Met the in-laws this weekend! My wife (born&raised JW) and I have been married 2 1/2 years. Because my wife DA'd right after we met, her parents think I'm the Spawn of Satan and took their daughter not only from them but from God Himself. So I figured they were being really gracious just letting me into their home (under the cover of darkness, of course). Who givashtz ?
It started with mom-in-law smelling smoke on Thinker's Wife. Got her a lecture on the health risks (no mention of sin, Surprise!). TW changes subject quickly. Short introductions, head to the lving room, discuss neutral topics: wood floors, water leaks, droughts, brazilian mirrors, grand kids, etc... Who givashtz?
Then they mention attending the Super-Bowl of conventions in Italy. Out come the pictures...
ThinkersWife: "Did you get to see the Vatican?" (Who givasahtz about the JWs, show me some art works.)
Thinker: (Ouch!)
Active-in-the-truth-laws: "It was nice." (Do you think we givashtz about the Catholics?)
Bring out pictures of the big convention.
Thinker scans photos looking for any males with facial hair. No luck. It's like "Where's Waldo?".
Notices the "deer-in-the headlights" look on most attendees. Center stage was three small stages covered by tarps, not much bigger than hotdog stands. (What a ripoff!)
Mrs Active: "The Spanish Bros and Sis's would wave red and white hankies at the Italians and the Italians would wave yellow hankies back. Tee-hee."
Thinker: "Un-huh..."(Who givashtz?) (Thank God they didn't wave flags! I guess hankie-flags are theocratically OK)
On to the Italian Bethel brochure. Lots of stats about a publishing company using the latest equipment, etc.. (You think I givashtz?) Pictures of a scale model of Jerusalem built from what appear to be tan colored sugar cubes. I'm really eating this up now. (Look what you've been missing, honey!)
Then comes the grand finale. Some yahoo donated his fabulous house to the WT. (Probably screwed over his "worldly" relatives.) (What a fool! Oh, who givashtz?!)
Active-in-the-truth-laws: "Italian marble, Roman columns, square feet, mansion, blah, blah..." (It's like our own little Vatican!)
Some pleasant talk about the world around us follows, then Mr. Active realizes "the end" won't be near if things are going good, so he swings a quick turnaround to talk about moral decay, etc... (Better come back TW, before it's too late. Givashtz yet?)
TW: "Well, it's getting late..." (Get me out of here.)
The Active-in-the-truth-laws get in a couple quick verbal jabs at my wife as we're getting ready to open the door to leave and then we're outta there.
TW: "Never again!" (I just don't givshtz.)
A most interesting weekend. (Just in case you givashtz.)