue "It's like a balancing act everyday, but I feel like if I stay on this path, that it's gonna be ok." Rachel"SD6/11/17. A gift of desperation-I was ready to live a good life & I'm tired or being miserable." Mickey D. "SD5/20/82. If alcohol could be cured by information, we wouldn't need meetings, & if it was about knowledge, but it's about application." -your grateful Plain & Straight reporters, Karen & Ann O

Who is coming up?

10/21/17

At The End of the Rainbow

10/28/17 GOYA

11/04/17 High Point

11/11/17 ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

11/18/17 Third Tradition

11/25/17 Palm Harbor Group

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NOVEMBER 2016

Birthday Contributions: $42.00 from Angela B | A Safe Place

SEPTEMBER

ANNIVERSARIES:

2250 Group Jason 36 Roger D 35 Cindy G 27

jan B 2 Maney W 2 Donna H 1

A New Start

Dennis C 27

Tim K 6

Abe's Place Kelli L. 4 John S. 10 Don B. 16 Rick G. 24 Ron H. 24

After Work Bunch Mary L 29 Sheila G 19 Bill Y 9 Dave F 7 Liz G 2 Cam 1

Attitude Adjustment

Canio 3

Johnsson 34

Steve G 12 Back Porch Lunch Bunch John G 15 Debbie R. 4 Ken S. 13 Robin S. 13 Debbie 2 Anthony R. 28 Pete 32 Robert 14 Jayson 36 Stan 11

Shannon 17 Paul V. 20 Sylvia 34 Ruth B. 12 Anne S. 30

Central Group Anne H 27 Amy S 12 Barbara H 5

Forty-Niners Mike 32 Blaine 1 Joni 28 Jack 7 Julia 3

Go After Your Sobriety Bill P 24 CJ M 2 Colin M 1 Corey S 11 David B 36 Don F 2 James K 24 Jamie H 8 Steve C 4 Ted C 25

GOYA Susan M 4 Jay S 4 Amanda G 5 Max R 6 Jim P 10 Barbara W 16 Mish 26

Highpoint John F. 30 Judy M. 24

Humility Group Mike H. 23 Judy h. 35

Koala Martin O. 12 Pat B. 10 Robert 29

New beginnings

Women's Meeting Angie s 3 Bette c 7 Julie w 1 Karen m 18 Stephanie a 3

Ozona Tom C 37 Jack C. 35 Tim Tom 31 Kay 26 Karen 11 Ken 10 Tony T 6 John D 6

Palm Harbor Group

Sheila P. 27

Saint Pete Group Rocco C 2 Kendra 24 Jim B 11

Seminole Group Dick H. 36

Serenity Seekers Mish 26 Nancy B 27 Judy V 38

Shore Acres

Gratitude Group Terry O. 18 Diane J. 32 Nicole G. 8 Carol SL. 27

Spirit Group Bob K 17 Chuck M 34 Elaine D 34 Fred B 36 Morgan J 1

Step Up to Plate Danielle B 15

Sunrise/Sunset Stefani 1 Terri S 1 Jack 5 Cheney 6 Debra 8 Elaine 9 Lonnie O 9 Deric C 12 Erin F 14 Dawn L 16

Tassos 21 Dave 23 Dan 26 Tracey 29 Andrew C 32 Kathy 41

Together We Can

Meg. H. 20

Susie F.26

Walsingham Group Ben K 1 Bill P 24 Janice 20

AUGUST

ANNIVERSARIES:

A New Start

Val P 28

Paul 25

Sheri 21

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Stay “In the Know” of current meeting changes, events

“In the Know” of current meeting changes, events and

other AA related topics by getting them delivered right

to your inbox!

Visit: www.aapinellas.org and click the link on the

main page

Intergroup Page

Intergroup September Numbers:

(It is suggested all groups have an active Intergroup Rep-

resentative, Intergroup is every 3rd Monday at 7pm )

41 Voting Members Present

1 New Representatives

(Eric, Power Greater then Yourself)

11 Visitors

The Plain & Straight is Looking for help &

Stories for the next the next newsletter.

(Writing topics or Reporters)

Random Acts of Kindness Overheard at a Meeting

Monthly Feature Step, Tradition & Concept Experi-ence

Comic Art | Funnies Things to Do

History

The Plain & Straight is also looking for a Co-Chair.

Please contact Sonya at Plainandstraight@aapinellas.org

Aug - Sep 17

A New Start 100.00

A Work In Progress Group 50.00

After Work Bunch 277.65

At The End Of The Rainbow 72.00

Back Porch Lunch Bunch 300.00

Blind Pass Group 50.00

Cash Customer 52.00

Clearwater Group/301 60.00

Common Solution 150.00

Free Spirits 110.00

Go After Your Sobriety 150.00

Grapevine Committee 3.00

Holiday Isles Group 144.00

Home Group 30.00

Intergroup Meeting 154.25

Into Action 65.00

Ladies' Beach Serenity Break Group 70.00

Last Call Group 140.00

Maximo Point 40.00

Never To Late Group 43.95

Primary Purpose 47.62

Progress Not Perfection Group 150.00

R' Girls Group 99.00

Saturday Morning Men's Step (SH) 187.00

Saturday Steppin' In Group 400.00

Serenity Seekers Group 102.00

Shore Acres Gratitude 200.00

Simple Solution 53.50

St Pete Group 20.00

St. Pete Beach Primary Purpose Group 50.00

Steering Committee Meeting 10.00

Step Into the Spirit 30.00

Step Up To The Plate 30.00

Sunrise Sunset Group 749.98

Sunset Beach Group 167.00

TGIS Women's Meeting 251.24

Together We Can 100.00

Unity Meeting Intergroup 337.06

5,046.25