The Christianville Spirit: Me on Anxiety

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

January 28, 2015-TCS # 435

So, My Readers, I want to tell you about a Common Problem that Us PTLSers have and One that I honestly Hate. It is called Anxiety, or at least that is the More Complex Term. Nervousness is a More General Term. We PTLSers experience Anxiety often, I think it is just part of it. Sometimes, We get Anxious about Worthy Things like Things that May Harm Us like Most People But, Most of The Time, We get Anxious about Things that might be a Bit Weird to The Typical Person. Like Trying New Things, (In Some Cases) Meeting New People; Big Changes in Routine; Being Overwhelmed with Too Much Noise or Too Much Activity; Different Substances and Textures (Mainly Gooey Textures); and finally, Little Things, like for Little Kids, Baths, Toilets, and Water. The Little Anxieties, We will call those Irrational Fears that come and go. I course, Get Anxious about Those Things and Of Course, Going to The Doctor and Most of All, Needles. I know that Needles is common one, but there are people who don’t mind Needles. I believe that The Most Common of Mine are Doctors; Being Overwhelmed with Too Much Noise or Activity (The “Great Wolf Lodge Adventure” with My Dad was Certainly an Example of That); Doing New Things (Once I do them, I am Okay); Routine is Very Important but I am a bit bendable with that one as long as It isn’t too Extreme; People and Animals in Distress (Exactly why I don’t watch Horror Movies!); Babies Crying; and, Finally, Gooey Substances. This One is The Biggest Trouble for Me. You See, There used to a Toy back in The 90’s called Nickelodeon Gak (It turns My Stomach to even say it, So I refer to it as “The G-Word”), It makes My Stomach Turn just thinking about it! In Summery, It is a more Slippery Version of Silly Putty, or at least, that is what I have been told. When I was Growing Up, they had “Nickelodeon Stores” across The Country, I avoided them like The Plague. I only stepped into one because My Dad wanted to check it out, I digress. Anyway, I did not or Still Do Not like Gooey Substances which includes Gak, Silly Putty, Silly String, or Any Substance that Looks Like It! Here in Texas, at Any Mexican Restaurant, We have what is called “Guacamole”, which to Non-Texans, is Mashed Avocado. I Hated Looking at it because in My Childhood Mind, It associated with “The G-Word” because it was Green and so is “The G-Word.” Today, I am a bit more Lenient about it but, It is not My Favorite Thing to Look at. The Worse Episode that I had was when I had My Braces taken off. So, after They took My Braces off officially, I was so Excited! But, It went away pretty quickly when They told me that I had to have My Retainer Done. Sorry Kids, but Here comes a Spoiler! SPOILER ALERT! In order to Mold Your Retainer, They use a Very Gooey Mold to put in Your Teeth to make Your Retainer. Unfortunately, It has to go in your mouth right then because It will get hard very quickly. Well, Long Story Short, It went in, I gagged horribly (Threw Up My Lunch), and Done. I didn’t learn that I was supposed to Wear them Every Day, I didn’t. In it went again, I believe this happened 3 Times before I learned about This. I learned in The End to put The Retainer with all the slobber in it, facing down, not up. Otherwise, You will find your slobber pooled in It which is Why I didn’t wear them the first time! This Whole Gooey Substance Thing also makes me worry about My Future Love Life. Like Touching Private Parts of My Spouse and Making Love to Her. Also, Thinking about Getting Married makes me Very Anxious. Anyway, Moving On, so How do You know when I am Anxious? and How do I calm Myself?, I am sure you are asking? Well, with The Substance Thing, I have a “Look” on My Face as My Mom likes to say. It is The Look that Says, “I’m about to be Sick Face” and Other Times, It is The “I’m Concerned” Look. My Mom also says that I often scan people for Their Body Language. It helps me to predict what might be happening and it calms My Anxiety. I know that A lot of Other PTLSers, Scream or Cry (Which I will admit, that I too did) Well, at least, The Crying Thing. Gagging, that can be a Sign too of Nervousness. Gagging happens when I don’t like the Texture or Appearance of Food, or Gooey Substances. I often get Quiet when I am Nervous when I am Normally Talkative. I start to get sweaty and My Hands Sweat also. I get a Little Self-Conscious when I have to hold someone’s hand either Romantically or not. 

 So, Now to How do I calm Myself? Well, I have never admitted this, but, Sometimes it helps me to a Hug a Pillow and I have One Big Pillow that I hug. Now, I don’t only hug it when I am Anxious but, I like the Texture of it. My Mom points out that I hug a Pillow everywhere I go. Maybe it is a Positive Texture Thing. One Time when I had to go to The Dentist to have a Root Canal, It helped that I had a TV above Me (with CNN on) to Watch. It helped majorly to tell me that They did not need to give me shot. The Tooth was Dead anyway. When I was Overwhelmed from The “Great Wolf Lodge Adventure”, it helped when I listened to Soft Music. I figured since I loved Geography and I remembered that New Zealand’s National Anthem sung by a Nice Singer with a Ukelele so, that is what I chose to help calm me down. Talking to My Mom certainly helps and having her hugs is a Bonus. Hugging My Dogs helps a lot too because They understand. Now, I do have to say that, Yes I have tried the Anxiety Medication route. But, that turned into an Epic Failure because after I took it, My Head felt sleepy, airy, and it buzzed. I asked My Mom, “Is This what it feels like to be Drunk?” and She said Yes. It turned to be an Epic Failure because The “Drunkenness” Feeling, only made me more Anxious. If Your Child is Anxious about Something, namely Too Much Activity or Noise, Too Much Stimulation, than Pull Them Out and Give them some time to Calm Down a little bit. If They are Anxious about other things than try to Work through it with Them as much as You Can. All in all, Anxiety is one of things I hate about PTLS, but I would not give up My PTLS for The World.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Find Your Way to Calm Your Nerves!   

The Christianville Spirit: The Untold Story of Lynee

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

January 21, 2015-TCS # 434

So, I have quite a Story to Tell You, One that I have never told you. Or at least, I think I haven’t. Consider This One of The Great “Untold Stories” of My Life. You See, I got reminded of it because I received something Very Special. I’m not sure if I told this part but, It leads to a Great Back-Story. See, When I had My Kidney Stone Episode back in November, One of My Mom’s Students got me a Mini-Christmas Tree to help me get better from it. The Student told My Mom, “It’s better than getting him flowers!” because after all, You don’t get a Man flowers if He is not feeling well. I guess, it is one of those Society Stereotypes but, It’s Okay to Me. Anyway, After Christmas, My Mom and I had a debate about What to do with It and My Mom said that We should plant it. So, that is what We did, We planted it in a Pot and I blessed it in Lynee’s Honor (sort of like What I did with Popi’s “Christmas Town”). As You Remember, Lynee was a Girl back in Elementary School that I had the BIGGEST Crush on. I like to say that it was The First Major Crush of My Life. I remember once that I snuck open the “Harrington Phone Book” just out of Curiosity to see her number and Where She Lived. My Childhood Friends, The Herricks and Barsis, always lightly picked on me about My Crush on Lynee. “Lynee, Lynee, Lynee!” they would say and It made me blush. I fell pretty hard for her, in a Child’s Mind like Mine. I think it came from the Fact that You know Someone is nuts about Someone Else when You mention that Person’s Name and You just Can’t stop Smiling (or Blushing). So, Where is The “Untold Story”? Well, This is Part of It. But, The Big Part was a Time that I saw her in High School, in 10th Grade, 11 Years Ago. Little did I know, that it would be The Last Time I saw her. Now, When I think of This Story, It makes me Cringe a bit in The Way that I handled It. But, Here It goes! So, I was sitting in An Aqua Science Classroom and The Teacher was doing Role Call. The Teacher called My Name and I said, “Here.” and, then The Moment that changed it all, The Teacher said, “Lynee Watson”, followed by a Voice in The Back saying, “Here”. I was shocked! I thought, Lynee Watson? Doesn’t that sound Familiar. It took a Moment to Register in My Head and then, I flipped out inside My Head, thinking, “Lynee Watson! I knew Her back in Elementary School! I had the Biggest Crush on Her” I turn around and sure enough, There She was. I had to Look Back Several Times to Realize that It, Indeed, Was Her. It was Crazy because The Last Time I saw Her she had to Move Away at The Beginning of 5th Grade and I was Very Sad that She left. And, At this Time, She was Grown Up too, Very Different from The Last Time I saw her. It took several days for Me to walk up to her and Tell her who I was. Each Day I would see her, I would be too nervous to talk to Her. But, The Whole Crush Thing along with The OCD Obsessions came back too. I did have a Second Childhood Friend that sat behind me, Hayley. Hayley was a little easier to Re-Introduce Myself to. One Day, The Teacher told Us that we had a Little bit of a “Free Period”. This was My Chance, I Thought. So, I got up the Nerve to go talk to Her. “Hi, Lynee” I said Nervously, “I’m Christian.” “That’s Great” She said. Probably thinking I meant, Christian like The Religion. I Said, “It’s Me, Christian. You Know, Elementary School!” Memories on Her Side flooded back, She got excited “Oh My Gosh!, Christian!” and then, We hugged. We reminisced for a while about How both of us where doing and To My Surprise, She told me that when She first Saw Me, She too thought, “Wait a Minute, Is that Christian?!”. I then, told her that I had the Biggest Crush on Her back in Elementary School. Now, This Part gets a little blurry and Sometimes with Good Reason because It is Cringing, thinking about it. I could have sworn that after I said that, I walked away a Short Second to go back to My Chair and She called me back. She asked if I would like to go on a Date with Her. I thought, “Whoa! I’ve never been asked out before!” I, Of Course, was a bit curious as to Why. She told me that She too had Feelings for Me, She too had a Crush on Me back in Elementary School. Now, At This Time in My Life, Socially, I did not know how to handle someone asking me out. And, I told her that I would ask My Mom if It was Okay. Then, I said, “Well, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind” and She WAS Going to give me Her Phone Number to call her but, I of course, told her that I would call her, Referring back to that, “Harrington Phone Book” segment of The Story. After That, I forgot to Call Her but, I think I told My Mom about it. After That, She didn’t show up in That Classroom. Hayley did though but, Lynee didn’t. I wondered what happened to Her. the Teachers could not tell me Where She Went because of Privacy Laws. I was Sad that I didn’t see her anymore. Later down the Road, After Trying to Find Her after Years of Not Seeing Her. I had found out that She passed away in May 2008 and I found 2 Years after She had Passed Away. I wish that I would have just said “Yes”, Gotten Her Phone Number, and Gone Out with Her. Her Life at Home though, Unfortunately, was not a Very Good one. I wonder about it now and Wonder if I was One of The Only Good Parts of Her Life and in an Honest Truth, It probably was. She moved a lot in Her Life but, She didn’t really stay steady in School, except for the Time I saw her in 4th Grade and Again 10th Grade. Even if I decided to Date Her, It probably would have not gotten any better for Her Home Life. Now, as Depressing as This Sounds, This Story has a Point. In My Family, I always tell My Mom and My Brother (And, Yes, even My Dad) that I Love Them, even if They are leaving The House for 2 Minutes, I still say it. Because, After All, You never know when The Last Time that You are going to see someone. So, You should always say that You Love Them, regardless of Whether or not, You do. You don’t want The Last Words to be “I Hate You”, that would be Terrible! Now, as Far the Lynee Story goes, After I found that She passed away, I told her in My Prayers that I Loved and Still Love Her. I am led to believe that The Woman of My Dreams, Bridgett (I believe that is Her Name) that She will look Exactly like Lynee and She will have Lynee’s Spirit in Her. She is My Guardian Angel, after all. All in all, It is a Very Good Story that when I meet  This Woman of My Dreams that I will pass the story down to Her.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Plant a Tree in Honor of Your Loved One and You can Smile as You watch it Grow.      

The Christianville Spirit: People as Trains

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

January 14, 2015-TCS # 433

So, The Other Night I had a Strange Dream that I wanted to share with You. Now, Normally, I do not share about My Dreams but, This Time, I am going to because It has quite a Bit of Meaning. You See, I had a dream about Being on a Train. I think It was because I watched a Video from Cory (Mr. Safety) called “Beer Train” and I think that is Where it came from. For a Few Reference Notes, “Mr. Safety” is a YouTuber that I watched a lot when He was Dating another YouTuber named Kate (Katersoneseven). The “Beer Train” Reference; Cory made a Video about His Adventures in Alaska and Found that There is a “Beer Train” in Anchorage. It goes through some Very Beautiful Scenery and Gets a Little Wild. I was a little Curious about what happened because He said it was Crazy. Anyway, I remember waking up from The Dream with The Thought, “People as Trains, Gotta Stay on Track”. I thought, “Oh Man, I got to write this down!”, Following up with “Oh, I am sure that I will remember”. I didn’t. I remembered it the next day and told My Mom the Next Morning. When The Thought, “People as Trains” came to My Head, I wondered “People as Trains?! That’s Crazy”. It made more sense after Thinking about It. I can consider it a New and Interesting Theory. It is Interesting because Trains go through a lot and see a lot too. As My Friend, Deb tells me, “Life is not about Rushing to The Destination, It is about The Journey.” That is Very True! And, Trains do go on a Journey to get to Places. Not that I have I been, but, The Journey from San Francisco to Seattle is a Journey on It’s Own. Of Course, Trains also behave differently in their journey, as We would in Our Lives. We have Low Points and Go through Boring Parts of The Country. Also, We have High Points and Go through The Most Beautiful Parts of The Country like The Adirondack Mountains in Autumn; Montana; or Along The Pacific Coast. Trains, in their low points crash into Cars, Run Over Objects, or Just have a Conductor that just Lays on The Horn. My Brother tells me that They do that a lot when passing His House in Denton. “Sometimes, They just Lay On The Horn, It is so Annoying!” My Brother would say. Another Low Point, Going on a Crazy Train, You might feel like Saying, “I feel like I’m on a Crazy Train!” I’m sure that You have heard someone say that Saying before or Even “I Feel like This Train is moving Way too Fast!”  The High Points, Those are when Being on a Train or Being a Train is when it gets Awesome. Like How about a Train Plowing through The Snow in The Deep Woods of British Columbia! That is Beautiful! or Maybe the Honor of being The Polar Express and taking Excited Kids up to The North Pole. Sorry, I have seen that Movie a Hundred Times, I think I was getting Really Excited here! Another Cool Thing about Trains is that They take You to some really cool places! There are Times when People take their Vacations by taking a Train Ride to a Certain Places like Through The Mountains, Up to Chicago, Through The Alps, or Around Sydney. You don’t hear about it that often, but You would be surprised if You saw just how many People have their Luggage ready to go at a Train Station. Of Course, I should also mention that There are Different Types of Trains, The Regular Ones, The Historic Ones (like Grapevine Vintage Railroad or Savannah Historic Railroad), Amtrak (Here in The US), EuroStar (in Europe), and Let’s not forget The High Speed Trains (like The Accela Train along The East Coast of The US or High Speed Trains in Europe and China) So, What is The Point of All This? Well, If People are like Trains, We are on Our Own Journey. Sometimes We hit Beautiful Parts or Boring Parts of Our Journey. Sometimes We get stuff thrown at us or Objects like Ipads and Other Things put on Our Tracks (By The Way, You should NEVER do any of Those Things!). Sometimes, A Car, A Truck, and Yes, Even a Person may get in The Way of Our Journey and All While Trying to Derail Us. Sometimes, We will travel though Freezing Cold not seeing a Thing because of All The Snow, then Maybe We will travel through The Warmth of Florida, Mexico, or Spain. We’ll go though Many Cities and Many Railroad Crossings (both that are Lighted Crossarms or Some that are Not Lighted). We may Carry a Very Long Load of Cargo, Maybe Passengers, or Beer-Drinking Partyers. But, On The Other hand, We may carry “Precious Cargo” or Very Elegant Dinner Guests. The Scenery will always change, The People will change, and We Our Train-Selves will Change (like being Upgraded from just a Passenger Train to an Elegant Dinner Guest Party), or As Long as We stay on Track, The Track below us where ever We are, will Never Change. and, Who Knows, We may have More Unexpected Fun than We thought we would on Our Journey. All in all, Being A Train is a part of Life and You never know what You might Encounter.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Remember to Stay on Track on Your Journey.

The Christianville Spirit: Happy New Year 2015

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

January 7, 2015-TCS # 432

Welcome Back, My Readers! I would Love to be The First to Welcome You to an Exciting Year of Thought-Provoking, Teaching Moments, and Yes, Even Touching Newsletters! But, First, Happy New Year and Welcome to 2015! I hope that the Year of 2015 is The Year that Your Dreams, that You have been waiting a Long Time for, Come True. In Other Words, I Hope Your Year Sparkles! Which brings us to This Year’s Tag Line. This Year’s Tagline is The Spirit that Sparkles! It seems like a Fitting Name with It being My Newsletter’s 10th Year of Writing. I started Writing this Newsletter on November 1st, 2005. But, I Think We should celebrate This Whole Year! By The Way, The Credit for The Tag Line of 2015 and The 10th Year of Writing goes to H.J. Angel from East Texas. So, Let’s Get To It! So, Let’s start with a Question. Oh Come On, You Know It’s good when I start with a Question. The Question is What do You Hope for in 2015? I have this New Idea for Two Reasons. First Reason, I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions (that is except the One I made Last Year about Revamping My Newsletter, Which I Did) because Most People give up on them by The End of January. Most Importantly though, I believe that It is Okay to have Big Hopes for a New Year. Why? Because I believe that Once You start Hoping for it, It will be sent to God and The Universe. Myself, Personally, I hope to meet All the Wonderful PTLS Family Members who are reading this, being Inspired and Knowing that Yes, Your Child WILL be Okay and You will too! I also hope that This Year will be The Year that I meet The Woman of My Dreams, Bridgett (If that is Her Name). I believe that it is Her Name like I Purely Came Up with Her Name. It happened for Carol Holiday (Refer to The “Dream Girl” Newsletters, If You want to know more about that). So, Why can’t it happen with Bridgett? Of Course, Many People say that In Order to Get Love, You must be Love. I have No Problem with that. I believe though, that We need more Love this Year and I am talking about All of Us. The Hope that My Mom will meet someone is Always There and I just know that Someone really awesome and Understanding of People with Special Needs is just waiting anxiously to Meet My Mom. Kind of How I’m anxious about Meeting Bridgett. Of Course, I do hope for My Brother too. This Year, although He doesn’t say it, will be Very Big Year for Him and I hope that He is Extremely Successful in Whatever He Does, be it Art or Being really good at Selling Beer and Wine (Thank You, Beer and Wine Class at UNT). Whatever, My Brother does, It has to be surrounded by People. Because My Brother is quite a People Person. I also hope that My Brother will meet The Love of His Life. I hope that Maybe we would Live closer to Family too. So, I do have to Tell You that Because I got into a little trouble in The Romance Department, I am thinking, I should put My “I Believe In Love” Campaign on Hiatus for a While. Don’t Worry, I still Believe in Love and I always will Believe in Love but, You won’t see The Hashtag anymore. You See, In December, Some Woman, who, to put it Shortly, A “Catfish” claiming to be Interested in Me, giving me Details that Let’s Just say, You should not tell on The First Message. Luckily, My Mom was there when I read The Message on Facebook. Later, I found, that after Some Internet Research, It was a Nigerian Romance Scammer. Triple Ouchies! It was Worse than a Catfish. (Thank You, Nev for Teaching Me that One!) Good Thing, that I have been reading His Book, In Real Life. Anyway, although I did not go as Deep as Nev did, It still Hurt Me because I couldn’t believe that Someone would be that Mean! So, I figured that I may have to stop the I Believe In Love Hashtag, or at least, Not use it for a While. Now, on a Lighter Note, I did get plenty of Love from My PTLS Family. I got two Packages over Christmas, One from Scotland (Thank You, PTLS Member Angela Isdale) and One from Germany with German Chocolates, Official Haribo Products, and An Atlas of Deutschland (Germany in German). Thank You to PTLS Member, Lizbeth for That. All in All, I hope You have a Good Year filled with Love and Dreams coming True!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Happy New Year 2015 and Let’s See It Sparkle!