90 Days

As of this past Tuesday February 12th, I have 90 days of sobriety.  The time has passed very quickly and these months have been the best of my life. 

On Wednesday evening I went with a peer of mine from Progress Valley over to “2218″, an AA club located in South Minneapolis.  Wayne and I took the bus over and on the way, I told him I had 90 days as of the day before.  As we walked through the door of the club and over to the front counter, Wayne says, “Hold on a second.”  He then told Mike, one of the trusted servants at 2218, to give him a medallion for me.  The medallion cost $3.75.  Just a few days before Wayne had been sharing with me that his financial situation was rough at the moment and he could barely rub two pennies together much less buy a bus card for the month.  I was very moved that he took a step of faith and purchased the medallion for me.  These days, people never cease to amaze me with their generosity.

As I was standing outside having a cigarette after the meeting, a man approached me that I had seen in the room earlier.  He was a very likeable character–wide eyes, contagious smile and laugh.  It was also very clear to me from his comments at the meeting that he had a relationship with a Higher Power.  I was eager to know more of his experience.

As the conversation went on I share with him that I was at Progress Valley Men’s Residence Halfway House.  He suddenly looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and literally reared back like a cat that is about to attack.  “Progress Valley!” he exclaimed.

“Oh man, I’ve heard a lot of things about that place.  Dude, you don’t even wanna know what my friend, Jim, who was there for a few days told me.”

“Really,” I replied.  “What did he tell you?”

The young man hemmed and hawwed and then leaned over and whispered in my ear, ”There are homosexuals in that place!” 

I came back at him in a very deliberate tone, “Is that so?”  He responded non-verbally with raised eyebrows as if very impressed with himself.

Then I delivered the punch.  “As a matter of fact, there are homosexuals at Progress Valley.  And I am one of them!”

I can’t even describe his reaction.   It would not give adequate credence to the downright hilarity of the situation.  But it was beautiful because I was laughing on the inside–I was laughing so hard I was crying.