Sober Curators Justin Lamb and Alysse Bryson have never met in real life. They met on the Clubhouse app through a mutual sober friend, realized in addition to recovery, they had many shared interests, and they’ve been virtual besties ever since.
Justin’s Story:
After spending the entire first six months of our friendship watching Alysse Bryson give and give and rarely ever ask for anything in return, I knew that with Christmas approaching, I had to get the perfect gift to say thank you for all of her dedication and hard work. My relationship with Alysse had been purely virtual, and while her outfits were always changing, there was one thing that always found its way into the background of Zoom calls and Instagram photo shoots: The Winnebago.
Alysse has a steel Tonka Winnebago that was built in the 1970s. It sat high on the shelf behind her on Zoom calls and it would make the perfect setting for Funko Pop photoshoots and imaginary vacations. We had discussed it during her interview on Friend Request, and I knew she had a certain attachment to it. The other thing I knew Alysse loved was The Sober Curator. The brand she built from the ground up had taken off with a life of its own, seemingly soaring through the sober sky, while Alysse was the wizard behind the curtains, sacrificing sleep and social obligations to commit to making The Sober Curator something she could be proud of.
With these things in mind, I decided I needed to make a Sober Curator Winnebago. I knew I could get one of the ones she had on eBay, as I looked it up immediately after seeing hers, to decide if I should buy my own. Then, I thought, I would figure out the paint and decals later. First, it was a mad dash to eBay to find the most glorious…dented…slightly rusted…missing parts…Okay, my search was not great. This was going to take some work.
I purchased the most intact Winnebago (there were ‘new’ ones going for thousands of dollars, but we all contribute to a free online magazine, so calm down.) The bastard on the other end was apparently too attached to it because it took forever to get here and I knew by the time the tracking number said it was in Idaho, it wasn’t going to make it to me in Michigan in time for me to ship it to Alysse in Seattle before Christmas. In the meantime, I thought, why don’t I work on getting the decals going.
With my idea fleshed out to paint the Winnebago the same color scheme as the website and then use a friend’s Cricut machine to print out the decals, I began trying to organize a time to use my friend’s Cricut. After several ghostings from several friends, I decided I would just buy my own. After all, I can make t-shirts with it and that’s all I really want in this world. So, I ordered my Cricut, it arrived, I set it up, I clicked print, and…nothing. The cutting head came broken out of the box. This was starting to feel like it was never meant to be.
While I was between Cricuts, the Winnebago arrived, just as dirty and awful as it was in the pictures. I got to work completely disassembling it, sanding it, and removing any remaining decals and crayon marks from a child who is surely an elementary school teacher now. I went on Etsy and ordered new windows to replace the scratched yellow plastic. Finally, I got to work on painting it. Fun fact for you newcomers: Did you know that if you don’t wait at least 48 hours between coats of spray paint during stupid winter temperatures, the paint will bubble up and you’ll have to sand the whole thing and start again? No? I didn’t know that either. Add to that, finding the final peachy orange color to tie it all together was the task of a crazy person.
Finally, with the Winnebago painted a billion times and the new Cricut machine setup and working, I pulled logos and printed them and attached them, and got the hefty beast into a box and on its way to my friend, Alysse Bryson.
Alysse’s Story:
When Justin called to tell me he was shipping me a Christmas present, but it wasn’t going to get to me on time, my knee-jerk reaction was “Why are you getting me anything at all? You do remember you’re basically “working” for me for free, right?” In case you don’t know, this website is run entirely by volunteers. If anything, I should be sending Justin a gift for his dedication to creating content for it every week, without fail, for fun, and for free, since we met via Clubhouse in the Spring of 2021.
“It’s going to make you cry Alysse,” Justin told me, with steadfast confidence. His only other request was that I FaceTime him once it arrived because apparently, Justin likes to make and watch middle-aged sober women cry. What could it be, I wondered. A few days later, on the phone with another virtual sober bestie, Katie Mack, I told her about this exchange between myself and Justin. “Oh yeah! You are totally going to cry!” Mack said a little too enthusiastically.
Why do these sober people I’ve never met IRL (in real life) want to send me gifts that make me cry? And, why are they ganging up on me to evoke feelings that will make my face leak?
A few weeks later, a very large package arrived at my doorstep from Detroit, Michigan. Not that you should judge a box by its cover, but I was a bit confused that Justin might be sending me a Cricut. Justin and I have talked about many things over the course of our friendship, but crafting wasn’t a topic I could recall that we’d touched on. As I lifted the box up onto the counter, it made a weird clunky sound. Perplexed, I grabbed my iPhone tri-pod to get it set up so I could FaceTime Justin, as promised. I glanced over my shoulder, looking for my kleenex box just in case.
My mind was BLOWN when out of the box came my own fully customized Sober Curator Winnebago. Justin is like my brother from another mother. In fact, when we’ve been on Zoom together teaching virtual classes on re-thinking drinking in the workplace to large corporations, I’ve introduced him as my best friend that I’ve never met. It’s possible we were separated at birth. You see, Justin and I share a deep love of pop culture, specifically anything relating to our childhood years (the 80s and 90s). We’re both collectors of weird crap that to the untrained eye, may just look like garage sale junk. But to us, our collectibles are some of our most valued treasures.
Justin knows how much I love my Winnebago. I’m obsessed with it. It brings me so much joy. So the fact that he found another one and refurbished it in Sober Curator colors and logos completely blew my mind. His attention to detail, including swapping out the old plastic windows for the upgrade clear ones should have brought me to tears. Except I was in so much shock and awe and filled with so much joy, I had to take a quick peek at my Apple watch to make sure my heart wasn’t about to explode.
While I did not in fact cry at the moment of the unveiling, the thoughtfulness that went into curating and customizing this unexpected treasure does bring me to tears now as I write this. This is what friendship looks like in recovery. We show up for each other. It’s really just that simple. Sober people have an innate ability to go in deep, fast, and hard into friendships with the war stories we share. Not only do we share a common pain, but we also share a common joy in surviving, with the darkest years hopefully now behind us.
One of the things I love about Justin is his consistent ability to show up and serve. From the moment we met and I tried to explain to him what my vision was for The Sober Curator, he had the get it factor. And then he stated simply, “How can I be involved? I want to help.” As we come upon almost a year of working together in this digital and virtual space, for fun and for free, he’s become a trusted confidant. He’s also a man of action. He does what he says he’s going to do. We kick around ideas and make each other laugh.
Justin told me that The Sober Curator Winnebago is a symbol of the fact that “we’re going places.” Every time I look at my new suped-up Winnie, which sits proudly upon my bookshelf behind my dining room table turned sober command center, I remember this mantra. Yes, we are Justin. Yes, we are.
If you are interested in joining our recovery community and sharing a passion for sober lifestyle content (aka which I have dubbed sober pop culture), we’d love to hear from you. Check out our BECOME A SOBER CURATOR page to see the list of volunteer positions we are currently recruiting for and the application to get you started. The pay is nonexistent, but the friendships, shared ideas, collaborations, and laughter are priceless.
RECOVERY PODCASTLAND: Friend Request With Sober Curators Justin Lamb and Alysse Bryson
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