It's to two seventeen Recovery Podcast with Corey Winfield. If you kind of look
deeper at the situation, you know, which I'm sure you will, because
everything that we go through is an experience that we learned from. And Justin
Burke, I come right in. I am very sneaky about it. You'll
be talking to someone and I'll just come in and sit at my desk and
just bust one out real quick. It is the eighth of May twenty twenty
four. My name's Cory Winfield, and with me is Justin Burke. What's
up? And this is the two seventeen Recovery Podcast. A week from tomorrow,
the sixteenth of May, is the UFAM rally in Lansing, Michigan.
Woo woo. Pretty excited. Are you excited? I'm beyond excited because you're
gonna have a different role this year. I know it's quite different. I
don't know how to take in my responsibilities as they evolved sometimes. Are you
nervous at all a little bit? Yeah? Because I have no podcasting experience.
I mean, I know how to talk on a microphone, which isn't
really hard. I come right in. I am very sneaky about it.
You'll be talking to someone and I'll just come in and sit at my desk
and just bust one out real quick. Yeah. See that's perfect. It
sounds good. Yeah yeah, But it's the whole control of the board and
the intro and how to put it together. Like I don't have any of
that experience, And lately I'm kind of feeling jealous over other people's abilities and
how they do things. We were talking about it earlier today, like with
Adobe, Like I would really like to start learning how to do that stuff,
but at the same time, I don't feel like I have enough time
with my current responsibilities. So to make add more to the stack of my
responsibilities after being on the road all day to doing Adobe podcast work, it's
kind of hard. It's tough, man. And like during the whole COVID
thing when that was happening, I still really wasn't watching TV, so I
would do stuff at home. But I mean, I had twenty yet Radio
Quaer they paying me learn it, so it was pretty pretty fun. But
I didn't know how to make a nonprofit. I didn't know how to do
that, which I was spending time learning, and I was always kind of
in my office doing something. And then Marnie told me one day, like,
honey, I wish you'd spend time with me, just be in the
same room with me. I watched TV. Okay, all right, and
do that. But then there's some shows that I do like to watch,
and I realized that that's not healthy either, like the other way of doing
things, like just working work and working all the time. Right, you
have to set some time for yourself. And if you looked at it like,
all right, I'm going to learn this as like a hot as something
that I'm interested in. If you really wanted to do it, if you
really had that desire, you would find a way to do it if you
really wanted to just saying I do, but our my teachers schedule doesn't line
up with mine. Who I'd like to be my teacher anyways, we're both
really busy guys. Oh yeah, So I mean I'd like to receive the
best education possible without going to college. Well, there's YouTube, there's tutorials.
If you wanted to. Everything starts with the desire, justin if you
had the desire to do it, you would do it. That's what I'm
saying. But you get home and you're trying to do this new workout routine
and you have other things going on, and you're tired and you need sleep,
and you need to see your lady friend self care. We'll label it
self care, We'll label your lady friend's self care, or will label the
relationship a lady friend? Or is it? No, it's the lady friend's
self care. Okay, so now hold on. She might be listening,
so you better her answer this one carefully. Is she just a friend,
that's a woman. It's complicated. It's complicated. Now are you taking that
from her Facebook status? Or is this your Facebook? Because that's what it's
official. Well, it is on Facebook that we're bowls in a complicated partnership
relationship plan. Not talking about this today, but let's get stick into this.
Why it's a complicated justice because it's just complicated. Okay, Well makes
it complicated because I don't want to do labels, So it's complicated. So
you, as my mom would say, you want your cake and you want
to eat it too, or something like that. No, I mean I'm
committed. Oh but how committed are you? But why would you buy the
cow when you're getting them out for free? You know. Oh yeah,
tough titties. It is very We were talking about that earlier today. I
don't know why my mom used to say it to me, Oh, tough
titty, and now I can't matter if it's tough titties or tough t tough
titty. That's what my grandma used say to me. Is that because the
milk is hard to come out of a tough titty, so it's not really
a titties and or is it the titties at the nipple it would be classified
as a teat. Well, then why don't they say tough teats? I
don't know, Like, how would you know if you had a tough titty,
it wouldn't produce. I got soft man titties, it wouldn't produce.
I don't produce. I got soft ones too. Where I believe there's soft
I think it's something to do with like the glands inside of it get tough
so it doesn't produce, like they become fatty hard mm hmmm, someone along
those lines. I'm not a dairy farmer. See this is where Marky's mom
is right, we do need to call in, but it's section of the
show. Yeah, but it does stem from like col Farmers, I know
that much. So tough titty yep, I don't know. My mom was
known for using analogies that are horrible, but she was one the other day
that was actually pretty good, and I can't remember it at this moment.
That's a shame. She's trying to tell me how my son's gonna just do
stuff that I don't approve of color on walls. I think you've told me
the same things I did. I actually advised you to wait. I'm painting
in your house till after your son was about five. Yeah, I can't
wait till the first time he goes through with a permanent marker. How is
he gonna get a permanent marker justin because you're gonna leave it laying somewhere.
Why would I leave it laying somewhere because you just will. And babies climb
like don't and I'm talking about human, not a cat. Babies climb.
They start to climb. What is he gonna climb up on your desk,
on my desk. He's not climbing on my desk in the office. He's
gonna have his own office. He's gonna have his own computers, own my
phone, That's what I was telling her. It's like, he's gonna have
his own microphone, his own computer, and she's like, yeah, but
yours are better, and I'm like, no, his will be the same.
They still he'll want to play with yours, right, It doesn't matter
what you give him, your yours is always gonna be better. I think
Marty named his podcast, did she what's it called from the Crib? A?
Yes, Parker from the Crib and then like his first podcast would be
like, ah, wow, well I'd probably be eating the microphone, but
whatever. Speaking of Parker, isn't he supposed to be here in the next
seven hours and twenty two minutes? Well, when I asked him a few
weeks ago, because you know, he was moving around in Marty's belly,
so I was like, hey, little buddy, I was like, when
are you coming out? And then May eighth boom just popped in my head
and you see me my psychic ability call a home run and we went to
the Tigers game, oh yeah several times. Yeah, psychic ability has been
able to call some things out. Yeah, and so I'm pretty tuned in
to it, as you know psychics, since you know stuff saying as we
say in the in the biz, and so the eighth was today, But
then we found out some other news that were like, oh crap, and
so I asked them, Hey, little Parker, can you stay in mommy's
belly for a couple more weeks because day he's got stuff to do, because
Mother's Day weekends this weekend, and Marty and I are going to celebrate that
by going to see Kat Williams and Grand Rapids. Gratulations. Thank you.
That's going to be the best Mother's Day present ever. Ye. Well,
actually that's it's just for me. But then we're gonna, like you selfish,
eat some food or something. I'll take her to dinner on Mother's Day,
we take our breakfast something and so that's that's already planned. And it
would be nice to just do that one more trip down to Grand Rapids,
but just Martie and I. Yeah, you know, iman Parker will be
with us. But and then, of course, like I said, the
sixteenth, next week, next week, you fham and we're going down on
the fifteenth, and then I have to m c it right, ask me
if I'm nervous. Are you nervous? Hell, yeah, I'm nervous.
You didn't but I don't know why you're so nervous. I don't know,
like you've been on stage in front of thousands of people. I have like
probably ten twenty thousand people and introduced celebrities, like real celebrities. Well,
I am like icon horrible with names, horrible with names. You know this,
I'm sure you'll have It took me what six months to get Mitchell's name
right? And he works here, Marshall, Yeah, he's on the payroll
right Like it's it's I'm horrible with names. And I reached I was talking
to Christian about this. He's the guy who asked me to do the U
fan thing and and I asked, like, all right, cool, when
we show up the day for a couple days before, like we're gonna rehearse,
you got a script? And he's like, no, there's no script.
But I mean there's no script, Like I don't have people's names written
down, Like you don't have a time like a run sheet for the event,
you know, Like, am I supposed to pull these people off after
thirty minutes? Like how we're just winging it? Like wow? And if
they have that, then I mean I guess that's cool. I'll just wing
it too, but it's just not knowing. But you're pretty, but you're
really good with them brows. Yeah, you really are until I start getting
appropriate inappropriate. Sorry, you have to keep it family approved like PG status.
We are in the capitol lawn. Your favorite governor is probably gonna be
able to hear you don't see now you give me ideas well? Hopefully it's
a good positive idea. Yeah. And because I've said this before, so
I'll say it again too, just to clear the record, set it straight.
Is that I have said I wish Governor Whitmer would put on some rehab
clothes and take a bus to treatment. Yeah, and see how much fun
she has with a three hour layover and Grand Rapids are lansing. Actually,
I think all of our state senators and representatives should have to do that.
They would get there and being like that is not a good idea. We
have to do something about that. Yep. But you know, since they're
paid well and have good insurance, they don't have to worry about that,
you know, even if their kids go to treatment, they don't have to
worry about that. But they should have to see how the normal folk that
they service, who they represent in the different districts on how they have to
get there by their own district. Act like a normal person and try to
get to treatment by using your own PHP, calling them setting it up the
whole nine yards. If you get sick, can go see the doctor.
You don't gotta go through all this hubb of blue to get better. You
know it is a medical diagnosis. So just because well you did it to
yourself, well, people get diabetes, I mean too much, Kate,
what are you talking about exactly? They did it to themselves. But like
if somebody who is an alcoholic or drug addict will use those terms going to
the er and they need help, they're gonna see the person who just ate
a bunch of cake, and they probably shouldn't because they're going into some diabetic
situation, and they're gonna see them and be like, oh, okay,
cool. Somebody who I've talked about this before too, climbed a tree when
everybody's like, Gerald, you better get down from there. And he falls
off his house or something stupid breaks his arm, they're gonna see him first.
Wait wait, wait, he did was actually more stupid than someone who
becomes addicted to the alcohol or drugs. We just made a bad decision,
sure, absolutely, but the alcohol will sneak up on you and before you
know it, it's got your ass, you know. But typically with a
substitute disorder though, Yo, it stems from some sort of trauma along the
way of your life. It doesn't have to be necessarily childhood trauma, because
there's people that are affected later in life that don't start until like their thirties
or forties. Yeah, you know, so it could be later in life
that they've experienced this trauma and you know, it goes undone because we don't
offer the ability to necessarily get the help we need for mental health. Look
how hard it is to find a therapist, Yeah, just in the area
we live in. And then you find one, and then you start a
company and get some insurance from employees, and then you realize they're like,
yeah, she's not in network, you can't use her. And I'm like,
well, my' user for the last four or five years, Like,
I have a connection with this person. Tell me I need this. You
can't just switch it there. Therapist, Like, the therapist is hard to
find, especially a good one. Yeah, And once you had that connection
with them, right, you don't want to. You can't just switch to
somebody else. It's it's not like seeing a foot doctor right now, Like
I almost feel that same connection that I had before, if that makes any
sense, with our old therapist to the new one I got, Like the
connection is starting to grow where I can feel more comfortable opening up about things.
But it took a while, Yeah, like it really did. Like
I've been seeing her since last July. I think it was I finally just
start feeling comfortable. Actually got to go back all through that shit again.
Which you're in a good spot now where you can deal with all that stuff,
but like sometimes people can't and to tell someone I don't know, you
can't do that. It's a network. I don't pay anything, not a
network. I haven't really dug into my past yet with her. Is this
more of the current stuff, but still like certain issues like I wouldn't necessarily
feel comfortable talking to someone about what I first mean, I don't know how
they're going to be, how they're going to react, what they're going to
think. You know, it's a whole judgment thing, you know. Yeah,
and when you're going there, you're wearing a mask a little bit.
Yeah, because you don't know this person, and you don't know if this
is going to be the person that's going to help you out or if you
can even trust them. Sometimes you'll go in and just because they have a
degree doesn't make them good. Exactly. I can get a degree in whatever
right now, and I wouldn't be good at it, probably, But I'm
just saying there's some out there that just aren't good and you probably shouldn't go
see them. Some some like to give advice. Here's what you need to
do. And if you ever go to a therapist and then they start telling
you what you need to do, just pay them for that session and be
gone. Well, we'll hold up, because that's not totally true. My
therapist did tell me not to Mary said person and told me it was gonna
crash and burn in my face. And I didn't ever talk to her.
Sons, don't you ask? And what happened exactly what she said was gonna
happen because I was open and honest with her about the situation. Yeah,
she probably told you that kind of off the record type deal. No,
it was very much like in the middle of our session. Well, she
probably, Well, I could see it happening like this, justin, do
you think this is gonna last? Well, justin, what do you think
is really gonna happen? Justin? Tell me what do you like about her?
Justin? Tell me this, justin, this is gonna fail because you
probably told her over and over that it was gonna fail, and she was
just like at the point where Okay, Justin, now I have to tell
you you just told me it's gonna fail, but you're not even seeing it.
Probably probably maybe not, You're You're probably right because that's what she does
to me. Yeah, she used to do the same thing to me,
And honestly, I really like her a lot. I still do. I
wish I could have won back to seeing her with our insurance. I don't
know why she doesn't take our insurance because as a pretty large insurance company,
Well, it's not that she doesn't take it, it's the insurance that we
have. They don't pay for anything that's not in network, Like we have
to go to in network people and they said that, oh, she's got
to get this certain license, and I don't know, it's just one of
those deals in America around Yeah, yeah, he said, she said,
and La la lah Da dah. But again, it all starts with desire.
She had a desire to see us. Let she would go do that.
But nah, it's cool, and I'm glad that we do have insurance
We're able to do that. And now our insurance stuff's going up. And
then you know, to see a therapist again, we got to pay like
fifteen dollars still cheaper I had to pay through BES place I worked for.
Yeah, but I want you guys to pay nothing. But here's the in
the flip side of this, which has been driving me nuts this whole time.
Because it's great. I already got a whole idea planned after June,
after I get back from North Carolina, I'm taking some fmla time, probably
like in not August, September, not October, probably November. You got
it planned out there, you go, because I got things I gotta do,
like July, August, September. My birthday is in October. That
might be a good state for my birthday. Yeah, and it it's good
and one in it's a good. Okay. So right now we have Priorty
Health and we have this hospital deal where if you go to the hospital,
you gotta pay a thousand bucks that's it. You know, you're you could
be there for three years and all you pay is a thousand dollars. Not
bad, you have a child, which Marty and I are having a child.
Some bucks. Not bad? Okay, not bad, I would say,
not bad. When I first thought, I was like, oh,
that's not bad. Well, the new policy that starts June first, which
my son will be born before then two hundred bucks. Well, hopefully he
can hold out that. I have two microphones, that's a camera. Well,
that's a room we could get painted. We'll just pray for a five
day layover. That's not happening, and hopefully he's born on June first.
He'll be before June. You think, what day twenty something, let's say
the last day an maud, You're gonna be like, why couldn't you just
hold on for an extra six hours? And then I was one or two,
like, is it the day that he comes out to the world,
yes, or is it the day that we leave the hospital the day or
is the day that we enter the hospital? Because that wouldn't make sense because
sometimes people will go in the hospital and then they're like, get your ass
home. You ain't ready, not for sure, you'd have to ask the
hospital m because each hospital might be different. I don't know. It's over
my over my pay grade. It's above all our pay We have to turn
it over to the man upstairs. Yeah, but it's also good for treatment
if you wanted to go to impatient treatment. Yeah, two hundred bucks or
before it was a thousand and being in the industry we're in. We're a
recovery community organization based in Traverse City, Michigan, and we hire people in
recovery. So far, everybody's holding strong, everybody's doing great. But the
fact that it is any one of us, me included, you go out,
you know, you never know, You honestly never know. And I
want to make sure that we have things in place to help us, you
know. So the therapy is one of it. And again in fifteen bucks,
it's not the end of the world. But still it's like, really
it be nothing, especially since the jacked our rates up like eighty bucks a
month per person. Yeah, so it's like damn. Of course not eighty
bucks for each person, but they said that's the average. But still it's
like damn. And now we got pad of pocket. But if we need
to go to the hospital or treatment. Good to go, sweet damn it.
I just wish it was two hundred bucks now. I sent him a
message. I'm like, can we change it to do that now? I
didn't even read what I replied because it was such a stupid question that I
sent. No question is labeled stupid. Yeah, there's some stupid answers,
like one of the Costco right. We bought a iPad for our meetings,
which you can attend one of our meetings if you've never been to one.
Check out our app. It just looks to seventeen recovery in the app store.
There's links on our website. If that's easier for you, just pull
it up on your phone two seventeen recovery dot com. See the little it's
at the bottom. See the little Apple or Google whatever you have. If
you have an Android, go there, get the app. But then you
can look for meetings on our app that we have and tune in. It's
fun. A lot of people do that. So we needed this iPad because
we had this other thing that really wasn't working very well. So we got
the iPad. Everything was cool, So we got it from Costco. Well,
we're registered whatever as a nonprofit, so we're tax exempt, except Costco
says, well, no, no, no, no, because that's an
Apple product. What does that have to do with us not paying the federal
government taxes? All right, we're state taxes, Like this doesn't make any
sense. Well, we have an agreement with Apple, and I'm like,
all right, now, you know what, I need to make a big
deal about it that night, just whatever, I'll call your people and figure
this. It's not a coupon, this is tax exempt status R. And
so that was in February. So we're finally like getting back around, like
okay, what are we going to do because it was like sixty seventy bucks
of taxes and you know, there's people who donate money to us, which
we really appreciate, and we don't want to just waste it on taxes,
right state with taxes. So we finally get Costco and they're like, yeah,
no, we have an agreement with Apple. And I'm like that just
doesn't make any sense, Like what do you what do you mean? And
so I wrote an email to them. It's like tax request at costco dot
com and I was like, what are you what are you talking about?
Like this doesn't make sense, can you please explain this to me? And
then that's what I got back was well, we have an agreement with Apple
that says we can't have any reduction in price or exemptions in price. And
I was like, okay, well there's no redemption and price exemptions in the
tax and I was I called them stupid, and I was like, so
if the people who run your company thinks that taxes, not paying taxes on
something is an exemption from the sale price of the item, then they're stupid.
And I feel sorry for you that you have to work for a company
who has such stupid people in charge. Yep, and didn't bring me back.
That's one thing about Apple I really love because no matter where you go,
an Apple product is at that price. I can I buy stuff from
Apple directly. It's taxes. They don't charge me tax because we're a nonprofit.
And the one thing is, like you go to Walmart to look at
for an Apple charger or whatever, an actual Apple charger, not an off
brand actual Apple charger, The same charger is going to be the same price
from Walmart to Target to best Buy. Now one of them may have a
sale because they got authorization through Apple. But the price will never be higher,
maybe cheaper, but never higher than said price. And it's typically the
same said prices on their website and best I had the same sale going on,
but it was a little bit further across town, and I was like,
we'll just get it here, right, But now I'm like, damn
it, and I gotta take it back. Will they even take it back
now? Yeah, like ninety days, so we got like a week.
But I bought a and I don't even care. I'll buy this out of
my own pocket because I bought a screen protector for it. Mm hm,
I don't remember what that was, but it could be the same price as
the taxes. But still, like just the principle of it, Like,
I really don't care like that. That is dumb. It doesn't make any
sense to me. They couldn't explain it to me except for repeating the same
stuff over and over about while we have an agreement with Apple that no,
you're agreeing with Apples, you're not going to change the price of their shit,
yea, nothing to do with taxes. Like, I'm so confused by
why the tax department doesn't understand this. So were people problems? Man,
I'm telling you they're great. So I went to a concert last weekend.
Oh yeah, let's let's recap this. Went and seen a demo. They
were really good. Seeing Tantric, I think the lead singer for got his
songs because like a few of them he's sang really good, and some of
them he like missed half the words, but the rest of the band knew
what they were playing. It's kind of weird seeing Trapped, it was all
right, he was kind of getting a little messed up on stage. And
then I've seen Josie Scott Oldly, singer of Saliva, and he may have
been drinking a beer on stage. What yeah, what you beer shaming people?
Well, you know, I did a little research on this. Okay,
supposedly Saliva in him parted ways. He claims it was due to have
more family time, okay, to raise his kids. Now. According to
the Saliva side on things, he needed to step away due to substance use
disorder problem with alcohol and drugs. That's common too, right, so it's
pretty common. But he claims that he's in recovery now. But how can
you drink a beer and be in recovery defense? So you ask, I
guess beers a day now, he just drinks one. I guess you're in
recovery when you say you're in recovery. That's what they tell us. But
you know, it's a very slippery slope. If you start with one beer,
it's never going to end with just one beer. It wouldn't for me.
It wouldn't it for me neither. Oh just here, Justin's just one
line. Well, I'm sorry that one line's not gonna be enough. You've
got the rest of the bag for the mirror. I don't know. I
don't know what you want me to do, because that's just gonna tease me.
Yeah, even being four year and a half years clean, it would
still tease me and want me to do more. Like, I just don't
get it, Like why I start that, I don't know. Maybe he's
like jelly roll jelly rolls like recovery, or I don't take pills no more.
But on the back of his jackets like I'm a comb guzlin or whatever
it says, blunt smoking drinking. Sorry for the reference of this slom American.
Oh yeah, that's what I was thinking of. That's some things for
the same there, Justin. Yeah, sorry, mom, but yeah,
it's like wait, what, like you can't oh, and he's drinking and
doing this. I'm like no, no, no, no, no no
no no no no no no, no recovery. And that's fine. Man,
don't be in recovery. Like you don't do drugs anymore, you don't
do pills anymore. That's fine. You know, Like I can say I
don't drink anymore, but so I can go out and smoke meth. No,
I'm in recovery. It's the same thing. No, it's no,
yes it is. It's the same exact thing. Oh, I just don't
drink anymore, but I smoke weed. Well, some people are like,
well, you're not in recovery. Nope, I'm using a mind off during
substance. Yeah, but man, this this strand, I can make excuse
after excuse, aric excuse about alcohol too. Well. Yeah, but see
whiskey doesn't get me as drunk as vodka, right, you know, I'm
only drinking seventy proof stuff. Man, it's way different like this. You
know, if I just drink a wine cooler, I don't even think they
make those anymore. But then maybe who knows. I'm the point of this
is, yes, I can make every excuse that the guy who's smoking weed
can. Oh, it's natural. Okay, it's from potato. It's natural
too, bro, Like the weed is not natural. Now, you know,
I stepped up my game and I might have some class. So I'm
gonna start drinking Scotch there you go. Yeah, and I just drink you
know, one one glass a day. Now the glass is as big as
a coffee mug. But that's cool. Oh no, it's you know,
and that's what people do. You know. You can make it any excuse
for it if you want. But I can say, yeah, no,
I don't drink anymore, but I don't smoke weed anymore, but I do
heroin on the weekend. Right, wait what, it doesn't make any sense.
So and again, at the end of the day, I'm only talking
about me because I don't really care what other people do. But to say
that you're in recovery when you're not, you don't have to be in recovery,
man, right, you know, Like that's the thing, and I
think everybody wants people to say they're in recovery. Well, it's like the
new bandwagon, it is. And you go, you go to different trainings
and they tell you, like you said earlier, you're in recovery when you
say you are, but you gotta have two years clearfore wait wait what,
oh, don't don't don't don't say clean anymore, say not using abstinence from
drug. Okay, well it was abstinence from this drug, but not that.
Well that's fine because that's different and your recovery, say, And it's
like a big circle that just goes around around because I think they want to
include more people, so they want to say hey, and they don't want
to turn people away before when one day they want to be in recovery.
But I think by I don't want to say like beating around the bush but
not just addressing the issue, they're making it easier for them to go back
out and use. And it's like saying, oh, well, relapse is
part of recovery. Relapse is part of the diction. Is it truly is?
But if you start getting people to think that way, like oh,
well I can just go use it this weekend and then just come back and
nothing's nothing's going to be wrong. Yeah, I lost my job and got
kicked out of my house or so we're living. But it's cool because everybody
tells me it's cool. Yes, you know that, That's not a way
I found because again, I want to dream at fifty times, man,
I tried every single thing I could think of to do it my way,
and it's how I was ready to give up. I wasn't having a very
good life right and when I was finally like, all right, I'm gonna
do it, I'm not going to drink and I'm not going to do weed.
I'm not going to do anything, and I'm going to change my life.
I don't know what I'm going to do, but here's what I want
to do. So what do I do to start that? And then we
started to seventeen Recovery and things just kind of went from there. But like
you had to be willing to step out and take a leap of faith and
trust that God's got you. And I don't know what I'm doing, Like
there's a lot of times where I'm just like, well, We've got to
put it in God's hands now, because I think this is what he wants
me to do. I mean, clearly is like Marnie, you know,
when here I am wanting a woman that's going to love me like I love
her and someone who I can respect and someone who's intelligent and beautiful and just
a good, good person. And I was praying for that and then here
comes to Marty in my life and I'm no. I started making excuses.
I'm not good enough. I don't have a boat, I don't I don't
have a job, you know, too busy, Yeah, because I quit
my job. And that was just like all at that end, time was
just going to school. But you know, there was some nagging in there
when I did. I had two jobs manager of a sober living home,
and it was like the I would say, nagging, you know about and
she just wanted to talk to me. You know, it's very innocent,
but I found excuses pushed her away, and then God was like what are
you doing right, Like this is the woman you've been praying for. I
put her in your life and you just push her away. And then so
I tried to call her back and was like, hey, I'm not a
booty calls, which she told me. I was like, damn it,
no you're not. But I know I messed this up. But then you
know, we ended up getting back together or whatever. But like that was
a sign from God and if you look back at some of our vehicle issues.
Let's take that for example, Yeah, boom boom boom boom boom boom,
maybe those are signed from gaging. All you might want to look into
maybe trying to get some new ones. And then you know, we're trying
to reach out to different organizations, different people, because the main thing we
do really is take people to them from treatment. Well, I mean,
there's so many main things we do at this point, but take people to
them from treatment who have no other way to get there. That's why I
mentioned earlier the governor writing a bus to treatment and some treatment clothes, because
getting someone there using a recovery coach is huge. It is such an advantage
for them, it's insane, and it's great for the recovery coach he's driving.
And now really that you know, it's even more sad because now we
technically only have one vehicle that we have to do rides. Yeah, and
it's tough. It is tough. So are we going to sit around and
wait for them one to break down and be f e somewhere. No,
like, we got to make a move. We gotta do something, and
like these other organizations are just like oh, with the opioid response money whatever.
Whatever. Yeah, I know counties that are spending it. The county
we're in, they're holding meetings every month. That's pretty cool. But it
was like brought up, Hey, how about we give to seventeen some stuff
and this is immediate. This stuff is immediate. And what they do they
can't use their grants to buy vehicles, so let's help. We love what
they do. Everybody agrees, Oh, yeah, that's great. That's great
until it comes time to hey, can we give them a little piece of
this. Oh hold on, let's vote on this next time. Okay,
never mind, We'll just be because honestly, I think the county is their
number two because after doing the report and so that way we could show who
does what. I think our county that we reside in is number two on
our list for the most rides I remember correctly, Like they're in the top
three of the rides that we do. Yep, I'd say they're probably one.
No, no, no, our friends across the street are number one
out of the I'm so cred as far as when they're voting on it,
you know, but the rides that we offer, we've given our number two
slot for most rides that we've done so far has been for the county that
we reside in, for Grand Travers County, like the jail yep. Okay,
I thought you were saying Ionia County was number one and Grand travisers Okay,
I was saying Grand Travers County is probably number one. We give people
rights to and from, but as a county, not the court or the
sheriff, none of them. I just met the county because you know,
technically do rights for the county. Oh yeah, for the county. I'm
sure it's probably right up there is the top county that we do rights.
Yeah. And it's just like one day they're going to call us and they're
like, yeah, well, all of our cars are in the shop getting
worked on because they have two hundred fifty thousand miles on them. M Chevyes
aren't supposed to do that. Neither are Fords, because they're supposed to rust
out way before that. Yeah, Fords will rust out before they ever die.
Yeah, and that's a good thing. And I guess I mean at
least the powertrain stays running. Yeah. But then you start getting into because
you know, when our vehicles was twenty twelve and they're to twenty fifteen.
Oh yeah, they don't make that part anymore, right, Like we don't
have a backup camera now, right, because they went in to look at
something else and they're like, oh that for the switch. Yeah, and
they tried unplugged or it was broken. They don't make it anymore. But
in reality, all they had to do was unscrew some bolts, pop the
whole panel down, take out the switch, unplug the switch from the wiring
harness they disconnected. Why they disconnected that part of the wiring harness is beyond
me, but yeah, some people's kids. Yeah, that was like eleven
hundred bucks just to look at that and then give it back to us with
more broke shit right again, No license plate lights don't work, like we
lost power across the whole lift gate. Yeah, thanks, yep, but
yeah, so call us for a ride. Let's don't see what we can
do, right. Well, that's that's the frustrating thing, is like the
people that we help have nothing to do with this, no, you know.
And it's the same thing when the treatment center up north left me left
only like five grand and they ended up paying like twenty three hundreds or something,
and it's like wait, hold on, like, so you guys are
actually getting tons of money from people from them being there, but yet and
because they didn't turn the paperwork in, that's the reason why we didn't get
paid. Failure to do their job, their job. And I can sit
here and be like I hate them whatever, blah blah blah. I think
it's really petty of them to not step up and do the right thing.
But again, it's not about them, right, I don't think that person
works there anymore. I don't know, man, But it was just it
was very frustrating. But again, my beef with them or my beef with
another treatment center doesn't matter. I'm taking this person where they need to go,
and that's the bottom line. And that's that's what it is. You
know, Like when I take people to treatment centers and I'm just like they
owe me money, I'll say that, I say, this is a good
place, here's the stuff that you can do, and you know, work
on yourself, do whatever, blah blah, And depending on what they're saying
too, you know, but I don't. I don't bash them because it's
not about that. It's about this person making it to a place and feeling
safe and feeling confident when they walk in. Then you know they could change
their life if they want to. I've actually referred to a lot of people
to them after meeting some of their employees. Yeah. Actually, I'd like
to take a day aside to go up there and actually tour their facility to
feel still a tease up there, you know, because I think to actually
see what they do on one side for the males and then see what they
do on the female slash family side would be really awesome to actually be able
to see what they do when. Because I do, I'm like, hey,
this place is really great. You guys are gonna like it. They
really care. All their employees really care. They put forth their best effort
into making sure you're taken care of. Yeah. I like other people there,
except for the well maybe the one guy who was like word and asked
for none of them riotes. I was like, it's funny you did,
because everybody who called me one of your employees, their name is on that
right as the one who called the requests the right. So don't tell me
that put me a petty because you guys didn't file it. You didn't,
you didn't you didn't send it off to get reimbursed. But we don't have
to worry about that anymore either, you know, because we're getting reimbursed from
the PHP, which is great, makes a lot easier. And they've they've
just been a godsend to NMRI. Yeah, up here, we've for the
services we provide for their clients, period has been a godsend because how many
lives are we saving, how many er visits are we saving the insurance company,
you know, by taking this person to actually go get the treatment they
need versus leaving them at their home until a friend calls nine one one.
Well let's get an ambulance, you know, let's ship them to the hospital.
All well, from there they spend how many days in the detax in
the hospital? That's expensive. Yeah, I had to take a ambulance from
Buchanan to Grand Rapids. It's pretty far. Yeah, I bet, and
I had Medicaid, you know, and it was just like, oh,
I have no other way to get there, you know. And that's that's
a swim of thing. That's Southwest Michigan bayor Health or the PIHP there.
Not a big fan, no, not a big fan of any of them.
Except for Mr. Right. Neither of am I because they're they're so
set and telling you no. It's like they have like a meeting before they
start their day, you know, on Mondays will come in here and do
a weekly check in. I think they do that daily. We're like,
okay, no, ha Bob, No, all right, everybody's got their
nose and let's go. No Ah, it's the phone. No Ah,
I don't stop playing. You really have to answer that now, stop it
with the nose, you know. I think that's a little game for them
or something. They act like it's coming out of their pocket. Yeah,
their personal Let me get my check book out and one person that Swimba,
you know, they told me like, what are we going to waste our
money on you again? Sending you to an impatient treatment center? You obviously
don't learn anything. Oh, thanks, appreciate it. I feel like I
just got hit by a truck. You know. I'm shaking and I can't
stop. The only way to stop is to go drink more. I'm I'm
tired. It was a bad idea. I thought I could hide a It
was like a twenty two ounce something and I don't remember if I found it
under the bed, or if I stashed it under the bed, like oh,
couple relapses before, I think that's what happened. And I found it
and I was like, oh I could probably drink that. Nope, I
couldn't, you know, speaking with drinking that. I went and got some
more and then I never stopped, Like after I moved back in with my
current roommate, Like I went through the whole apartment, every little nook and
cranny. I'm like, what's all in here? Bro, Like we're not
we're not playing this game again, Like we're gonna find all the empty ones
now throw them all away. So that way there is none there's no desire
saying oh well I found it and it looked tempting, so I just went
and bought more. You know, I've had a good couple of months.
Why not reward myself. And that's the way that our addiction will speak to
us. You know, well, we've had a good couple of months,
you deserve one. Well, we know it don't stop at one, especially
with bench drinkers, and you know, it's it spirals out of control really
fast, and it's it's sad. You know, I really like my roommate.
I think it's a really great person, you know, but occasionally it'll
relapse. Once you do, it's it's tough to stop, and you can
tell yourself you're not gonna drink it one hundred days in a row, that
one hundred and first when you're like, at today's the thing, it's it's
gonna happen. It's done. It's over, and you won't stop it.
And if you do, okay, if you're lucky enough to just I'm just
gonna do it tonight, it's gonna do it this weekend, that next weekend,
you're going back harder than before because you made it. And I'm telling
you, like that's I've tried it so many different times. He calls me
as a little bloodhound because I can smell olchol from a mile away. I
swear like OA call has always been kind of gross to me, but I've
always had a nose for it. And I remember when I lived with him
before I walked in and he's laying on the couch. I walked into the
bathroom, all I could smell was alcohol, and I walked back out there.
He's like trying to act like he's passed out. So I wait till
the next day. I'm like, there's no way in how you were sleeping
at seven o'clock last night. You were drunk, you were passed out.
I could smell it in the apartment as soon as I walked in. He
was like, no, you couldn't. I was like, yeah, I
could. You're busted, dude. He was like, man, there's nothing
getting past you hung I was like, nope, you know, I can
just smell it. I don't know what it is. The smell just kind
of turns me off. Like I enjoy going to concerts and stuff, but
the biggest thing I hate is the smell of alcohol. I could be around
one hundred people smoking weed, be fine, be around a hundred people drinking,
and I'd just rather walk away. I don't know what it is.
Well, that's how it makes people first, And I don't know. Like
the weed thing is a little much for me sometimes. But if I'm at
the store and somebody walks past me and I skip the whiff of alcohol,
and I'm just like, really, dude, right, But you don't see
that as much as you do the weed. You know, people think they
can just smoke weed and drive around, which no, they got a woman
reach out to us, or a person reach out to us and ask for
some help about, you know, stopping weed. And I sent a message
back, didn't hear anything back, and then I sent another message with some
videos about like what marijuana does to you and the steps that happen in your
brain and in your body when you do stop smoking weed. And it was
pretty interesting, and I hope they took that to heart and realized, like,
it's it's not gonna be the easiest thing. And you know, weed's
not as oh it's just harmless, man, it's it's legal again, stop
it. If you think the state or government cares about you, then they
don't. This is all about making money. It's why they come up with
recreational weed. So that way, it's the most tax thing in Michigan,
the highest tax. They're breaking all this money off of it. And then
they got the alcohol tax. They breaking all this money off alcohol tax too,
cigarette tax. Everything bad for you is tax to death and the state
just makes tons of money on it. And all they got to do is
say, oh, well, you're responsible for putting out these commercials, say
please drink responsibly. Yeah, well, if I could drink responsibly, I
wouldn't be in the situation I'm in. You know, it's just a snowball
effect. It's a money. It's a numbers game to them. It's nothing
else strictly numbers. Yeah, that's how I kind of look at it.
And when you look at it, if you took it away, like if
if people didn't do if people stopped committing crimes for a whole month, that
would cripple the system. You know, crime sometime, I would drug everything.
If you just if people just stopped for a month, the jails are
empty, it would It would be nuts and then he is not a crime.
But if you stop, if everybody just stopped drinking, stop smoking weed,
stop smoking cigarettes, stop vaping for a month, crippled it would?
It would? Because they depend on that money. It's ten dollars. It's
ten dollars now for a pack of cigarettes. Their schools are nice, aren't
they. Man that saw this sad because I saw what the state gave,
because they got billions of dollars or whatever, and they gave like it's like
one point five million of the schools. Oh good job, Northern schools.
Like that may help out Detroit's public schools, But what about the rest of
the state nothing. And I was at a grocery store the other day and
I was reading they had like a little lotto thing up there, and they
kind of want to make you feel better about giving the money to them,
and they're like, we've spent twenty three billion dollars on schools. Let's pump
the brakes on that, because they're I think they're including all the states that
run that lottery, right, which, okay, Texas they might have given
eight million, you know, but they're combining it all to make it seem
like this huge number. It's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa whoa. That was me stopping it like an old record player. But
yeah, as Michigan's where's the rest of that money going? Right? Oh,
well, we put the rest in which is this is the funniest part
of it. Well not really. It goes to the EMS workers' pension fund.
That's weird the fuck, like what And it goes to help them pay
their deductibles for their health insurance what sense. And that's another one I didn't
touch on. Out of all the taxes, like you have the gambling tax
in the state, Like there's that going Justin. It's going to help people
with the commercials and billboards, right right, m h call that number.
I'm telling you call that eight hundred number. I need to one of these
days. You can be so let down. Also, just were you in
here? When you were in here? When I called it was I?
Was it Mitch? I think it was Mitch. I don't think I was
here for that one. I'm gone a lot, and you get me confused.
Like we see each other some days, but in other days it's just
in passing and we crack jokes on each other, you know, Adam,
Adam, And then you tell me you quit breaking stuff as you were walking
out the door, like, please don't break nothing tomorrow, would you please?
It doesn't help me telling you that. It's not like I do it
intentionally. I can't control when the liftgate motor is just going to pop off
its little balls attached to Yeah, I don't know. Justin. Then the
TV wasn't working here earlier. I was like, did Justin have anything to
do with this? In your office? No? In the meeting room.
Oh dang, it got my new TV, thanks Justin. You know what
I got big shoulders. I can handle a lot of things. Yeah,
and it's okay for you to blame me when something breaks. I'll give you
the outlet. Yeah, we got to wrap it up before we do though.
Oh yeah, we got to talk about some events. Yes, yes,
of course you fam. We talked about this next Thursday, Lancing.
We have a link on our website and we made a video which is kind
of cute. Two seventeen Recovery dot com. Check that out, and we
have Reeling in Recovery. Yes, that would be our next event. Well,
we have another one coming up Monday, but that's yeah, making meals
in May with Loreana West in Traversity, I learned how to cook healthy hell
yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. And yeah, Reeling in Recovery yep.
Which we're gonna go fishing June eighth and ninth. It's free fishing weekend
in Michigan. I can't wait to see the promo video for that and Jay
supporting it. Yeah, we've been doing some silly stuff at the office.
Jay sporting good in gay Lord. I don't call it gay Lord, f
YI, Gaylord. They hooked us up a couple of fishing poles and a
little bit of gear, and we went out and got some more, but
appreciate them for doing that and supporting people in recovery, because fishing is what
I've heard people say, I don't know how much if it's sober, Yeah,
fish drink. How am I going to do this sober? We're gonna
take some people out. We're going to fish. But since we have a
limited amount of poles, we were like, we're gonna definitely get more than
this signing up, so we're gonna have to break it up into shifts the
way people can take turn with a pole. So eight to nine on the
eighth, I'm going to run a team out there. Nine to ten,
You're going to be the guide, and then Mitch is going to do ten
to eleven guy, And then we're gonna have like a little picnic or whatever
at the park too, so that'll be fun. And I sent you a
bunch of fishing pictures. You did, you asked? They're going in there,
they're going on the pro so you can see a lot of my trophies
that I've caught over my life span, and you'll see mine winter on the
river on the lake. Mitch in any No, he's fishing by himself.
He doesn't. I don't believe that because even when I went fishing by myself,
like you still take pictures of your fish. It's kind of like one
of those things. If you don't take pictures, then it happened, right.
And another thing we got coming up in June is Recovery Stories Part three,
Yes, with Sober Eats being a food truck. Yeah. Yeah,
I've been NMRI is helping us out with that because the last two events we
did it on our own and everybody was like, hey, you know and
Dave. I got Dave, David Freeman, he was like, hey,
you know, this could be possible that we can help you with this.
So like okay, cool. So they're helping us, so big things to
them. Yeah, and it's going to help people in early recovery. And
it's a fun event. Like you said, food truck. He doesn't love
some tacos sober Eats. And we are also doing a couple of events for
cherry Fest. Yeah. Following that, if you are interested in helping us
at cherry Fest, please come in and sign up at the office. See
Mitch, he's having that little division this year. I was a shot that
was going to work and I was like, probably shouldn't commit to that.
And next thing I know, he's running around with a volunteer sheet form and
he's like, nope, I got it. We can get them because he
went last year. It was fun. You know. I drove sometimes people
back and forth, all the times you drove us. One day, I
showed up on time to work and you're like, you're supposed to be here
a half hour ago. Where were you at? And I was like,
oh, sorry, I forgot about that, but it was needed. You
know. There's a lot of traffic, crazy stuff going on. So yeah,
we have some events coming up. It'll be pretty cool. The fishing
thing will be fun. And recovery stories Message of Hope Part three. We
got Luke telling her story right, yep, Sorry, Marnie's texting me about
coming home or the office. And then we got Tim right, who's confirmed?
Now I got two thumbs up, So I don't know what that means,
but I'm a man named Tim. I'm pretty sure that's confirmed then.
And who's given the stories? Because those are our Messages of Hope, our
very own Matt re Becky sweet and our friend Corey Smoker. Awesome, I
can't wait, I said, friend. Yeah, Now she's gonna be with
us at the U family to helping out her and her husband. Yes,
it'll be fun. And who's I'm seeing the recovery stories this time? Big
bear Mitch? Big Bear Mitch. Can we make him wear the bear mask?
We can? We should, oh, because he'll be like, I'm
not looked nothing over eight pounds, and he'll start telling us what he's gonna
do, but he won't mention the mask. So hit him with the mask.
Oh, yeah, you gotta wear the mask. Yeah, we should
definitely make him wear of the mask and the jean jacket. Yes, yeah,
yeah, But it'll be fun and there'll be more details on the fishing
trip probably will be up tomorrow, because how you're going to get into that
is you're going to sign up and then you're gonna pick whatever guide you want
or maybe whatever time you want. Right, maybe you're like, I'm an
eight to nine kind of guy. I think that'd be great. Well,
then you want to be fishing with me. You don't have to bait your
hook, you won't have to get the fish off the hook. It sounded
bad and maybe some drone I don't know, is it a legal official drone?
I don't know, you find find out where they're at. And did
that at the in the bay the other day. Well, it'll be in
the video. A good scouting tool for you. Yeah, you know,
we'll do high tech stuff. Me on the other justice going in like Captain
Kate Man, Yeah, I put on I don't take your fish off the
hooks. I don't either. I ain't doing none of that stuff like you
have to bail the man your own stuff. He's throwing right back in right
on the hook and catch a turtle. That's how you do that. That's
how you catch pike. You catch your turtles too, and sharks. Let's
how you catch a big pike. The big pike I showed you. There
you go. I have bluegill about three three or four inches. He's gonna
get him some numb numbs. And oh he sure did. Justin got him
some numb numbs. Yeah, I think it was huge. But look at
our website the next few days if you're interested in the fishing thing, and
maybe it is a few days already. This is being recorded on the eighth,
so you know it's a little couple days past. Check out our website.
Look at Justin's fishes. Check out our video. If we have that
up and sign up. If you want to fish with us, all right,
you don't need nothing. You don't need nothing. We got the poles,
we got the bait, we got the food woman, and my daughter
there. Justin's daughter will be there, Mitch's son won't. Maybe be there,
who knows who. It'll be a good time even if you not fishing.
If you want to come and hang out and has some fun, we'll
be around later. So check out two seventeen recovery dot com and as Justin
said, uh yeah later. Thanks for listening to the two seventeen Recovery podcast.
We hope you come back for our next episode.