OK - I now have a new one that I can replace the unmentionable item on page 2.
I haven't actually done this yet, but have accepted an invitation for this Friday: Attend the USMC Ball.
It's called the 'Birthday Ball' as it is to celebrate the 'birth' of the Marine Corps.
Birthday? Celebration of any type with worldly people?? A Military Event????
Certainly not something I would have even considered as a JW.
A funner component - and part of 'the rest of the story' - is that two weeks ago I found out that someone I went to high school with on the East Coast lives only about 2 miles from me in So Cal. He's a reserve marine and invited me to go with him. Neither of us went to the prom in High School. Me because I was very active JW (complete with elder/PO father) and he because he was a little shy back then. So this is kinda like making up for a missed event thirty a few years ago.
I've really been paying attention to try and make up for some experiences I had missed out on. Hoping that the tv commercial is true: It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
I think they are wrong with that claim. But I can try to make up for cultish upbringing as best I can.
This is just one more attempt. I think it will be fun. Just wish I still had my 17-year-old body. I seem to have lost that a decade or two ago.
-Aude.