Any more fond (not so) DC memories?

outsmartthesystem

My oldest child was barely 4 months old and NOT an easy baby. She cried all the time....and getting her to sleep during the day was a pain.....especially in a facility that was 80 degrees WITH A/C. On Sunday afternoon of the DC....knowing we had a two hour drive home (she also didn't sleep in the car well).....I went to an "off limits" area with her. It was an arena type set up so the 1st and 4th floors were the ground floor and concourse areas respectively. The 3rd floor was where all the offices/conference rooms were located.....and thus....where all the inner-workings of the DC were taking place. In other words....where the high rollin spiritual muckity mucks hung out (CO, DO etc). I was at my wits end because my daughter had not napped in 3 days. There was nowhere we could go where the speakers weren't blasting and where periodic eruptions of applause wouldn't suddenly wake her. Except of course for the 3rd floor. I found a nice quiet area.....away from everyone...inbetween two sets of doors leading to the outside of the building.....rocked her to sleep and laid her down on a blanket. Damn near immediately an attendant comes up and tells me that this floor is not intended for "regular convention delegates". I explained my plight. He stared coldly and repeated word for word what he had just told me. I told him we aren't hurting anyone or bothering anyone by being here. He then sarcastically said "yeah...well....you know we DO have mother's rooms". At this point I got pissed. I said "have you been in one of them?" He didn't answer. So I asked again. This time he admitted that he hadn't. I said "Well maybe you should. THen you'd know that there isn't a CHANCE of getting her to sleep in a room filled with crying babies, impatient mothers and playing toddlers that had no choice but to come with their mothers up to that room. I am NOT moving from this spot." He got pissed and said "it's on YOUR conscience, brother" and stormed off.

Seriously.....why couldn't he just leave me alone? I wasn't bothering anyone. I was desperately trying to find some peace and quiet to get an infant to sleep. Legalism trumps reason I guess

baltar447

Typical convention BS. We've all got stories. I'll have to think and ask my wife, but there are many run ins with idiot attendants either acting important or just following instructions blindly afraid for their own asses.

St George of England

Right high up on the back row at Twickers with girls. Why did they live so far away?

George

sd-7

I know. Brother Baltar was at one convention with his Cylon brothers wearing Attendant lapel badges. It was a frakkin' nightmare.

Anyway, uh...I just found it depressing. I was always scared to walk around because there were too many cute sisters out there. And...I also didn't really want to talk to anyone there, so lots of times I would just sit in my seat and write. But you can only sit down for so long, right?

Mostly it was just the lack of sleep. We would always travel with my JW aunt, who would always go to sit-down restaurants every night instead of getting something simple and going back to the hotel for some shut-eye. It was stupid, in my mind. And we would always get lost at least once.

Trying to hold it until lunchtime on a Saturday was the worst. I figured out that I should just go ahead and use the bathroom during the baptism talk rather than waiting ten years for the candidates to file out or whatever.

Then those really long prayers that gave a thorough review of the program. I felt like the floor was moving beneath my feet and I was going to fall all the way down that balcony. I would open my eyes sometimes just to look around. I was so tired during the program that it was hard to take it but so seriously even though I really wanted to up until 2009.

Ah. Sitting in parking garage traffic for an hour after the program, and auntie wouldn't crank the A/C, either. Fun times.

Fond memories? Only the 2010 convention that I didn't attend. I dropped off the family and stayed in the hotel, watched 'Terminator' and 'Matrix' movies and got a Frappucino at Starbucks and played arcade games at Dave & Buster's. Even took a nap or two. Ah. Now THAT was a good convention year. Better still, 2011, when we all played hooky and none of us went. Only to come full circle in 2012 with all of us going again...see how it's one step forward and two steps back?

--sd-7

NOLAW

Attendants with a brain smaller than a pea talking about 'YOUR conscience'? LOL

Remember an anointed giving the concluding prayer and repeating and repeating. That damn prayer didn't want to finish and a brother next to me shouted something like: 'You said these brother ___. Finish it!' (Many, many years ago, when I was a kid.)

Blind_Of_Lies

After nearly 30 years of going to a DC plus two other assemblies per year I honestly cannot think of a single positive thing about it. I look at the DC’s as a 4 day nonstop brain washing session. It starts months before you even leave your home. You cannot chose your own hotel, you must pick one off of a list…. A few weeks before the event there is a public needs talk that tells you everything from how to behave in the hotel room that you paid for à how to tip a waitress after a meal. The prep people on how to behave in public and everything. The whole process is horrible. I actually look forward to the weekend where my local area goes to them it gives me some sort of sick pleasure thinking of them sitting in there suffering. wahahhaahah

baltar447

I had not thought of the hotel list as a conditioning tool. Interesting thought. Although I think the "approved hotel list" is PURELY motivated by selfish money grubbing bastards, the conditioning is a culty side benefit.

JustThatGirl007

2009 convention, my oldest son was 9 and has asperger's syndrome. My younger son was not yet 2 and still nursing. Knowing how overwhelmed my 9 yr old would be the WHOLE WEEKEND, I regularly took him to the nursing room with me. He was known in there, the moms knew us, knew him, it wasn't an issue.

Some brother was stationed to attend there, though who knows why, and he tried to stop me from bringing my older one in with me. I was not about to let someone who knew jack shit about autism and even less about me tell me what to do. I told him, "Oh, it's ok, he has autism and he goes with me regularly." And the guy came back, "Well, the other sisters might be uncomfortable, blah blah blah." I told him, "Well, that's a risk I'm willing to take."

I did apologize to him later, for being so rude (now I wouldn't), and he was fine. Bottom line: do not mess with me and my children. You will not win.

People not understanding our kid and our family was actually one of the factors that pushed us out.

linuxbob

baltar447,

Does those hotels on the "list" give discounts or is a control ploy by the wts?

JustThatGirl007

Linuxbob (love your name) - allegedly they give discounts, but it is most certainly a control ploy, as well.

Any more fond (not so) DC memories?

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