Aqua, So funny. Those events were just ridiculous, they always wanted something and never gave anything in exchange.
Every day I am more and more grateful to Mike’s blog and to those who participate in it for being out of it. I was already out for years but with my head still trapped inside.
These holidays we will make serious and real Italian food so much and varied that one will feel bad, that will be a real event!

Yes I am, LmR. I don’t look it, but fItalian and Albanian from way back on the maternal side – my mother was first generation. And then, what I do look like: American of English/Scot extraction from way back on the paternal side. A true American mutt 🙂

And, ah, yes, the cheese – that cheese, on top of the ziti, getting cold, congealing…yeah. Stomach turning slightly even now at the memory of that.

Each time a holiday rolls around, that I am no longer obliged to attend one of these “functions” (I think of them as DISfunctions) – that I no longer have to show up for a Scientology event, and worse, PRETEND to be enjoying myself is high on my Gratitude List.

It’s more than absorbing ONE theory; it’s choking on a constellation of mutually contradictory & incomprehensible theories

Aqua are you half Italian? This pleases me. You are just right about the food. Unfortunately there was always everything in economics. After hours people were throwing themselves on the buffet eating with two hands and any TR was gone. What I remember most fondly was the cheese. After some exposure to the air it began to sweat and to oxidize and curled and folded in on itself. I definitely DON’T miss all those silly events. Take care.

Peridot,

I loved your comment about holding your own with an off-the-reservation IAS registrar. I don’t care about “like” buttons ordinarily but for your comment alone I would want it so I could “like” it 100X.

I’ll bet that Reg was using an Anger Tone Level ploy on you, you know, to frighten and cower you into submission.

I’ll just bet that he had drilled it, and quite possibly had used it successfully in the past – on someone else, or on a number of others who could not confront the shock and awe of his “temper”.

I’m so glad you didn’t cave to it. Allow me to say with all my heart that your NOT caving it to it was so well done!

Laughter! Yeah, food was for the most part at those things was bloody AWFUL.

But then, if one were really HUNGRY, one had to eat it, of course.

I made sure I ate beforehand, even if it was a handful of peanuts or a few slices of cheese on the run, enough protein to hold me throughout the 3 hours of video etc., until I got back home.

But then, I’m half Italian and kind of spoiled when it comes to food. Plain cooking, yes! Very simple dishes, yes! Nothing fancy, necessarily. Nothing expensive, or complicated. “Gourmet” of itself is never the goal.

Simple fare, dishes each made with a few fresh, wholesome ingredients – that is the concept. Eating this way is what keeps one healthy, the sugar cravings at bay and the weight off!

End of unasked for and (very likely) unwanted mini-lecture 🙂

Yes we were. How I managed to raise 5 children amongst this insanity. Well really I didn’t.
I’m just now these last few years beginning to live normal and know how to and what that is.
Someday the severity of LRH and his followers abuse upon others will be widely understood. It’s complicated on purpose 😕
It’s hard for scholars, politicians, therapists to understand what a mind f*c it is because it’s wayyyy out there. Like absorbing a whole new theory.

Peridot. Right. That’s the true nature of scn – abusive and fascistic. Glad you got out of there too.
Without pretending to mean anything in particular, if one observes a person’s environment, friendships, where he lives, then he can get an idea of who that person is. If we look at scn – what we know really is – then we have a good idea of what hubbard (and DM now) had in their mind and who they really are. What we see is a reflection of who they really are. Bad stuff.

Aqua. Right! Then when one managed to approach the banquet at the end of the evening, the maccaroni had become a compact block and a chainsaw was needed to cut a part of them.