Posts by tracylee

41

Soaring Gas Prices

by 1975 in

jw
friends

.

what effect will the gas hike have on you?.

Food costs more, and I have a family to feed. I have noticed that my dollar doesn't go as far as it used to when I go to the grocery store. I'm glad that in WA state, I at least don't have to pay tax on food (our sales tax out here is about 10%, which is freakin' ridiculous).

Gas is over $4 per gallon. I'm glad that I moved to an apartment where every place I need to go, including work, is about a mile away. If necessary, I could walk or bike to do all of my errands, which becomes more and more appealing everyday (the reason I don't is because my kids are still very young and it would be a difficult trek for them)

I basically have cut back on the amount of food I eat, and avoid driving anywhere I don't HAVE to go to. The thought of going on a road trip makes me cringe now, but back when I was an undergrad it was practically a rite of passage! Sigh.

32

Where to JWs park their cars when going door-to-door?

by bradp in

jw
friends

i am a christian and have handed out tracts all over my neighborhood,.

i'm ready to go to a new neighborhood and am trying to determine where to park my car without it getting towed.. is there a jw publication available that covers this kind of info?

.

tracylee

Steve2, I took about 7 coffee breaks on any given morning that I was out in field circus. I also intentionally gave bad directions to the driver so we could drive around lost for a while (still counting time of course), until I needed to pee, then we'd stop at a gas station for a bathroom break, I'd get another coffee... Field circus was awesome.

32

Where to JWs park their cars when going door-to-door?

by bradp in

jw
friends

i am a christian and have handed out tracts all over my neighborhood,.

i'm ready to go to a new neighborhood and am trying to determine where to park my car without it getting towed.. is there a jw publication available that covers this kind of info?

.

tracylee

omg you guys are killing me over here! LOL

40

assemblies; how times have changed

by Evidently Apostate in

jw
friends

my wife mentioned our circuit assembly was this weekend, she looked at me and i let out a chuckle and said "the kids are too sick right?

" (they weren't) but it was what she wanted to hear, an excuse from me to blow it off.

it got us thinking about how they were kind of tolerable when we were younger.. meals with ice cream, lots of volunteering to get you out of your seat.. there was more room at past assemblies.

tracylee

I miss the cheese danishes. I used to eat so many of those I threw up.

The worst part about the assemblies and conventions though was that I had to endure them TWICE over. I was dragged to the regular assemblies, and then later dragged to the Korean-speaking assemblies. That's borderline child abuse, LOL!

47

To all the JWN moms

by poopsiecakes in

jw
friends

this isn't a popularity contest and i know i'm missing some but i wanted to give a special shout out to all of you who have experienced heartbreak and trials because of your wt exit and who i've come to love and respect.

i'm not a mommy myself, but every one of you inspire me.. palmtree, lozhasleft, watersprout, shelby (aguest), lady lee, tec, dinah, nugget, coffeeblack, morbidzbaby, snowbird, lovelylil.

now i feel bad already because i know i'm leaving some wonderful moms out but i wanted to get this thread up so that you all know how much i love you.. and i kinda miss my mom right now.. .

tracylee

Won't Leave, I think we have the same mom.

Oh wait, it's that JWs are all homogenized by their cult.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! My son made me a cute art project from pre-school, and scribbled in a card for me. =) Now if only I could get him to sleep in past 6:14 am...

(and I am so glad I got out of the cult before I had kids)

96

April 15th WT - WT Society says " Obeying Us is Same as Obeying God "

by flipper in

jw
friends

this is a non-study article in the witness only version of the april 15th titled " do you discern the evidence of god's guidance ?

" essentially in this article the alleged " faithful slave " is telling witnesses that to be approved to survive armageddon- they will have to recognize the " faithful & discreet slave's " authority in their lives.. notice these direct quotes from pg.

4 , " jesus christ is the assigned leader of the congregation.

tracylee

Even though I was raised in the troof, the whole concept of the FDS and the GB never sat right with me. No matter how many times the concept was pounded into my head, I was still left with this one thought: "Huh?" I couldn't for my life even explain it if an outsider had asked me about, because it made so freakin' sense to me, EVER.

I got an email a couple years ago from one of my old "friends" from my former congregation, asking in so many words what my "status" was. He knew I had doubts, and that I didn't believe certain major parts of the JW doctrine, or even that the Bible is necessarily inspired, but he never shunned me. Not until I told him that one of the reasons I left was because I didn't believe the GB had any authority to tell me a damn thing, and that I couldn't be a part of a religion where a bunch of old farts in NY sit around and decide what clothes I can wear, what color I can dye my hair, what job I can have, who I can marry, and even what type of sex I can engage in, and how disturbing I thought it was that they insist on keeping a freakin' RECORD on me, a file of how good or bad I am, and that I am not allowed to even SEE what is in my stupid records that follow me from congregation to congregation, or why they need to keep tabs on me in the first place... and that if someone were going to be spying on me like that and keeping track of how good or bad I am, they better be bringing me presents in December! Once I dissed the GB, he shunned me. I was shocked that it was THAT that made him cut me off. Not my apostasy or disbelief in the doctrine, but my disbelief that the GB has any authority from God. To the JWs, disagreeing with the Bible or God himself is considered a lesser offense than disagreeing with the GB.

40

"Local Needs" Talks: The people who should really hear them are never there.

by Open mind in

my whole life as a jw i've heard this refrain.

"too bad so-and-so wasn't here for that local needs talk.".

as an elder i would have a hard time putting my heart into writing up a local needs talk that was targeting one or two congregation members, knowing full well they probably wouldn't be there to hear it.. .

tracylee

I was the obvious inspiration for a local needs talk back in my day... it was regarding physical appearance, and how important it was to not dress or look like a worldly person. I had just been counseled about how my dark hair made me look "goth" (my hair is naturally very dark, being that I'm Korean). Also, I didn't dress like a 97 year old woman (though I was still modest, and I'm sure the other sisters were searching for ANY reason to force me to wear a WTS-approved potato sack dress).

The main points of the talk were about how wearing trendy or fashionable clothing could make us "blend in" to the world, when we should be separating ourselves from it (i.e. "Tracy, quit wearing clothing that is relevant to this decade! It's making our fat ol' wives feel bad!"), and we wouldn't want to be mistaken for a worldly person, now would we?

Then they moved on to hair color, and how although it's not forbidden to dye our hair, we should only stick to "natural colors", and that certain hair styles or colors are associated with Satan worshippers and druggies. (i.e. "Tracy, we don't know what this 'asianness' is that you speak of, but it sounds like a lie! Your dark hair is clearly a sign of the devil! Go make yourself blonde!")

In response to being counseled for such BS and then enduring a passive-aggressive attack from the stage, I dyed my hair a ridiculously unnatural shade of red. It was seriously Ronald McDonald red.

I received a lot of compliments on my new look from those idiots. Apparently Elmo inspired hair is okay, but with my natural hair I might as well have 666 stamped on my forehead.

I continued to dress the same though. I wasnt buying a new fugly wardrobe just to appease a bunch of insecure middle-aged women. I got negative comments about my clothing until the day I formally disassociated myself. Whenver someone would say something to me, like, "You decided to wear THAT to the meeting?" and I would ask what was wrong with it, they would just say something vague like, "Don't you think it's a WORLDLY style of clothing?" I still don't even know what that means. Most of what I wore would have been appropriate for work or a job interview.

I'm sure as I was fading out that there were a few more talks about me, but at that point I had mastered the art of sleeping with my eyes open (unfortunately I never did master the art of not drooling while sleeping upright... don't worry, my NWT caught most of it).

47

What's YOUR Favorite Weird Al Yankovic parody?

by Gopher in

mine is amish paradise.

hilarious!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfvw9xxony.

tracylee

I have been listening to Weird Al since I was a kid, and my dad had all of his tapes. (cassette tapes, remember those?)

White & Nerdy is my all time favorite. It's the theme song of my dorky socially awkward life.

I recommend watching the Lego version of it. =)

16

By looking at the Human Body - what normal conclusion should we come to...

by sinis in

jw
friends

as it pertains to evolution or creation?

with modern science looking at the construction of the human body they have found some organs that are no longer necessary for function, and believe they are carry overs from evolution.

with this in mind, and potential flaws in our design, if we were created by an all knowing, highly advanced god, should we not have been "built" better?.

tracylee

what intelligent all knowing being would place a man's vulnerable testicles on the OUTSIDE of his body, completely unprotected? And THEN place a billion nerve endings there?! I don't know if we were created or evolved, but I do know that if we were created, God is an a-hole who laughs everytime a poor chap is punched in the junk.

100

What's the most dumbest/petty thing you've heard of someone being "stumbled" over?

by Reality79 in

- some loser once took offense that i hugged a sister goodbye at a leaving do and ran back to the elders like a little child telling on me.

i was 15, this sister was in her 40s at the time.. - this elder said someone told him they saw me with a copy of the sun newspaper.

yes, this paper is known for its 'page 3' topless girls but far from pornagraphic and i wasn't even thinking along those lines.. - one brother who had a good job was 'counselled' because he was actually able to buy himself nice things including a new car (shock, horror!!

tracylee

Scooterspank wins.