Praise for Get Up
“Every single person should own Bucky Sinister's 12-Step book. Addict or not. It is an incredibly funny and interesting guide on how to successfully unpack one's mind when it's over-packed. Simply put, this book should replace every magazine in every plastic surgeon's office and every bible in every motel.”
—Amber Tamblyn, Emmy– and Golden Globe–nominated actress and poet
“This book is rad.”
—Michelle Tea, author of Rent Girl and Valencia
“I have been sober for more than 21 years, and this is the first time I have seen anyone take on the challenges of staying with a 12-Step program with such frankness. This is one of the best recovery books I have read, a whole new approach written with intelligence and honesty. Bucky's way of addressing the Higher Power concept will serve to help the millions of people out there who struggle with it every day.”
—Tom Callan, president of Board of Directors of Changing Echos, a drug and alcohol treatment center
“A must-have for the freakshow of life. . . . Sober-rific.”
—Dannyboy S., tattoo installer
“Finally! Help getting clean from ONE OF US! The inimitable Bucky Sinister has won over audiences at readings in every bar in San Francisco for almost 20 years and now he has some sound advice for the newly sober on how to walk into them without a relapse.”
—Eric Lyle, author of On the Lower Frequencies, A Secret History of the City
Also by Bucky Sinister
King of the Roadkills
Whiskey and Robots
All Blacked & Nowhere to Go
Comedy CD: What Happens in Narnia, Stays in Narnia
Chapbooks:
12 Bowls of Glass
Asphalt Rivers
A Friend and a Killer
Symphony of the Damned
NASCAR
Blackout Poems for Drunk Readers
Tragedy and Bourbon
Fever Dreams
Angels We Have Heard While High
First published in 2008 by Conari Press,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
500 Third Street, Suite 230
San Francisco, CA 94107
Copyright © 2008 by Bucky Sinister. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN: 978-1-57324-366-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.
Cover Illustration and chapter titles © Chuck Sperry
Text design by Donna Linden
Typeset in Adobe Caslon and Impact
Cover photograph © Raina Bird
Printed in Canada
TCP
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
There were some people who were really important to my recovery who have since relapsed and are back in the throes of addiction. Of course, I'm not mentioning them by name. You know where I am, where you should be. It's time to come home.
This book is dedicated to the addict who still suffers.
CONTENTS
1 12 Step for the Rest of Us
Where Everybody Doesn't Know Your Name
So Life Kicked You in the Nads
Clean and Sober Versus Straight Edge
The Big Book Is Just a Rule Book
2 The God Problem
Why 12 Step, If I Don't Believe in All the Higher Power Crap?
Thoughts on the Serenity Prayer
3 Entering: Get in Where You Fit in
Step 1: Admitting What All Your Friends Already Know
Step 3: Surrender—It's Not Just a Cool Cheap Trick Song
4 Internal Transformation: You're a Sick Puppy