Soon after embracing sobriety on 3.20.12, I realized that my laughter triggers has stopped functioning, and I’d never been much of a hah-hah guy to begin with. This was where alcohol came in, and why I loved succumbing to the rude, silly, sporadic kind of beer-buzz humor that I’d discovered in my mid teens….a cackling, mad-hatter laughter on the fly, depending on the joke or circumstance or how many sheets to the wind.

Well, that kind of vocal laughter had left my system. Sobriety had shown it the door. I’d always been an LQTM type but now I was really living deep in the well. And whenever a table of younger people (or middle-aged sillies on their second glass of wine) would break into gales of laughter, I would turn and glare daggers. I’ve been sober nine and a half years, and I still do that. Hearty chuckles and moderate laughter are fine, but shriekers are obnoxious. And if I’m in the vicinity, you can bet they’ll feel my silent condemnation..