A God shot - with icing on top!

[CharlieG]

A God shot – with icing on top!
By Charlie G.

So we got a new girl at Joy’s House today and we are now full – with a girl waiting to come on June 4th when one girl will be leaving.
It was also a girl’s birthday today; I got the call from our house mom reminding me to pick up a cake for Mary.
So, with a sigh I detour from my fast track home (well, as fast as you can fast track at 4pm in bumper to bumper traffic on US-1) since the typos in the proofs had been corrected & the actual printing wasn’t until Wednesday.
At a Publix, I go to the bakery and ask who spells the best. A guy tells me. “We all do.” Which immediately eliminated him from my choices. Then a nice Hispanic lady comes up & tells me she’ll do it. As we’re go through the cakes deciding which one, I tell her, “Listen. I own a women’s sober house and this is for a girl new in recovery – I want her to feel special.
“What’s a sober house?” She asks.
I explain it’s a home for girls who are getting out of treatment, so they don’t have to go back to old places & friends who may convince them that, ‘Come on, one time isn’t going to hurt.” “Oh, like a ¾ way house.” She says.
I look at her. Rolling ‘Oh, like a ¾ way house’ off your tongue like ‘Oh, like a Howard Johnson’ isn’t something you hear from many people. “Are you in recovery?” I asked her.
“No, not me. But I have a lot of friends who are. I know Judy, who owns Harmony House (another…3/4 way house).
“Judy doesn’t own it anymore,” I told her, “a friend of mine bought it from her.”
She started to work on the cake we picked (a beautiful one with white frosting & red roses in a heart shape), and when she asked me the name I said Meredith. She finished with a “Done!” As she turned it to me to see.
It said Merdeth.
“It’s missing an E.” I said. “It’s Meredith, not Merdeth”
She looked at it, frowned, shrugged, and put it aside and went and got a new one out of the cooler.
As she worked on this one, I asked her if she’d heard of Journey magazine.
“Sure,” she said. “I told you I have a lot of friends in recovery.”
“That’s my magazine.” I said proudly.
“My friend Glenda has one of your posters on her wall with all the covers.”
Glenda’s my insurance agent!” I cry.
I mean, seriously, how cool is all this?”
“I also know - - - at Summer House.” She lobbed at me; like this had suddenly become a verbal tennis match.
“I started Journey at Summer House! While I was a night tech there.” I said, as I explained about starting to blog, the people who started following it and the lady who asked me to be the editor of a new recovery magazine she had in mind – and who backed out when she saw all that was involved in creating a magazine. “So, I got new financial backing and started this thing all by myself!” (Forgetting all about God and the God shots; that put people & things in my path at the exact moment they were needed)
The cake was done. Game, set, match.
“You sure you’re not in recovery?” I ask as I was leaving.
“Nope,” she smiled, “Just have a lot of friends who are.”
I drove home feeling pretty full of myself – a ‘normal’- a regular person – knew of Journey & had a lot of friends in recovery! How cool was that?
On the way home my house mom calls me to tell me that Mary’s mom was taking her out for dinner since it was her birthday. I told her house meetings are mandatory (and they are – there is no reason except work to miss it – and you need a work schedule to prove it). I call Mary’s Mom and explained that Mary HAD to be there – she could go to dinner after the house meeting. “If she gets to miss the meeting for that, it will be thrown at me in the future when another girl is late/misses a house meeting.” Mom understood and had Mary drive back.
As I pulled into Joy’s House – the parking lot was almost completely full; it was almost 5pm & the house meeting was about to start.
As I walk in with the cake in a **** Meredith and Danielle are sitting in the small living room watching TV. As I try to slide the bag as smooth as ice cream behind my back from the side near Meredith to my other side that was away from her so she won’t see it, Meredith said, “Hi Charlie! You know it’s Mary’s birthday today, right?”
“Yeah, I know.” I said, as I tried to walk as fast as was coolly possible to; without looking like I was trying to run/walk.
Then I stopped.
I turned and looked at Meredith; remembering the house mom calling me to remind me to pick up a cake for MARY’S birthday, calling MARY’S mom and telling her MARY had to be at the house meeting, even if it was her BIRTHDAY.
“Oh jeeze…” I sighed/cried/laughed.
After explaining to everyone what had happened (oh, they loved that story – let me tell you), I drove back to the Publix.
As I was walking up to the bakery I saw my new friend. “Don’t tell me it’s misspelled again!” She exclaimed.
I nodded yes, but said, “It’s misspelled, but it’s not a letter – it’s the whole NAME that’s misspelled!” After explaining to her what had happened; including being told MARY in the reminder, about MARY missing the house meeting & with MARY’S mom when I told her MARY had to come back.
“To be honest, I was so full of myself and bragging to you about how great my magazine and sober house are, and that I created them from scratch with my bare hands, that I forgot who the cake was for.”
“And that none of it would be possible without God; not without me.”
“Pride goeth before the fall.” She said with a smile.
She finished the new cake and asked if she could sign it. After all I’d put her through, I said sure.
When she handed me the cake, I looked at the top with ‘Happy Birthday Mary!’ spelled out beautifully.
And on the side were two initials: NA.
I looked up at her. “You ARE in recovery!”
“Five years. I know you and I love your magazine – I recognized you from your Letter from the Editor.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her.
I just don’t want the people I work with here to know. And besides, she laughed, it was too much fun watching your ego at work!”
“Don’t worry, I learned my lesson” I told her, “I was very humbled walking back in here to tell you I had screwed up after making you do the cake twice.”
“I know; I saw it on your face. I had to really try to keep from laughing. God does have a sense of humor!”
“THAT He does!” I said.
We shook hands, laughed again and I left.
I bought a cake hoping Mary would remember this gift in her new/first sober house.
I know I will remember God’s gift to me!
I will also be buying more stuff from that bakery from now on;
And I will be acknowledging God’s hand in my life more often, too!
peace