Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We speak in code so you can't learn our old guy secret stuff.
Given one of them was my next door neighbor, I would not be surprised. He sits in his garage all day, with the door up, and it looks like a workshop in there (a very crowded one with many years of accumulated shelves, drawers, and carefully cached stuff) but I have not seen him working on any projects. Often he just seems to be sitting there listening to talk radio and watching the world go by.
He and his wife are super nice, though. Just the right balance of friendly but not intrusively so, for my liking.
I had to laugh though when I moved in, and they said that they only had one rule for neighbors, "If you have any parties, you have to invite us." I mean, given the kind of parties I like to go to... Not that I host them in my home, but still.
Given one of them was my next door neighbor, I would not be surprised. He sits in his garage all day, with the door up, and it looks like a workshop in there (a very crowded one with many years of accumulated shelves, drawers, and carefully cached stuff) but I have not seen him working on any projects. Often he just seems to be sitting there listening to talk radio and watching the world go by.
He and his wife are super nice, though. Just the right balance of friendly but not intrusively so, for my liking.
I had to laugh though when I moved in, and they said that they only had one rule for neighbors, "If you have any parties, you have to invite us." I mean, given the kind of parties I like to go to... Not that I host them in my home, but still.
Have you ever seen someone at one of your unique sort of parties that you knew, and would have never dreamt would be at one of your unique sort of parties?
Working from home consists of, in part, my 2 year old grandson coming in my room/office, saying "Hi G'Ma", giving me a big hug, and reaching for the snack candies that I have.
Have you ever seen someone at one of your unique sort of parties that you knew, and would have never dreamt would be at one of your unique sort of parties?
Not...really...?
I mean, I've persuaded a couple of people I know to go, but I knew they were interested or I would not have suggested it. And I've had people join the club who were previously online acquaintances.
We have had many members say that they are afraid to one day see a coworker or something at a party, and most of the regulars like me respond that if you do, though...they are there, too. So it's not like they can exactly judge...? Anyhow there are strict rules about discretion--if I were to tell others at work that so-and-so went to this party and did that thing, or if I were to go around the community telling other club members where so-and-so works... Either thing would get me kicked out, membership revoked, and banned for life, and the word likely spread so that I couldn't join clubs elsewhere either. It's a big no-no.
Which makes sense given that a lot of our members are military, we've had a lawyer, a judge, several schoolteachers, etc.
Working from home consists of, in part, my 2 year old grandson coming in my room/office, saying "Hi G'Ma", giving me a big hug, and reaching for the snack candies that I have.
It's a beautiful bubble at times....
Apparently my work from home experience involves overhearing lots of weird shouted conversations. At least it seems to be this week's theme.
My ex husband claimed for most of his life (likely still does) that he was half Apache. He was adopted. His adoptive Mom says she has no idea where he got this idea. His 2nd ex wife (prior to me) told me recently, probably his Grandma told him that. His Grandma was a known liar and sometimes grifter, so...
I had his adoption records including an original birth certificate with his bio parents' full names. His bio Mom had a very distinctive, very unusual last name, and I would be stunned if there are two people in the whole country with her exact full name, and I'm 100% sure that there are not two of her whose husband has the bio Dad's name. I found them, it wasn't hard, and I'm sure it was them. I did not try to make contact (my ex did not want to) but I was playing around with Ancestry.com at the time, so I looked into the origins of his bio family. Half Scottish, half Belgian (2nd gen immigrants!) and no Apache in sight.
I broke the news to him, showed him the evidence, and hoped he'd be sensible and stop repeating this falsehood. Well... It has been part of his "identity" for so long, it was really hard for him to let go of. He'd say racist things and claim it was fine because he was part Native and hated white people the most. He'd adopted a ton of concepts that I would later find out that he sourced from movies, as "traditional" things he somehow knew about and embraced, to kinda...try and give himself a personality, I guess.
And my younger son, bless his heart, has craved his Dad's approval and love so badly for so long, and now that he (the kid) is technically an adult, he goes to see his Dad and they get high together and for the first time, the boy feels SEEN by his father. Never mind the heap of bad life habits that the boy knows his Dad embodies that have brought him nothing but suffering...the kid looks up to his Dad. I don't have the heart to fight this and don't think it would help if I did. My older son, though, has lost all respect for his Dad and doesn't want anything to do with him.
What I just overheard though? My older son shouting at his brother about how incredibly stupid and wrong it is to pretend you're part Native when you're not, and how their Dad just made that crap up to seem like he was interesting, and younger son trying to argue that maybe he was part Native because of his features and coloration and some of their friends have said that he looks it. Well, I've been told that, too, but unless I see some evidence I'm sure not going to make the claim. As far as I know, I'm mostly British, and all Western European. Dark hair and the ability to get a tan don't make you a Native American. Sheesh.
I sat at the top of the stairs and eavesdropped for a second...but my older kid has got this, I'll let them hash it out.
Hope your ex never takes the 23 and Me test. Though he probably claim that it was wrong.
My nephews' father was a peach of a guy, too. She did a good job of never poisoning the well with him, but the boys figured out around their late teens that their dad was not a reliable, stand-up guy.
I mean, I've persuaded a couple of people I know to go, but I knew they were interested or I would not have suggested it. And I've had people join the club who were previously online acquaintances.
We have had many members say that they are afraid to one day see a coworker or something at a party, and most of the regulars like me respond that if you do, though...they are there, too. So it's not like they can exactly judge...? Anyhow there are strict rules about discretion--if I were to tell others at work that so-and-so went to this party and did that thing, or if I were to go around the community telling other club members where so-and-so works... Either thing would get me kicked out, membership revoked, and banned for life, and the word likely spread so that I couldn't join clubs elsewhere either. It's a big no-no.
Which makes sense given that a lot of our members are military, we've had a lawyer, a judge, several schoolteachers, etc.
Desecration seems paramount there. I wonder if there is a bit of thrill with part of it, too.
Desecration seems paramount there. I wonder if there is a bit of thrill with part of it, too.
I think yes, for a lot of the newcomers. It's one of those things we get the bright eyed newbies who are so excited, can't wait to try everything, some of the just realized that some of the stuff they've dreamed about their whole lives is real and they can do it. Then the ones who stick around for a while, usually end up feeling like it's a kind of second "home." Then we get people who have been part of other communities in other places...other cities in the US, Germany and other countries sometimes...(Germany is common I think because of the military, a lot of our soldiers are stationed there and then come back.) So they are new to our club, but not the whole concept. Most talk about how warm and welcoming our place is, they like it.
We have a one month free trial to Showtime, and my fiance was tooling around Showtime "After Dark" and he said most of it was just kinda boring T&A stuff but there was one show he wanted to check out about a club in LA. Well, I've heard about LA. The scene there is really elite, expensive, and exclusive. Sure enough the guy is not only heavily screening applicants to join, he charges $15,000 for regular memberships (annually) and $100,000 for the invite-only VIP memberships. Of course there is a bit more to it there, private parties at his house, performers and people paid to make sure everything is perfect, a chef and all that stuff... But I was staying to my fiance, I'm sure that in a place like LA with prices like that, one of the most significant things that probably gets people to join is the access to social networking. Probably some movers and shakers, famous people, powerful people, in that group...you can get in there, play it cool, get to know them, and reap the benefits in time. And I'm sure it's a sort of wink wink social prestige, too.
Our club isn't anything like that, we want it to be accessible mostly because we offer a lot of education and can help people play safe. So we price our memberships at $20 with a $10 annual renewal, and a door charge of usually $15 for the parties themselves. More for the swinger stuff, but...that's normal.
But I've definitely had some social benefits of a more modest nature from just knowing who I know from there. Our lawyer buddy got us a mega luxury vacation lodge rental for over a week, some years back, and just invited us all up to stay for free. This place, I found it on VRBO going at $2300/night. He got it in exchange for his services from a client who didn't want to pay what he was charging. My wedding photographer has been getting some national attention by magazines lately, he's only charging me $350. Stuff like that.
I am happy to play with radios and electronics. Then the outdoor stuff I like doing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
