Hi Sleepy. Yep, that's me. I've been out for almost 30 years now, but I still have trouble relating to "normal people". By that I mean, people who learned interpersonal skills as children. When you're the kid who runs from the classroom when another kid brings a ouija board to class or sits alone while EVERYBODY else is singing X-Mas carols, it makes other kids look at you differently, and I don't mean in a good way. People who raise their kids in this cult should be flogged.
I get a kick out of people who are raised non witnesses, and then get depressed or just turn stupid and then let themselves and their family sucked into the Borg. When you ask them if they think it's fair that they grew up getting to celebrate holidays and their own birthdays, invariability they will tell you that their kids don't want to celebrate holidays or birthdays. I asked one fool how he knows that his kids feel that way, and he told me that his kids would tell him if it bothered them not to celebrate holidays.
I grew up a witness, and I can tell you that I ached to celebrate X-Mas, just like the normal kids on my block. And I sure didn't take any particular joy in hiding in the darkness of my house on Halloween, listening to all the little buggers outside screaming with joy and counting their booty.
I'm dying to hang out with a roomful of other recovering ex-jw's, how about somebody putting together a northern cali apostofest. Preferably near silicon valley.
-fin