Happy Birth-iversary

Anniversaries marking sober time - or "birthdays" as they incorrectly say here in Vacation City - are an important and sugar-fueled milestone.  Birthday means you get a birthday cake and everyone sings Happy Birthday.  Locally most people "take a cake" on Saturday when the meeting is quite large although you can low-key it during the week on your actual birthday.  I guess the thinking is that if you're going to be the center of attention you might as well do it in front of a big crowd.  I have enough trouble with my ego as it is so I opt for the weekday celebration, but I DO go with the cake - sugar is sugar, just as good at 7AM as any other time.  Frankly, I've never had a problem with 7AM cake - I've never been fooled by sugar being packaged into a round, fried piece of cake called a donut. 

"Wow, Seaweed is getting a monstrous donut instead."

"Donuts.  Is there anything they can't do?"  - Homer J Simpson

However, I don't really like the phrase "take a cake."  That would indicate to me that I would get to take the entire cake home, free to eat big, thick slices at my leisure, not share it with other people who may be fingering it or coughing on it.  We should say "share a cake" or something like that.  Maybe it should be the Birthday Boy's choice.

"Happy Birthday to Seaweed who is exercising his option to take the entire cake home." 

There's also a tradition here of gathering some people together in the kitchen area to actually bring the cake out into the meeting room, with a big flourish, candles burning and everything.  I think the idea is that this is to honor people that have helped you in your sobriety in some significant way.  I don't like this, either - it seems cheesy in a Look At Me kind of way.  I'd be tempted to see how many crews I could be a part of.  

"Man, that Seaweed is helping everyone."

So for my anniversary I took a cake on the actual day, some random weekday that I can't remember any more.  There's a woman at the meeting who has some significant disabilities - she's here without being all there that I've taken the time to talk to her over the years, listening patiently because she also has some significant family problems.  She can't hear very well so I think she can feel isolated.  I should point out that she gets to the meeting early every single day and gets the room ship-shape.  We're buddies at this point - she always talks for a long time and she always effusively thanks me for listening.  I don't mind - anything that stops me from thinking about myself for a couple of minutes is a good thing, and she's not the easiest person to listen to so members aren't generally flocking around her after the meeting.

I asked her and her alone to bring out my cake on my day.  She speaks of the honor to this day.