Linda Z

OldSkool said: "That was my first exposure to GSC. Reading a thread that she had left on her desk... Yep." That is far and away the funniest thing I've read on GSC in years. Thank you for the laugh!!!

I don't think so. We would have heard.

I've seen him on a talk show with his kids. They're extremely supportive, and he's very realistic and open about his disease. He knows he's not always cognitively "with it," and it appears that his kids are very much looking out for him. He said he just wants to perform as long as he can. God bless him and his family. It's a difficult disease to be sure.

Hooray! Been praying for you and yours. Did the rest of your family come out of it okay?

I was thinking the same thing, Raf, but we'll have to make contact to find out.

After posting yesterday I did find a newspaper article that said her town was, in fact, very hard hit. A friend was able to talk briefly with her son, but she was at work. No more details than that, but at least it sounds like they're okay. I still can't reach her on her cell phone, but it's quite possible the cell tower isn't functional. I know she'd be on here if she had reliable Internet access, so I'm guessing that's iffy, too.

Still no word here. A mutual friend let me know her town, and I tried googling it to see how the town fared, but I didn't find anything. If anyone hears from her, please let us know. Praying she and her loved ones are all okay.

Not a peep. I called her and left a message shortly after the storm, asking her to let me know if they were okay. God only knows if her cell phone was charged or whether she got the message or whether she could respond. If anyone's heard from her, please let us know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program Under the "Twelve Steps" subhead. (Not hard to find quotations. All you have to do is enclose them in quotation marks in Google, and if they've been quoted accurately, voila.) Back to the topic, I guess LCM ragged on AA after my time. Ironically, I never heard VPW say anything bad about it. The legend around NK was that he had helped get a chapter of AA started in the area. I have no idea if that was true, but I heard it more than once from HQ old-timers.

Thanks for answering my nosy question. :)

I've never heard of this group except on GS, but I've avoided all offshoots like the plague so I'm way out of that loop. Thomas, have you attended a fellowship she spoke at, or read something she wrote? I'm just curious how you know she's clueless and seems nice. You seem to know about many offshoots. Did you check them out personally? That would be an interesting thread for you to start if you have.

If I were in their shoes (thank God I'm not!), I might do the same thing. I wouldn't want to be confused with the hate-mongering group that put out that video. Of course we all know they've slandered plenty of individuals, but that aside, I was surprised they were aware enough of what's going on outside WayLaLaLand to even know about this issue.

Happiest of birthdays, dear Socksness!

Socks said: I thought I wanted that, until I found out just what I was getting immersed in. I didn't mind serving beyond the hours of my regular job. I expected that when I asked to be on staff. It wasn't all the mandatory meetings, per se, that turned me off. Had they been meetings filled with evidence of God's inspiration and love and power, those meetings would have been uplifting and exciting. But 99 out of 100 were just plain mind-numbingly boring. It wasn't the low pay, either. As I said before, the cost of living in NK was extremely low. What I hadn't foreseen was that I was getting immersed in a truckload of bull$dang. Sorry for the vulgarity, but it's an apt description for the hypocrisy, micromanagement, and legalism that were going on at twi HQ at that time. Much to my surprise and disappointment, VPW was neither oblivious to nor simply passively allowing all that crap to happen. He was, in fact, promoting to top positions of responsibility and authority the people who were masters of hypocrisy, micromanagement, and legalism. Socks, I think you nailed it. VPW kept the old timers happy by extending much, much more grace toward them than he did to the rest of us. Johniam mentioned feeling appreciated. For the first couple years I felt appreciated. I had a good dept. coordinator, and he shielded us from much of the BS. Then Rosalie took over our dept. and it was quick slide downhill into the steamy, smelly stuff from there! Even when Rosalie was smiling that smile and speaking in that Southern-lady drawl and saying nice words, I never felt appreciated under her reign. Not for a minute. I felt used, criticized, looked down upon, and unhappy. So I walked. Others apparently weren't as unhappy as I was. God bless 'em.