The Christianville Spirit: My Mandatory Road Trip

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

August 27, 2014-TCS # 414

Hello Again, My Readers! It has been a while since I have written My Newsletter, huh? Well, Welcome Back! It is Time for My Normal Newsletter Schedule to be back and New Newsletters each week. So, to Answer Your Question as to where I was...Well, I was on My Made-Up Company “WTSOC Communications & The Christianville Spirit” Mandated Vacation. Yes, even a Newsletter Writer like me, has to have a Vacation or at least a week break or two. But, Don’t Worry It doesn’t happen often, I stay faithful in My Weekly Newsletters. So, The Next Question, What did I do on This Vacation? Well, This Vacation was a Lot of Driving, Awesome-but-too-fast-at-times, Whirlwind of a Trip. It started 2 Tuesdays ago, My Mom and I did our Traditional Drive of getting from Texas to Atlanta because That is where The Smith Family lives. My First Newsletter Day off, I spent Driving the Other Half to Atlanta (We usually drive 12 Hours but, We decided to Half-Way It this Time and It was worth It!) It is pretty cool to drive into Atlanta during The Daytime when it usually is Nighttime when we arrive. The Rest of The Day We spent time with My Grandma Honey and met up with My Awesome Friend, Audrey. We got to hang out with them for a while. Luckily, They don’t live that far from Atlanta. On Thursday was sort of a Lazy Day before We headed off to North Carolina. We spent a Lovely Weekend with Some of Our Wonderful Friends and We even had Someone who is Very Special show up. My Mom and I have a Friend, who is close to Our Family and also used to Babysit Me when I was Little (back when We were living in San Antonio) and We have not seen him in 21 Years. His Name is Scott and Yes, If that name sounds familiar, He is The Uncle of Monica (“The Monica Miracle”) Anyway, My Mom was friends with Him before I was born, My Mom says that She met him “B.C” (Before Christian). We also got to meet his Sweet Wife. Anyway, It was really nice to catch up with Him and For Him to see what I have become in 21 Years (a lot of Changes happen over 21 Years, at all) He is Mesmerized with Seeing How Well I am doing. Before I move on, Here’s a Shoutout, “HI UNCLE SCOTT!!”. So, After a Weekend with Friends for a Dinner Party, We hop on The Road again to Savannah, Georgia. Grandma Honey wanted to take advantage of The Opportunity to do an Extension of Our Trip, “Y’all haven’t seen Savannah and I want You Guys to see it”, She told us. So, This Time, We got to see a little more than 100 Miles of South Carolina and That was Awesome. So, Sunday Evening, We got to Savannah and We stayed at a Lovely Riverside Hotel along The Savannah River. This “Extension” was sort of a Birthday Surprise from Grandma Honey, We got a Room on The 8th Floor (The Tallest Floor) and It happened to be a Riverfront Room AND on The Concierge Level. On The Elevator, We found out The Hard Way that You were supposed to Swipe Your Hotel Card to Access the 8th Floor. It sort of gave Grandma Honey and I both a little Anxiety Attack, but We figured it out! After we got ourselves settled and comfortable in Our Room, We met up with Grandma Honey’s Very Sweet Friend, Karen Bartlett. We went to Dinner at The Crab Shack on Tybee Island, for an Authentic Southern Meal and I am talking, Really Authentic! My Mom, Grandma Honey, and Karen had a “Low Country Broil”, I had Deviled Crab and It was Very Good. I did have a Taste of Sausage and Karen even cracked a few Crab Legs for Me to Try. By The Way, Deviled Crab is Crab Meat inside a shell. After Dinner, We took a little “Locals’ Savannah Tour”, First, Karen drove us down to Old Ft. Jackson and The Tybee Island Lighthouse; then we visited The Beach of Tybee Island (I got to Dip My feet in the Atlantic Ocean); then, we went down Victory Drive, which had The Best Live Oak Tree overhang that I have seen (which in My Opinion is What Savannah is Known for) AND With Palm Trees lining on The Middle of The Road. Karen told us that Each Palm Tree represents Every Confederate Solider who died in The Civil War. After that, We took another Live Oak Hanging Tree-Lined Street Southward. It was really awesome to see the Spanish Moss hanging from The Tree too. It turns out that the Spanish Moss hangs there because of The Dirt in The Air that lands on The Branches. Now, A warning to People that want to Visit Savannah, Do NOT Touch the Spanish Moss because There are Itchy Bugs called Chiggers that will dig into your skin and Make You itch really bad, just Warning You Now! Along This Tour, Karen showed us a Surprise that Only Locals know, We found a 500 Year Old Live Oak Tree (Live Oaks are known to live Very Long lives). It was Huge! The Biggest Tree, I have ever seen! It is really awesome to see a Tree that Old and seriously that big! Anyway, While we were Driving around, I didn’t realize How Many Islands there are in Savannah, including Wilmington Island, Skidaway Island, Hutchison Island, and The One with My Favorite Name, Isle of Hope. Isle of Hope, I will say has the Most Beautiful Houses in Savannah and Most Dense Forest that I have ever seen along The East Coast. We passed by the Most Famous Plantation that I didn’t realize has a Mile Long Canopy of Trees. It is Famous in The Movie Forest Gump. By The Time, That we got there, It was all ready Dark and The Gate had closed. After The Tour, We went back to Our Hotel and Enjoyed some Evening Snacks in The Concierge Floor Lounge. The Next Day, Monday, was a Day in Savannah. So, We got up and Ate Breakfast in The Concierge Lounge, It was nice and quiet, then We were off on The Day’s Adventure. We hopped on The “Old Town Trolley Tour” and It is Awesome. We got to see The Riverfront Area and All it’s Cobblestone Streets. By The Way, The Cobblestone on The Streets was brought in from England when Savannah was just a Colony. We got to see The Many Quaint Squares of Savannah, There are 24 in All; We stopped at The Savannah Visitors Center and I was on a Mission, to see The Famous Forrest Gump Bench. I was told that It was not at The Park where it was set, but it was at The Visitor’s Center. It was actually in The Savannah History Museum, So My Mom paid for Me to go in there and gave me her Phone to take pictures of What I wanted to. I eventually found the Forest Gump Bench and It was Amazing! It is always something to Me to watch something on TV or in The Movies and see it in Real Life, because seeing it in Real Life, makes it Real to Me. Along with The Bench, I also saw What an Oscar Award looked like. After seeing all that, We moved on and got back on The Trolley. We passed by a Catholic Church called St. John The Baptist Church, In The Pictures, it looked amazing but It was closed for an Event, We were all kind of disappointed. After The Tour, We had Lunch and then, I saw Several Hug Container Ships go by along The Savannah River. I even saw one that was going to Norway. On The Way back to The Hotel, We hopped on The “Savannah Belles Ferry” which took us up to The River toward The Hilton Hotel, We got to see a View of The Savannah Riverfront. I had read that It was supposed to look like Dublin, Ireland and although, I have never been to Dublin, I could see a little resemblance. After stopping at The Hilton, It stopped at The Westin Hotel on Hutchison Island and Then, back to Our Hotel. We ended Our Day, With Our Feet Up, Eating Dinner, and then Watching The Ships go by. So, Then This Past Tuesday, It was Time to drive back to Atlanta. Along the Way, We stopped for Lunch with Some Good Friends, I happened to be wearing My “The Christianville Spirit” Shirt and I heard a Voice from behind me saying, “Nice Shirt”. I turned around to a Very Curious Elderly Couple who were sitting together eating Lunch. They were wondering about My Shirt and I told them about it. They seemed Very Interested in Every Thing that I was saying. Had I been there much longer, I probably would have struck a really good conversation with Them. But, They were Very Sweet to talk to and I am happy to know that They were curious about My Newsletter and Now PTLS. After we reached Atlanta, We got some rest before Driving Back Home on Newsletter Day of Last Week. I was Very Happy to say the least to be Home and Back into My Normal Routine. All in all, It was quite a Memorable Trip and Yes, It was lot of Driving, but I’ll tell you, It was so Worth It!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. When Taking Long Road Trip, You never know Who You are going to Meet.

The Christianville Spirit: (TCS Series) What It's Like Having PTLS-Part 2 (Rerun)

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

August 6, 2014-TCS # 413

G’Day, My Readers! So, This is The Greeting in Australia (Pronounced Aust-Tray-Lya). I like to think of it as More of a Short Hand Version of Good Day; sort of like in Texas, We say “Y’all” which is short for You All. I did that for My Aussie PTLS Members (Shout Out!) like Kathy “Bogan-ville” N., PTLS “Aunt” Sam O., Leonie, Jennifer & Nathan, and of course My PTLS “Cousin” Lainey, (in Sing-Songy Voice) From Australia! Okay, I have learned to Mimic what The Subtitles say in Writing. Anyway, Let’s get started with The Newsletter. So, without further adue, This is The Christianville Spirit Series, “Oldie Goldies”. So, for the 5th and Final Installment of This Series, We hop in The Time Machine and Go Back to December 5, 2012. At This Time in My Life, I was excited that It was My Favorite Month of The Year, December. A Bit of Warning, It does say, “Happy December” as well as a Teaser about Explaining Why I Love December. If You have not read it yet, Check Out My Newsletter Site and Read It, It is a Really Good One, I promise you. Thank You for Reading This Wonderful Flash-Back Series and Re-living some of My Goldie Newsletters from The Past. This is Part 2 of What It’s like Having PTLS. Roll It Guys...

Well, Happy December, Everyone! This is My Most Favorite Month of The Year, more on that in a couple weeks. This Week, however, is sort of an extension of the question, “What is it like to have PTLS?”. I forgot to mention about 2 other major things about PTLS, that would be Imitating and Obsessing (we’ll call it OCDing) because we PTLSers have an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder behaviors sometimes. Now, I had a whole thing about Imitating, I figured that I had mentioned it enough in My Newsletters, but to my surprise and yes, some humor, You wanted more about Imitating. Last Week though, for those who are new, I had written a little blip about Imitating and what it is like to have PTLS. So, anyway, let’s get to it! Imitating can be a good or bad behavior, depending on the source. Now, before you start asking, “What is the Source, you say?”. Well, The Source is what we’ll call, where the Imitation is coming from and there are many. The Main Sources that I look at when it comes to explaining is The Parents of The Children, Friends (Both Childs & Yours), Other Kids(Other Kids have a greater influence though), and Things on Television. So, considering that we listen to everything, wether we’re talking or not, we will eventually Imitate the things that we hear you saying or doing. The Best Rule to follow is if you want Good Behavior, put them around things of good behavior, in all the main sources. And, the same thing goes  for the opposite side. So, If you want your child to talk and I know many PTLS parents do, than you put them around normal kids who have good behavior. Here are some examples, When I was little (like 3 or 4 Years Old), The School that I went to, there was a kid who pinched people, so I started pinching people, so the teachers had to move me and the kid away from each other. For Eating, I didn’t eat very well but, I sat at a table with kids eating fruit and I started eating off their plates. I got in trouble but, My Mom was happy that I was eating. I learned to jump on The Trampoline, only when there were kids jumping on it, That was the best thing for Me. When the Speech Therapist would say, “Look at me” and turn my head towards her, I would do that to people who weren’t paying attention to me. I would turn their head and say, “Look at Me.” It’s not a big thing but, it was a big part of how I learned.  As for Me, I have Imitated since I was younger and I still do but not as much as I did when I was younger. When I was learning to talk, I would repeat the other kids, and they would tell me to stop repeating them. I did not know why they would get so angry with me. Usually, it takes a little while before I start to pick up whatever behavior I’m watching. Even the 2 Girlfriends I had, I Imitated their behavior; I talked like them, I thought like them, and I behaved like them. Anyway, now we move on to what can be (to outsiders and PTLS Parents themselves) an annoying habit, The OCDing. We PTLSers Obsess about different things; People, Objects, Interests, and Thoughts. So, usually we find something that interests us and we start to Obsess about it by thinking about it, talking about it, and researching things about it. The annoying part of it is that we don’t stop talking about it or researching until something new sparks our interests. For Example, After I spent a long time Obsessing about Ali, she was My 1st unofficial Girlfriend, I found everything with the name Ali in it and drove my Mom and Brother crazy always talking about it. After I broke up with her, I started Obsessing about New England, which was a nice change for everyone around me, but then it was a problem. Which to most people would think is healthy to think about other things besides the girl that you were with. Honestly, I believe that it helped me with getting over her because she was a nice girl. Anyway, I believe when I was around 7th Grade or so, I would pick a City or State to obsess about and they were odd places sometimes. Besides Atlanta, where The Smith Family lives, I would obsess (well, not really obsessing because I love Geography, but anyway..) I would Obsess about the places in between like Alabama, Mississippi, or Houston. In my head, I pretend that we lived in where ever I was obsessing about. When I was Younger, like back what we now call “The Mr. Jeff Era”(from 2nd to 5th Grade), we had a creek in the backyard and considering that I had gone to Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico with My Dad, I would pretend that Mr. Jeff’s House was the Welcome Center into Laredo, Texas, The creek was the Rio Grande River and, My School, Harrington, was in Mexico. I’m sure, My Childhood Friends hadn’t heard about this until now, or at least I don’t think. The tall-tale sign of what your child or myself are obsessing about is mentioned a lot whenever we talk about things over and over again, and never get tired of it. I have to be told to stop and move on to some other topic. Further toward My Present Age, If you have ever had a conversation with me, you would notice I’ve obsessed about Places like New England (like Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine); Norway & Sweden (My Neighbor, Woody, and I have discussions about that a lot); The Caribbean (like Jamaica, The USVI, and St. Martin & St. Bartts;  How News, The World, History, and Politics all tie together; and of course a share of Girls including Girlfriends I’ve had, Girls I like, and of course, My Future Soulmate. I should also mention, if you haven’t noticed, that we like to repeat ourselves, it’s another thing that we PTLSers do called Repetition. So imitation is often when we are young, but not so much when we get older. OCD behaviors help me to stay focused, so I guess it is a Good thing. Repeating myself and talking about my Obsessions, Well, that might drive others crazy, but I like it and so I keep doing it.

All in All, 

if your kids are imitating, hopefully its all good things. If they have OCD behavior, be patient with them because it helps them to feel in control and stay focused.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. We all have our quirks and good reasons for them. Love us anyways.