April 22, 2015

The Christianville Spirit: The IKEA Ride


The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Sparkles
April 22, 2015-TCS # 447

So, My Readers! Happy Earth Day! Let’s Celebrate The Earth, Keep It Clean, and Marvel at All that God has created. If You can go, do it. If Not, Look at a Site on Reddit called “EarthPorn”, The Places that They show on there are Real! So, on to My Newsletter. There was An Exciting Event that happened This Week, It will sound boring at First but, Then, Gets Exciting! So, This Past Saturday, My Mom and I were just going to go to The Grocery Store and then, Come Home. That is all that We were going to do, I was a little tired that day so It was Okay with Me But, After We did Our First Errand, I thought, “We can’t JUST go to The Store, I know I am tired but, We Have to do Something Today!”. I perked up when I thought, “Well, There is a New Water Tower that was built, Let’s Check that Out”, So, We did. Well, In a City like Our Neighbor to The North, Frisco, It grows VERY Fast with New Roads, New Neighborhoods, and New Road Signs! Oh, The Life of Me! So, One Sight to see turns into Two, and then Three. It is the 3rd Sight that holds a Surprise, but The Exciting part is Coming! The 3rd Place was Downtown Frisco, The Old Downtown Frisco where not as much happens compared to New Downtown Frisco. We drove past a little Festival called “Frisco StrEATS & Music Festival”, something like that. Wow! What a Surprise! My Mom and I find the oddest things on Our Drives. So, on the way to What I thought was going to The Grocery Store, My Mom said “Why don’t we walk around IKEA!?” I thought, Okay. Now, We are at The Exciting Part. So, As I mentioned back when I wrote the Newsletter about Nebraska Furniture Mart, I had never been to IKEA. So, Why not Visit while We were out and sort of Compare in Our Heads versus Nebraska. So, We walked in and It was as if We hopped on a Roller Coaster, A Roller Coaster that meets The “It’s a Small World” Ride at Disney. I have to say, in respect to IKEA, that it is a Very Structured Store, One that You have to Walk all the way through, It is a Different Type of Store than I have usually been in. But, Hey! We are Here, It is pretty much the Closest to Sweden as We can get, right now, and Our Friend, Monica would be Very Proud; On The Ride, We go! Click-Click-Click-Click Up the Escalator and Down a Small Hill. Wa hooo!!  Then, The “It’s a Small Room after All” starts. And, Believe Me, By American Standards, It is a Small Room. It makes You realize that Americans (and, Yes, Texans especially!) have Big Houses. The Rooms were anywhere from 1,000 Square Feet to 275 Square Feet, the Average Size of a House in Sweden (and, Elsewhere in The World), We saw the 375 Square Feet House that would be a Good Size if I have to Live by Myself. The 275 Square Feet, was Getting a Little Cramped. You could easily Get out of Bed, be within a Few Feet of The Kitchen and Table. You would Never leave Your Bed because The TV is right near Your Bed. It was amazing to see a Model of what Some of My PTLS Family Members live in. It makes us realize that us Americans and Texans, Love Our Stuff. The More Stuff, The Better. In Fact, In Plano, It is the More Stuff, The Happier You are; At Least, That is What They say. I don’t believe them! More Stuff, Does not make You make you have. But, I have heard that Not having so much Stuff is actually Freeing. Now, Do keep those small comforts like a Pillow (at least for Me) or a Toy or a Stuffed Animal. Most Definitely keep Your Clothes! The Rest can be replaceable. A Bonus is that, in the event of a Move, You don’t have to move so much stuff! Anyway,  We found some cute “Gifties” as My Mom would say, along with some cushions for some of Our Chairs. Now, At The End of the Showroom Segment of The Ride, Structure tells us to stop at The Restaurant but, We figured that We would save that for Last. Now, We get a Little Excitement and Go down a Longer Hill with a Wave or two. Our Hands in The Air, We say Yay! Yeah! Then, We move on The Marketplace Segment of The Ride. This is where The Ride goes on a Conveyor Belt so, You can get off and get on when You need to. The Marketplace is to get the little items that you need, Things for Your Room’s Organization, and other things. I saw the Room Organization Section and I got off The Ride to see it. I need a New Organization for My Map Collection! Funny how walking through a Store can do that to You. I said that we would think about it, just thought I would check. Back on The Ride. Then, We get to The End of Marketplace Segment and We come into The Warehouse Part. Now, at Nebraska, You do not set foot into The Warehouse, so This is New to Me. That Warehouse, I have to say was Huge! Back in The Showroom Segment, You were supposed to grab a Shopping List and Write down what You wanted along with a Bin Number. Then, You come to The Warehouse Segment and You find the Bin Number, Voila! You have your Build-Your-Own Furniture. With Visiting IKEA, You have to mention that Yes, You do have to Put Said Item Together, from an Easy Bed to The Much-Harder Shelf. Or at least, that is what I have heard anyway. So, Then We come to The Finale of The Ride, The Check-Out. Now, again The Structure claims that You visit The Restaurant and hop on The Ride, Marketplace, and then The End of The Ride, You try the Cinnamon Bun for Dessert or Visit the “Swedish Food Market”. Well, We visited The “Swedish Food Market” and then, We walked to The End. Now, I have to say that After Check-Out, The Way that The Signs are and The People, it feels like leaving customs in an International Airport. After We hit The End, We dropped our stuff in Our Car and headed to The Restaurant. Now, IKEA has plenty of Shortcuts but, You have to know about them. Now, We hit The Restaurant and I have a Helping of Authentic Swedish Meatballs along with Mashed Potatoes, and Lingonberries, Oh how Monica and My Swedish PTLS Family would be Proud. Now, I will say that They also served French Fries and Mac n’ Cheese as Sides, so American! I did not have either. I did however try Lingonberry Juice which was really good. I noticed while walking through here that I saw Jars of Lingonberries Everywhere! It was Funny to see all The Swedish Words for Things and Try to Pronounce them. They ought to have an Audio Tour with How to pronounce those, it would help immerse you in The Swedish Culture and Try to Understand It. My Meatball Meal, by the way was Really Good. My Mom, of course, tried to Vegetarian Version of it and She really liked it. And, That was Our Little Trip to Sweden via IKEA. So, Thank You IKEA! So, Those of You still wondering if We ever made it to The Grocery Store, Yes We Did! After Words, My Mom wanted to take a Picture of us at The Bluebonnets that she passed every day coming and going to Work. I realized that we had not done that in a Very Long Time, The Last Time We did was when We were Kids. So, I think I owed her that one, The Picture came out Great! All in All, That was Our Fun Adventure. Funny what My Mom and I find on Our Drives, even if We are just going down The Street. By The Way, IKEA really does not have a Ride, although I kinda wished that It did. I would ride it! I would call it “The IKEA Experience”, Make Note, IKEA, It’s a Good Idea!


Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Take a Drive! You never what You might find! Bluebonnets and Lingonberries. 

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