Ah, the memories...the marriage parade....well, I am ashamed to admit I participated in that. I never had covered mirrors though. I do remember the million seats being saved and having to sit in nosebleed, but I preferred nosebleed...good place for the afternoon nap and it was a little cooler. Of course, there was always that one strange fluorescent bulb up that emitted the strange buzzing sound that you could only hear up there in the clouds....Richmond, VA was really bad for the strange lighting.
Speaking of convention gestapo, I remember when we sold lunch tickets and I was being the good single sister with no life selling the tickets and this gestapo elder was in my line and he asked how I was doing. I replied I was doing so-so...I was having a rough day due to a migraine. He got up in my face and lectured me about how I should be doing awesome since I was in Jah's house and enjoying spiritual feast, blah blah blah. I mean, my god, get a life dude and move it along! I don't miss going to the conventions at all...same old crap presented same old way and people just pushy and unfriendly.
Slightly off-topic, but related....I was at a one-day assembly and this "uber-spiritual" family was doing a little dramatization of actual inspired events in their lives. The teen pioneer daughter was discussing how she wanted to move into the apartment of a sister in the congregation. The sister was single, but not a pioneer and the family encouraged the daughter to rethink the decision because "you know, she is not a pioneer, she works full-time so how spiritual can she be? She may encourage you to not pioneer." Now it was stated that the single sister was at every meeting and helped the pioneer sister out in the service every chance she got. I was, quite frankly, livid by the end of this little "faith building" charade. I went up to CO afterward and told him how upset I was about that whole thing and how dare they state that basicallly if you weren't a pioneer you were crap in the borg. I got the blank stare....everyone else spoke about how encouraging that segment was....I was like "did you listen to what they said?"
