bowtwi

It takes a mighty big dog to weigh a ton. B - Better O - Off W - Without t - the w - way i - international

These came right off the top of my head: available man of God genuine spiritual suspicion problen mathematical exactness and scientific precision That's ri-i-ight! opportunity household devil spirits bless

Trefor - welcome to the GS - I'm delighted you're here. I'm so glad twi never hurt you over you being gay - it seemed to me that our goal was to be Christlike, and I just don't picture him falsely accusing people or cheating on his wife... I'm looking forward to reading your story - it seems to help to hear each other's experiences on this healing journey. There's a whole lot of good going on in the world and I for one am very glad to be able to participate. One more thing I'd like to say to you - Happy Easter!!!

I've heard from so many GSers since posting my story - this is an amazing and wonderful collection of people that contribute to these forums! I've learned that when the family corps coordinator told those in res. about my son and me being m&a that he said that when he held my hand he could FEEL MY evil! Oh, how extra spiritual he had to be, ya know? This was the man that after he asked me if I would sell my car to pay a debt, put his arm around my shoulder in a very comforting manner as he told me I didn't have to sell it - that he asked only to see my committment level to the corps program. He smiled as he tenderly looked into my eyes and assured me that I would need my car in order for my son and other corps kids to attend extracuricular activities at the high school. He did this knowing that it was a scam - he let me unpack our stuff and settle into the campus and TWO DAYS later - verbally assaulted me and kicked us off of "their campus." There's more, but this incident really makes my point, so I won't go on and on. Bowtwi Jr. and I are living well and I really do believe that the only revenge worth having is living well. I thank God for the peace that's in both of our hearts. I don't believe that lcm and his "gang" have peace in theirs.

Happy Belated Birthday, Kit! Much love, bowtwi

I've Never Been To Me ( Charlene ) Hey lady, you lady, cursing at your life You're a discontented mother and a regimented wife I've no doubt you dream about the things you'll never do But, I wish someone had talked to me Like I wanna talk to you..... Oh, I've been to Georgia and California and anywhere I could run I took the hand of a preacher man and we made love in the sun But I ran out of places and friendly faces because I had to be free I've been to paradise but I've never been to me Please lady, please lady, don't just walk away 'Cause I have this need to tell you why I'm all alone today I can see so much of me still living in your eyes Won't you share a part of a weary heart that has lived million lies.... Oh, I've been to Niece and the Isle of Greece while I've sipped champagne on a yacht I've moved like Harlow in Monte Carlo and showed 'em what I've got I've been undressed by kings and I've seen some things that a woman ain't supposed to see I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me [spoken] Hey, you know what paradise is? It's a lie, a fantasy we create about people and places as we'd like them to be But you know what truth is? It's that little baby you're holding, it's that man you fought with this morning The same one you're going to make love with tonight That's truth, that's love...... Sometimes I've been to crying for unborn children that might have made me complete But I took the sweet life, I never knew I'd be bitter from the sweet I've spent my life exploring the subtle whoring that costs too much to be free Hey lady...... I've been to paradise, (I've been to paradise) But I've never been to me (I've been to Georgia and California, and anywhere I could run) I've been to paradise, never been to me (I've been to Neice and the isle of Greece while I've sipped champagne on a yacht) I've been to paradise, never been to me (I've been to cryin' for unborn children that might have made me complete) I've been to paradise, never been to me (I've been to Georgia and California, and anywhere I could run) I've been to paradise, never been to me found on google

Thanks, Dot!!! I really appreciate your thorough answer. I'll get some of that "Plum Silky." Thankfully, she has no goobers in her eyes. I hadn't thought about cleaning her ears. Guess I need to get acquainted with her vet. This dog actually belongs to my boyfriend, but has really stuck close to me for some time now. So much so that the boyfriend has commented about it. In fact, while I was sick with the flu this week, the dog stayed on the bed with me or at my feet wherever I go. She stays in the office with me while I work. We use a wire comb on her every few days, but it's not a loop - do I need a loop brush? You gave such great advice! If I lived near you, I'd seriously have to consider hiring you. It'd be well worth the $50!!! I'll look into that food, too - he's been giving her Purina something or other. I have trimmed the hair on her toes, as she won't let him do it, but she is about due for a vet visit. I think I'll go along, if I don't just take her myself so I can be sure all these bases are covered. Again, thanks so much!!! This is great! If I ever learn how to post pictures, I'll post one of her. She is such a beaut! He found her abandoned! Apparently, someone taught her not to bark, but she has begun sort of talking to me, not to him - it's the coolest thing!

I'm wondering if it's okay to use people shampoo to bathe a dog. I've always done that with any dog I ever had, usually some shampoo & conditioner in one combination. I'm now told that it's actually bad to use on dogs, and I don't believe it. What I do believe is that I'll get the true story here. Aside from hiring a pro, what's the best way for me to bathe a Siberian Husky?

Oh Fabulous EX, Live Forever :D--> Your wisdom is only outshined by your awesome beauty. If only I had the money to spare, or is the desire in my heart, to take that fancy class Wyoman boasts about, why I'd, well, I'd be better at sucking up. You have given me the words to speak my thoughts that have been lost for I don't remember how long. You see, yesterday, I couldn't even spell cluelessness - today I are it! And I owe it all to you, oh wondrous Ex10. How shall I ever thank you properly?

Ex-10 - A thousand thank-you's for your gracious and most wonderful acknowledgement of my question. Of course I am happy to wait til the end of time for the answer to my question. Please, feel no rush on my account. It sets me free to know that I'm not the only one that ever thought of such things. Being that I am of some German descent, one just can never be too sure. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me, after all. I must go walk my dog now, but after that and during that walk, I will be thinking of nothing but your answer to my question in hopes that I will be judged worthy to be blown off again and again while you tend to more pressing matters as is your most deserved and special manner. I'll be back after I walk the dog, even though I may be really tired, cause that's the kind of selfless gal I am... You mention LarryP - has LarryP posted on this thread? Hmmm, I hadn't noticed.

Dearest Ex, oh Master of Forgetfulness: I've been waiting 75 of my 43 years on this earth with this question on the back burner and now, today, at this glorius time and hour, I have found the one to ask who can truly set me free... If you forget to forget, do you remember? -->

Oh Stevo - you got me! And are you ever gonna get it! You know what they say about payback, right? I fell for the title of this thread in a big way. I've had a tough day and I thought I was gonna read something light and nice. As the mommy of a 6-year-old, when I realized it was about a 5-year-old hanging out with construction workers, I read like a crazy man racing through it. I guess it IS pretty funny, now that my heart has settled down!!! I'll be watching for my chance to get you back!!! --> :D-->

Watered Garden - I am only speaking for myself here. I am a woman too. I was involved with twi from 1979-1994. When I first heard that Howard Allen french-kissed girls when we would approach him at the roa and greet him "with a holy kiss," my first reaction was "no way." After I thought about it some, I quit approaching him at the rock, just in case. In the back of my mind I wondered if it were true, but I had no personal proof. Somehow, I pushed it all the way to the back of my mind and no longer thought about it. But I made sure never to be close enough that it could happen to me. When I first heard about vpw in the motorcoach, I couldn't believe it. It was never anyone I knew personally, and it just didn't fit with my image of who I thought that man was. Just like the story about ha, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. Again, I made sure I was never in a position to be close enough to hom to risk being victimized. But I never talked to anyone else about what I had heard, again not wanting to believe it could be true. Eventually, after hearing many similar stories, I quit doubting. Today, I say shame on me for ignoring those nagging doubts. I've learned a lot about what people are capable of doing to one another since those days. With lcm, it was pretty much the same to me, until I got m & a'd over supposedly being lesbian and allowing my son to be homosexual. I said it before, that's where they blew it with me. You never really know another's heart unless they choose to reveal it to you, but you do know your own. And I knew I wasn't a lesbian. Pretty much up until then, I didn't want to believe evil of who I thought was the MOG, so I pretty much pushed those thoughts away. Another thing - when someone is sexually molested, usually they go into a sort of denial. It's an unbelievable situation to find yourself in. When it's vpw or lcm and the victim was "just a believer," how horribly intimidating it would have been to confront. I personally don't understand how anyone could convince me that it would be okay with God for me to have sex with a married man of God, but then, my NBW friends that saw me right before I entered the way family corps could not understand my thinking at that time. I can't say how I would have handled any of those situations that those ladies were confronted with. I just thank God it wasn't me. And I pray for their total healing. I do believe every woman that said she was sexually abused by a leader in twi really was. I do not believe that anyone would ever make up a story like that. I just really believe them to be telling the truth with every fiber of my being. No offense to you personally, but it hurts my heart to read anyone doubt any of the victims, especially after so much has been revealed over these last few years.

Oh man, so many thoughts! When I first read this post yesterday, I thought of my former mother-in-law advice to me when my her son beat me up one time and she found out about it. She told me to what she did to her husband back when he beat her up the first time. She decided that to divorce him would not only make it tougher on their kids, but on herself as well. She felt her kids deserved to have her home everyday when they left for school and returned home. She told me that she felt she was doing the right thing "sacrificing herself" for her kids this way. When she found out her husband cheated on her, she felt the same way and bought separate beds. They were in their early 30's at the point she bought separate beds. To this day, they sleep in separate beds. There was a stigma in our society that looked down on women who divorced in her day, as if it were their fault they couldn't keep their man happy. She said it always made the woman suffer more than the man. She also said it would give him permission to start over with another woman if she left him, and that he would probably do the same to any new woman eventually. This man is almost 80 and Mom is in her mid 70's today. I'm not speaking for Mrs. W. or anyone else, but this is what a lady within 10 years or so of her age told me over 20 years ago.

Dr. Seuss Explains Why Computers Sometimes Crash! (Read this to yourself aloud -- it's GREAT!) If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, And the bus is interrupted at a very last resort, And the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort, Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report. If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash, And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash, And your data is corrupted cause the index doesn't hash, Then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash! If the label on the cable on the table at your house, Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse, But your packets want to tunnel to another protocol, That's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall! , And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss, So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse; Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, 'Cuz sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang! When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk, And the macro code instructions cause unnecessary risk, Then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM, And turn off that computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

Golfie - I just can't imagine somebody putting you on any spiritual probation. I knew they were wrong with what they did to me, but it breaks my heart all over again to find that you were treated that way. I just figured you walked totally on your own. Those way people never cease to amaze me with their idiocy. You and your Mrs. have a couple of the sweetest hearts and are a couple of the finest examples of "twig coordinators" that podunk outfit ever accidentally acquired. I too, would like the words to that song. I only have one more thing to say (since the Packers are out of it ;)-->). GO BUCS!

I agree with you, Wayfer, and admire how you're handling things. really just posted so I could say the following: who had a big crush on pawtucket... GO BUCS! [This message was edited by bowtwi on January 25, 2003 at 13:03.]

MJ - I think 'bi" means left twice. My personal opinion is that it was tougher to leave before Waydale and GreaseSpot. I was M&A'd and it got so much easier on my heart once I learned what had really been going on. I then stopped expecting them to call when they figured out their mistake. I think it would be tough to have to decide to leave, but to be falsely accused and kicked out without warning might be even tougher. If one has warning and agrees to be on probation or whatever they do, that might not be as much of a shock - cause at least you know that they're considering kicking you out. How we could let them have that power over us - I pray I never let anyone have that kind of power over me again! Probably why I don't expect to remarry.

I'm fixing a huge hot sub sandwich - pepperoni, ham, swiss & mozzarella. It's a meal in itself. Taco dip and tortilla chips (the bite sized ones) for the appetizer. PACE Picante sauce, by the way. :P--> Diet Pepsi/Amber Bach GO BUCS!

Ah, Chatty, something that I like to remember when this aging bites me is that getting older beats not getting older, ya know? I'm sure enjoying this thread too, I'm so glad it continues... Hey Oak, I especially enjoy the nightly cd's you listen to. So far, I think I don't know and love one or two - I think you have great taste (tee hee) in music. Btw, my son's middle name is Reed. Loved that you played Velvet Underground the other night... Did you see that Lou has a new cd coming out? I heard a "sneak preview" on aol the other day...

I'm such an Atkins fan. I'm preparing to start the diet too. Have been trying to get motivated since the beginning of the month. It looks like I'll be starting the beginning of next month. It seems so easy for me, once I get started. To me, the first few days are the hard part. It seems like it's all downhill from there for me. I love to scramble a couple eggs and top them wiht shredded cheese and a Tblsp of salsa for breakfast. I either have bacon or sausage with the eggs every other day or so, for variety. For lunch I like to either roll up a slice of roast beef, ham or turkey with a slice of cheese in a romaine lettuce leaf. Three of those satisfies me quite nicely. Otherwise, I have a salad with the meat cut up in it with a little fat-full dressing, (watching the carbs). Sometimes I'll eat a half can of tuna with my salad instead of the sliced meat. If I'm still hungry in the afternoon after drinking two glasses of water in a row, I have another meat and cheese rollup. For supper I alternate between either two cheeseburgers, pork chops, or a steak and chicken breasts. Depending on my carb count, I really enjoy a baked chicken breast with spinach covered by a slice of provolone. I'm a diet pepsi drinker, so I have a couple glasses a day, but I make sure to drink 8-10 glasses of water every day. This diet is the only time I ever needed help keeping things moving along, if you know what I mean. I also drink a cup of coffee most every day, black when I'm on the diet. For me, the first couple weeks seem to fly by, cause I'm in my glory eating all that meat. Dot, don't worry about how much you haven't lost yet. You really will, by the end of your second week. I've seen that happen before several times, to ladies. Don't give up. If you've made it through a whole week of the Atkins plan, you are so on your way! I know the pee sticks are a good visual aid, but for me, the ultimate proof before I start feeling my clothes loosening, is the breath. There is a distinct odor to the breath when one is in ketosis, which I find unpleasant, but it smells like success to me, so I live with it. The Wrigley's sugarfree gum in the bright blue pack has 2 grams of carbs per slice, and I figure that into my daily count. I usually chew a half slice at a time... I've discussed this diet with a few doctors, who have advised me that it's not the best they can think of, but since I can really stick to this plan, as long as I don't go past 6 months of this plan, it's okay for me. I have no trouble with kidney stones or high blood pressure. I definitely recommend keeping at least one of Dr. Atkins' books around at all times while on the diet. There is so much info in them!

I should clarify my earlier post. The complex where I lived that I mentioned above did not have cars booted or towed unless the person assigned the spot called the management to complain. We were not required to use the sticker. When someone else parked in my spot, I parked in a visitor spot, which was open to anyone. If I had parked in another's assigned spot, the sticker would lead the maintenance guy to my spot, where they would see some other car, and deal with the owner of that car. I lived there for 4 years. If the sticker had been mandatory, I would have put it on my window. (It wasn't a bumper sticker.) In fact, they went to an unassigned policy my second year there, as they weren't willing to enforce the assigned policy.

Aww, man! That sucked! The last apartment complex I lived in claimed to have assigned parking and handed out stickers when we signed our lease. I never put the sticker on my car either. I used to get really annoyed when I'd come home from working 3rd shift and someone would be in "my spot." Or worse yet, I'd come home with a backseat full of groceries when the princess was a baby and I'd have to park where I couldn't even see our building. Each time, I called the complex managers and complained. They never did anything about it. One time I got a note on my windshield from the management telling me to get a sticker from the complex or risk being towed. I had forgotten about notifying them when I bought a new car. Even then, I did not put the sticker on my car, but the maintenance guys knew my car. I would sure have been mad if that happened to me and made me late for work. Sounds like a goof on the part of the complex. I hope they don't charge you anything to remove the guard on top of it all.

Pat - You got me thinking about lasting effects of the seclusion of twi life. I'm a prime example. For the first couple years out of twi, I tried to find a church, but I had that waybrain superiority complex going, which prevented me from being satisfied for years. Now, when I go to church I don't expect them to teach me great things, I go to be with others that love God. I enjoy it much more with my new attitude. (When the elderly Baptist minister is preaching (NOT teaching - ;)--> ) and gets a little lost in his sermon, I don't feel impatient, I just pray for him. He always gets it back on track and winds it up nicely.) I make a point of not dominating any and all conversations about God or Christianity. I get to enjoy the people I'm with much more this way, and I find that other people really do have a lot to offer in terms of friendship and fun, as well as knowledge. Why was that such a surprise to me? I no longer expect anyone else to see things the way I do - I enjoy the differences. I just plain enjoy life much better this way. I've even started reading my bible again and am enjoying it! Not what anyone says I have to because of the time of year it is - just what I FEEL like reading. WHEN I feel like it and only as much as I feel like. No rules. I notice I'm really enjoying all of life again these days. Cool.

I love Leonard Cohen, also. The line that comes immediately to mind when I think of him is "and is this what you wanted to live in a house that is haunted by the ghost of you and me" I went through quite a Leonard phase in the late 70's, I think it was. Never did see him in concert, tho. Brilliant songwriter, just brilliant. I love seeing that line InvisibleDan has for a signature "We are ugly, but we have all the music - Leonard Cohen" I never had heard that before, but I love it.