Taking a Cake

The day that I quit drinking and using drugs 27 years ago is coming up in the next few days, more or less.  I'm not sure of the exact day, to be honest with you - things were a little hazy at the end. I had been in and out and in and out so many times that I kind of quit paying attention to whether or not I was still using.  Does probing the pipe stem of a giant bong with an unraveled metal hanger, wiping the blank gunk that comes out onto a piece of cigarette paper, and then smoking that unholy mess in the exact same bong constitute a relapse?  I'm guessing "yes" even though that eventuality isn't specifically prohibited anywhere in our literature.  I probably smoked more metal shavings and plastic scratchings than I did THC.

In The Old City we called this day an Anniversary; here in Vacation Town it's a Birthday.  In The Old City you got to announce your Anniversary every day for a week, which was pretty cool, while here you only get to speak up on the exact day of your Birthday, which is kind of stingy, BUT you can actually get a real cake on your Birthday.  We actually have a Cake Commitment here which is a hell of a commitment if you've got to do service work.  I bet the Cake Person licks the batter spoon.

In The Old City I noticed that on my anniversary week I usually went to a meeting every day and I attended a few large meetings as well, meetings that I didn't even really like.  While I've always been active in my meeting attendance I've never gone every day and I've never been a big fan of large meetings, seeing a little too much posturing and preaching by some of the members, like me.  I began to question my motives, wondering if I was doing some posturing and preaching:  "Look at me!  Look at how great I am!"

Someone said once: "The Fellowship: the only organization in the world that celebrates the fact that our members decided, at one point, to run out of a burning building."

How'd I do it, you ask?  Don't drink and don't die.  It isn't rocket science.

I congratulated a friend of mine a while ago on 30 something years - he looked at me and said: "You know, Seaweed, I thought I'd be a lot further along than I am."

True dat.

On my 15 year anniversary I was in the 4th row of a Black Sabbath concert.  Kind of hard to top that one.  LWSJ and I were so pumped that we forgot where we parked our car and ended up circling the parking lot until almost everyone else was gone.  

I called an old anniversary class mate this week to ask him about Taking a Cake, as they call it here, because I know that he doesn't even announce his anniversary any more.  He didn't say don't do it.  I wouldn't have listened if he did.

That's humility.

Anyway, I waited until the penultimate day before ordering my cake.  I don't trust myself, the center of attention in front of a group of people.  Humility isn't my strong suit.  The last thing the world needs is me talking about myself.

Finally, I decided to Take a Cake.  The desire for sanctioned cake at 7AM overrode my admittedly small desire to appear humble.