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FROM THE DESK OF THE FOUNDER
Happy Monday!
Every girls’ trip has a moment where someone says “wait, who packed this?” and the answer is me. I packed the rhinestones.
This week’s issue is a girls’ trip issue, a ghosts-at-the-table issue, and a how-do-I-stand-in-a-room-full-of-strangers issue. Which, if you think about it, is just October.
Senior Contributor Amy Liz Harrison turned 50 and did it in wigs and feather boas, finally getting the glamour shots her mom wouldn’t pay for in 1992. Senior Contributor Anne Marie Cribbin brings a Samhain reflection that I’d argue is the most TSC thing we have published this fall: a seat at the table for the ancestors, and a clear decision about which family traditions end with you. And Contributor John Lisbonn tackles the part of every party nobody warns you about. Not the drink order. The first ten minutes.
I’m in there too, with a craft project that involves Pantone postcards, glue, rhinestones, magazines, and a VRBO house in La Jolla.
Now let’s get to it…
— Alysse Bryson (*AB That’s Me 💋) / Seattle, WA 🌃 05.01.2006
WHAT A TRIP!
Glamoured, Not Hammered: A Sober 50th Birthday Girls’ Trip
A wig wall, feather boas before coffee and the glamour photos her mother refused to finance. Senior Contributor Amy Liz Harrison’s sober 50th birthday getaway delivered the childhood dream, plus a few lessons in planning a girls’ trip where everyone gets to relax.
THIRSTY FOR WONDER
Celtic Recovery: Set a Place for the Dead
We inherit more than recipes and somebody’s good china. In this Samhain reflection, Senior Contributor Anne-Marie Cribbin considers how recovery lets us honor the people who came before us while deciding which family patterns stop with us. Pull up a chair. There’s room for love and boundaries at this table.
HAPPY EVERY HOUR
The First 10 Minutes: How to Feel Comfortable at a Party Without Drinking
The awkward part often happens before you’ve found your friends or ordered a drink. Contributor John Lisbonn shares simple ways to settle into parties, weddings and dinners without alcohol, an elaborate explanation or an obligation to stay until closing.
CURATED CRAFTS
Bedazzled Pantone Postcards: Our Sober Girls’ Night Craft Gets the Sparkle Treatment
Some people pack light. Founder Alysse Bryson packs rhinestones. During a sober girls’ getaway in La Jolla, Pantone postcards, notebooks and a pile of craft supplies became an easy evening activity that let everyone feel like an artist.
ALSO THIS WEEK ON TSC 📰
Speak Out! Speak Loud! I Stopped Escaping. Then I Had to Meet Myself. Read more here→
Puffin x Liquid Death: The Halloween Costume Your Can Has Been Dying to Wear Read more here→
“It’s Always Sunny,” NA Beer and the Joke That Didn’t Land for Me Read more here→
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BACKSTAGE w/ TSC THIS WEEK 🥳
BACKSTAGE with The Sober Curator is where the Amys and the Anne-Maries and the rhinestone packers hang out between issues. Live virtual events, the Replay Vault, The Lounge, and a crowd that gets the Samhain reference without a footnote. Membership is $19 a month or $190 a year until we hit 200 members, and then the price goes up. Come BACKSTAGE →
10/19: Claude Anonymous Weekly AI Meeting of the AI minds, 12 pm PT / 3 pm ET
10/20: Addiction on Screen with Notre Dame Professor Ted Mandell, 3 pm PT / 6 pm ET
10/20: The Story Session biweekly writing group with Amy Liz Harrison, 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET
10/21: Build It Once, Sell It Forever | How to Create and Monetize Digital Products with Veronica Valli
See you Wednesday!
