The Christianville Spirit: Food Words

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

April 24th, 2019-TCS # 637

Ciao, My Readers! This is a Greeting in Not Only My Ancestral Language but, My Favourite “Food Language”! For The Record, as I have mentioned before that I am part Italian, German, and Puerto Rican. So, What is a “Food Language”, Well in short It is the Language in The Country that surrounds The Food. In Other Words, I Love the Italian Language as well as Italian Food. Now, Let’s Bare in Mind that I have not tried REAL Italian Food; As in Food in Actual Italia (Italy in Italian). Now, I have tried Italian as authentic as It gets One Time in Houston but, I digress. By The Way, Before I move on to This Newsletter, I do need to make an Editors Note to Last Week’s Newsletter. Apparently, The Newsletter that I reran Last Week (Refer to It, If You have not read it yet!) about Popi’s Lighthouse Day Celebration, that I arranged Grandma Honey’s Children, aka My Uncles and Mom in the Wrong Order. For The Record, This is What I wrote Before

“Next, several years later he marries his first wife, Grandma Honey for which we’ll play “Heaven” by Bryan Adams. Next, her and Popi have Julie Smith (who will soon be My Mom when I am born), Bruce Smith (Uncle Bruce), Craig Smith (Uncle Craig), and finally Brian Smith (Uncle Brian). After all those children we’ll play “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns and Roses.” 

This, I think was at a Time, when I wrote This Newsletter and then, released it. I don’t think that I had My Mom help edit to make sure things were Correct and Spelled right.

Anyway, The Corrected Version is Brian Smith (Uncle Brian), Julie Smith (Who will soon be My Mom when I am born), Craig Smith (Uncle Craig) and, Bruce (Bruce Smith) and Playing the Same Song that We played before.

So, With that Out of The Way, On to This Week’s Newsletter! So, This Newsletter that I am rerun was not an Easy Newsletter for Me to Write. I am realizing as well that This Newsletter is a Christianville Classic called “Words, Words, Words!” explaining How I felt about Figurative Language because Us PTLSers are Very Literal.

As a Reminder, You can always Check The Christianville Classics List for Some of My Best Newsletters. Also, While I am at it. Anytime, You can send me Newsletter Suggestions on Topics on PTLS and Otherwise, that You, My Reader, would like to read about.  So, Without Further a Due, This is The Christianville Classic Newsletter, “Words, Words, Words!”  Enjoy!

This Newsletter was written on September 16th of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 466)

Buena-sera, My Readers! As I like to try different greetings, Buena-sera is Italian for “Good Day”. So, What are we going to Talk about This Week? Well, We are going talk about a Trait in PTLSers that gets often Overlooked. You See, Us PTLSers when it comes to learning, We are Very Literal in Every Sense of The Word. Now, It is Funny that I always say that I am Literal, My Mom tells PTLS Family Members that I am Literal, and I know that I learn a certain way (as does Everyone Else) and I know how I handle things. So, In Short, I believe that I am just Me, Yes I am aware that I have Special Needs, let alone having Potocki-Lupski Syndrome and Yet, I don’t see the big deal of Having PTLS or even Being “Literal” because It has been the Way I have lived My Whole Life. So, In some odd way, It is Normal (or better word, “Typical”) to Me. So, It begs The Question, What is “Being Literal?” and Yes, I had  to ask Myself that too so Don’t Worry! “Being Literal” means that You see Everything for What it is, Everything is, As Is. As It appears or Exactly What The Word is means means Words are Pictures to Me. Being Literal, is to say the least, Challenging sometimes because of Things like Figures of Speech, Odd Phrases and/or Words, and Jokes. Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I do get Jokes sometimes, but Sometimes Someone can say something that sounds Serious but, really is just a Joke. So, Figures of Speech, We can call them “Speech Spices” or “Speech Enhancements” because in a way They are. In High School, In order to help catch me up with The Way Most Typical People talk, I had to take a “Figurative Language” class. I had to learn Phrases like “Don’t Let The Cat Out of The Bag” (Keeping a Secret), “It is Raining Cats and Dogs Out There!”(Very Heavy Rain), “Sweep Someone off of Their Feet” (Literally, It means You are taking a Broom and Sweeping their Body away from Their Feet. Figuratively, It means Falling In Love or Liking Someone a Lot), “You are What You Eat” (If You eat Bad Foods, then You feel Bad and Vice Versa), “It is Hotter than Hades Out Here!”(It is Very Hot Outside), and “Pick Yourself up by Your Boot Straps” (Learn from Your Mistakes). Now, In My Mind, that meant, that There is a Cat in a Bag and Why is it in There, and Why can’t we let it out?; It is Literally raining Cats and Dogs (as in, Real Cats and Dogs are falling from The Sky)?; When You say Said thing, You sweep them off there feet?; So, If You eat a Hot Dog than You are a Hot Dog? Add to That, Idioms, Clichés, Metaphors, Similes, and Hyperboles, And You have yourself a Very Confused and Frustrated Me!

Schnikies! I have to say I am having a Bit of a Hard Time Writing This Newsletter, Trying to Remember those Figures of Speech from School and Let Alone trying to Remember what They mean, as well as Explaining it The Best I can to You. But, The Sad Thing is that All These Sayings do not make any sense to Me. It frustrated me and I got a Little Sad because I want You to understand how My Mind works, But It is hard to Explain something that I know that I struggle with, It does not make sense to Me, but People around me use these “Figures of Speech” and Jokes, I always have to ask, “Was that a Joke or Figure of Speech?”. All in all, When You are talking to Your Kids, What You say, They take Word for Word or They are not going understand you, or Just Ignore You.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say.

The Christianville Spirit: 11th Lighthouse Day

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

April 17th, 2019-TCS # 636

Happy Lighthouse Day, My Readers! So, Homecoming Week has come to an End, which ends with Lighthouse Day. Now, Homecoming Week did not come without It’s What I call “April Blues”. In other words, that is The Bad Luck of The Month of April that I talked about in Last Week’s Newsletter. Refer to It, If You have not read it. Here is The Link to Make It Easy for You!

the-christianville-spirit-homecoming.html

(Clearing Throat) As I was Saying, So The “April Blues” was in effect This Week. Our Kitchen Sink started Leaking. Long Story, Short, We could not get the Old One off therefore having to get a New One. Another Leak happened and Ruined The Laminate Floor. And, I had to deal with Paco getting Sick and Not Feeling Well while My Mom was having a Business Meeting down The Road. Ohhh Yeah! as My Uncle Bruce would say. So, Because it is Lighthouse Day, I want focus not on Those Facts because I wanted to write about Paco and Me taking Care of Him, but I am wondering now, If that would Hinder the Celebration that This Day, that strangely, I have been looking froward to. Like I said Last Week, Lighthouses are Cool! So, A Day, although in context, Is not a Happy Memory Day, but A Day to Celebrate The Person as well as Lighthouses associated? Well, Then It makes an otherwise Sad Day, be a Little more Happy. Funny Thing, I actually had a Good Newsletter about a Week before Popi (My Mom’s Dad and Person in Question) Passed Away. So, I am going to Rerun It for Him, on Lighthouse Day, to Honor Him.

So, A Little Background First, At This Time in My Life, I was kind of into Facebook, but Only to be Friends with My Friends from High School. Baring in Mind, that at The Time, I had a PC but, I was concerned with Viruses while being on Facebook. Anyway, It was at a Time when You could have Song Playlists on Facebook and I heard One Song and It Made Me think of Popi because at The Time, He was in The Hospital. So, This Newsletter is an Honor to You, Popi! Happy 11th Lighthouse Day!

 This Newsletter written on April 9th of 2008 (Refer to Newsletter 97)

So, A couple days I was on my Facebook page listening to music like I always do and I decided to play “Against the Wind” by Bob Segar and dedicated it to Popi since he’s still in the hospital. And, then I thought “Well, maybe I should detail his life in a list of songs to show the legacy that he has and the legacy he’ll leave in our heart now and forever. Now, my veteran readers of The Christianville Spirit know that I hadn’t hit a good series of newsletter in a while and I’m sure they think we’re long over due. So, here is. I call this series “Soundtrack of Your Life”. You know how we want to know what the world is in God’s Plan for us. Well, think of this way. God is listening to his I-pod, I-phone, or other music devices playing the songs of your life. Which ever stage you’re on, it’s a song. When the song is over, the next song comes on. Or in other words that’s another stage. So, considering Popi’s current condition and believe it or not he’s still chasing nurses around. So, either there must be a lot of nurses to chase or those nurses must pretty for him to stay this long. But, without further a due, this is The Play list of Popi’s Life. First song we’ll start off with is when Popi being born to when he was young “Walk Of Life” by Dire Straits. He was just beginning his life as he was born. Little did he know what a life he was going to live or a legacy he was going to lead? Then, that famous story of him and “Rags” getting into trouble together with the girl that hung around them. For this episode we’ll play “I get by with a little help from My Friends” by The Beatles because even thought they would get into trouble to no end, they have been some pretty good friends. Next, several years later he marries his first wife, Grandma Honey for which we’ll play “Heaven” by Bryan Adams. Next, her and Popi have Julie Smith (who will soon be My Mom), Bruce Smith (Uncle Bruce), Craig Smith (Uncle Craig), and finally Brian Smith (Uncle Brian). After all those children we’ll play “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns and Roses. Later, he sadly divorces Grandma Honey and later married My Steppi Sue, for this we’ll play “Life’s Been Good” by The Eagles. A couple years later, was one of my memories tied to his life and that was the Spring Break that we went to up North to a friend’s cabin; for this we’ll play “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts. About a year later, we went to up to Toledo for My Grandma Mimi 90th Birthday on Super Bowl Weekend when it was in Detroit. That night My Uncle Bruce, Aunt Carolee, and Popi for some reason drove into Downtown Detroit to see all Super Bowl celebrations. For this we’ll play “I Want Rock N’ Roll All Night” by Kiss. So, we’ll add all his life and legacy together and play the “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong for the last song of Popi’s Play list Series. All in all though, he has led quite an awesome live and legacy. But, no matter what happens to him now. His legacy will live on forever; he’s made a good hand print on the world. And, his hand print is like no other in the world!

Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. What’s the Play list like in your life?

The Christianville Spirit: Homecoming Week

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

April 10th, 2019-TCS # 635

Happy Homecoming Week, My Readers! Okay, so This is One of Those Greetings of Mine that has a Deeper Meaning! Now, You would think that Homecoming Week means, The Week that You go to the Homecoming Dance, sort of like Prom. It is a Big Thing in Texas, Trust Me! Better yet, Think of it as a Texas Prom. For The Record, I actually went to The Homecoming Dance in High School and Yes, I did most of The Traditions of Homecoming, I digress. So, The Meaning of This So-Called Deep Meaning Greeting! So, First a Little Background Story about This. I will let the 2015 Me Explain! 

This Segment of Newsletter was written on April 29th of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 448)

I am sure that All of You have That One Time of The Year when If Any Anything Bad is going to Happen, It is going to be in That Month. In Other Words, In Everyone’s Family, There is always that One Month of The Year that You dread it coming because You believe something crazy is going to Happen. For Some, It is a Months like September (for those of 9/11), October, May, or  (Hopefully Not) December. For Our Family, It seems to be April. Nearing The End of March, We see April coming and We think “Oh No! Not Again!”, Every April, I can’t WAIT for April to be over with and Come Out of It Unharmed. So, Why Exactly do I Hate April? It seems that April is The Month that if Someone is going Pass Away or Something Bad is going to Happen, It will be in That Month and Believe Me, It has happened before. You See, Several Members of The Smith Family have passed away within Days of Each Other in Different Years, The First was Uncle Doc on April 14th, 2007,(on Our Birthday Calendar, We put “Homecoming”); The Next Year, 2008, on April 17th, My Mom’s Dad, Popi passed away; and finally, on April 11th, 2010 My Grandma Honey’s Mom, “Grandma Mimi” as We called her, passed too. That is also not to Mention that My Grandma Honey’s Dog, Sugar passed away on April 30th, 2010. So, Since Popi past away back in 2008, April has been sort of a “Bad Luck Month” for Our Family. Now, I will say that There is Some Light that did Come Out of April, Don’t Worry This Newsletter is not going to be that Depressing, I promise You! 

(Back to Present Me)

Now, If You’ll notice, I mentioned that We put The Name of The Person’s “Homecoming” and The Year in which It happened. I’m not sure if I explained it well enough. So, Homecoming (Not The Dance!). My Mom, as well as Her (My) Family, The Smith Family believes that when One goes to Heaven, They are “Going Home”. My Literal Mind thinks “Going Home” means Going Home either to Your Actual Home or Your Hometown. Anyway, Going Home to us means You are going Home to be with God and Jesus because after all, That is Where We all descend for. I noticed with The “Bad Luck Month” of April that All The Deaths that were mentioned from 2015 Me occurred within A Few Days of Each Other in Different Years over The Span of 6 Days, Pretty Much a Week. Now, Yes, I realize that You can’t choose when You die. Death happens Everyday, even on Christmas. But, I think it is Funny and Sad at the Same Time that They occur within a Week. So, Why not make a Memorial Week about it. It may or may not change, The Crazy Month of April, but Why not make Light of it. The Ending of Homecoming Week is My Favourite New Day! The Reason is because I feel that The Person’s Day is Very Important. Yes, I have quite a Few Important Homecoming Days including June 2nd, Ma Day. Honoring My Friend, Deb’s (Shout Out!) Mom who I refer to as Ma and Of Course, One can not forget Lynee Remembrance Day on May 22nd. So, What is The New Day? Well, Last Year was 10 Years since Popi, My Mom’s Dad passed away and I started calling it “Lighthouse Day” because above His Extensive Postage Stamp Collection, was His Lighthouse Collection and Boy, I do remember that He had some Big Ceramic Lighthouses in His Collection. In all Honesty, I would love to have a Few of Them. I mean, You have got to admit that Lighthouses are Pretty Cool! So, Why not name The Day of Popi passing away as Lighthouse Day. It would certainly put Light in an Otherwise Sad Month. Plus, to End Homecoming Week with Lighthouses, How Fun is that?! All in All, Homecoming Week is a Good Way to remember The People that lived, Not always The People that died. It would be Very Depressing the other way around.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Whether You You want to or Not, You should celebrate those who have passed away on Their Days!

The Christianville Spirit: Independence Cruising

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

April 3rd, 2019-TCS # 634

Happy April and Ahoj, My Readers! Yes, This Greeting sounds like a Pirate, that is actually how They say Hello in The Czech Republic as well as Slovakia. To be Fair, Slovak and Czech are Very Close Languages. Anyway, There was a Reason I put “Ahoj” there, or What I should refer to as The “International Pirate” Greeting. I say that because Ahoy with Y is How We in The US would say the Pirate Greeting. So, As of Right Now, if You can believe it, that It was been 2 Years since I went on a Cruise without My Mom! Hard to Believe that, Right?! Often I watch Cruise Vlogs on YouTube and Reminded of All The Fun I had. But, This Newsletter is not about The Fun I had. Well, Some of It is But, The Part that I want to focus on is The Fact that I showed a lot of Independence because I did This Cruise without My Mom or Brother. Now, One would think that It is No Big Deal to go on Cruise but, For Me, It was a Big Deal!  It was quite a Feat between The Preparations to Actually, Going on the Cruise. So, I am going to rerun The Amazing Story about How It happened. Oh! and I wrote Two Newsletters about It and Therefore, You get to have a Partial Double-Feature. So, Without further a due, I will let the Me from 2017 explain! Enjoy and Happy Cruising!

Portions of This Newsletter was written on April 12th of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 540) - Part 1

Well, Actually, I have quite an Amazing Feat to Tell You about. I Went on a Cruise. For The First Time in like, 14 Years. 7 Days, 4 People traveling together. Going on The Carnival Breeze to Roatan, Honduras; Belize; and, Cozumel. All without My Mom (Well, Actually, without ANY of My Parents!). Now, I know You are expecting a Traditional Cruise Story, but This is what I believe to be a Very Real Cruise Story. So, a Little Background Story. So, Last Time I went on a Cruise was a lot. Lots of Activity, Go-Go-Go, Do This, Do That, Do This!, and Yes, a Little Recklessness in there too. And, Yes, This Cruise had all the Activity, Things to do constantly, and A Ton of Food, but This Cruise was presented in a Way that Yes, We can do Some Things but, We also have to have some Moderation and Calming in between. On Top of that, It was Done with People that Knew Me well enough to want to Take Me on a Cruise, It was A Wonderful Gesture and Understood Me well enough to Help in The Case that I needed it. So, This Family (A PTLS Family) and I had discussed Several Times about A “PTLS Cruise”, a Mini-PTLS Vacation before or after The PTLS Conference. Well, One Day, They offered for Me to go on a Cruise saying that They will provide The Transportation and You just have to say Say Yes or No. At First, I thought I’m not sure, I went on a Cruise before and It was VERY Overwhelming. I came back more stressed than before. I Am not Sure! Eventually, after some Comfort from both of Them and My Mom, I figured that I would be Stupid to say No. Even after I said, I would go, I was Very Anxious because I knew about All The Activity and Craziness that was Involved in a Cruise. My Mom and I had Several Discussions that How One Simple Experience in One Thing or Even, One Place; Can effect your impression of Said Thing. So, To Me, A Cruise meant that You were running a Mile a Minute doing XYZ and Getting a little Trouble in there never hurt, Right? I am believing that It took a Good Heart-to-Heart with My Friend, Deb (“The Famous Deb”) to convince me that I should go on a Cruise with Them. The Biggest Anxiety that ruled all of Them about going on a Cruise, was The Fact that I was going without My Mom. If I did this, It would be The First Time I went anywhere without My Mom since 2004, when I took a Trip with My Brother to My Mom’s Dad, Popi’s House back when He was around. After I formally said that I was going on The Cruise, I did not know all of the Things that I had to do Mentally to prepare for an Adventure like This, It took Many Meetings with The Family, Talking about Concerns and Questions, Talks with My Mom, a Few Meltdowns, and Preparing My Mind. Now, As The Cruise started coming closer, I got more Anxious. I Want to Make Sure that We have Planned What We are going to do for Excursions! It was One of Those Times, for lack of a Better Way to Describe It. I turned into My Grandma Honey, Got to have a Plan a Month in advance! The Man of The Family, “The Father Figure”, We’ll call him until I say their names, was like “Relax, Everything will be Fine. We will Plan as We Go”. Looking back, I am very Glad I followed His Lead. Anyway, A Day before The Cruise, It was Time to Pack. Thank God, My Mom was there to help! I had Everything that I needed, Sunglasses; Sun Screen; A Tuxedo for Formal Night (Held Two different Days); Swim Suit, but The Most Complicated Part for Me was The Clothes. I was going on a Cruise for a Week without My Mom and I would not have contact with Her for a Few Days at Sea until We reached a Port. It made me Very Anxious to do This! My Mom tried her hardest to help me remember what to wear on What Day and Eventually We settled on “Here are Some Nice Clothes to Wear in The Evening or If It gets Cold” but, also “Let’s get clothes that will Match, either way that You match them. You can Mix and Match if You want to”. So, The Night before The Cruise, We all met for Dinner, and discussed Any other Concerns or Questions that Either of Us had. Right before We go, I hop in The Car, My Mom comforts me and asks if I am Ready or Not and I said, “I am Ready as I will Ever Be”. 

Portions of This Newsletter was written on April 19th of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 541) - Part 2

I forgot to Mention that I went on a Ropes Course on the Top Deck of The Ship. Me and The PTLS Family Members all did it. It actually was pretty scary but, We figured that Why not try it out?! It took a lot for both of us to do it, We got to do it at Our Pace, and Got applause at The End. I forgot to also mention that I tried a bunch of Different Foods on The Ship, among them, Escargot; Braised Ox Tongue; Veal; Frog Legs; and, Mussels. I found The Frog Legs and Mussels to be the Most Gross. (Sorry Michael!) My Brother, when He was younger LOVED Frog Legs! The Best was The Ox Tongue because It tasted like Pork.

I actually left ALL of My Electronics behind! Yes, I can not believe that either! I had never done that, not since I have ever had Electronics. I will tell you though, It felt really good, not having any Electronics with Me. 

But, anyway It felt like I had forgotten what things looked like, What has going on before and while I was Gone, Feeling like Everything was Changing (and, Construction on My Street during The Process, did not help at all), and Finally, Processing Everything that I did, Places I went, The Fun that We have on The Trip! But, This is where I feel that I should be Real about. 

So, Imagine for Me, something in The Mind of a PTLSer. Now, Up until This Point of My Life, I had never been able to Explain Being Overwhelmed and Why It takes so Long for Me to Recover from Something that Typical People would consider “Fun”. Now, I want to make Clear that I could not have gone with any Better People! And, Yes, I had Lots of Fun! It was Unbelievable, UnBelizeable! (We went to Belize, We can say that!) They made sure that between Their Child and Myself, that We were doing Alright as well as Taking Steps and Provisions to keep us from Getting Overwhelmed or It being too much. Believe Me though, There are Times in a Cruise when It can get Overwhelming, even if You don’t mean it to be. Anyway, on to My Analogy!

So, Imagine that on a Vacation, Trip, or Event, that You have given a Plate of Food, One Item is The Past, One Item is The Fear of Unknown, and One Item is Things You that You do not Understand. Now, Said Items vary in Size depending on The Event in Question. It may be in Large Quantities sometimes, No Big Deal other times. Every Day, You eat the Item and When You do, You have analyze each Item, as well as Each Bite, and Then Digest Each Bite. Well, Imagine that You are eating all This Food at a Lightning Go-Go-Go Pace instead of The Slow Pace that You are used to. Does not sound Easy does it? It sort of reminds me of All of The Food that I ate on The Cruise. I could count 7 Things in various sizes that I ate, literally in a 5 Hour Period. Then, Again, Do as The Romans do, I wanted to try Everything.

I was asked a Very Thought Provoking Question. When was The Last Time that I went on a Trip without ANY Family Members and/or Going to a Family Members’ Home? Well, The Last Time I went on a Trip that I mentioned in Last Week’s Newsletter was with My Brother and We flew to Ohio to Popi’s (My Mom’s Dad) House to drive up north to a Cabin for Spring Break in Northern Lower Michigan (Top of The Mitten) and that was back in 2004. But, Actually, There was a Time I went somewhere without Any Family, just Friends from School. It was when I went to Camp Classen back in Elementary School, Back in The 90’s. It went Way worse than The Cruise, Way Worse! I did not have a lot of Fun at Camp. I had to deal with Bullies, who One Night stole My Underwear while I was showering. They thought it would be Funny to lock me in The Bathroom (Toilet, for You folks Around The World) on The Bus while We were at a Rest Area. There were supposed to be Adults watching Us! And, Yes, They helped, a Little a bit. I have forgave The People in Question for doing that. So, Perhaps, that did not help with The Anxiety about going on The Cruise, on top of previously going on a More Overwhelming Cruise. All in all, The Best for Last Thing that I forgot to mention was about Our Cruise Director, Schwartz. He was a Really Funny Guy! He believed that all of Passengers on “The Lovely and Beautiful Carnival Breeze” was Family. So, After Every Announcement, He would end with “Love You!”. By The Middle of The Cruise, He would say “Love You!” followed by either “Love You More!” or “Stop It, I Love YOU More!”. I, of course, would respond to Him, Pointing upwards “Love You!”. I did get to talk to Him for a Short Time. By The Way, If You want to go on a Cruise and Hear Him say that, Ride on The Carnival Breeze, as He will be on it for Several Months. 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Vacations are seen Differently through Different Eyes. Independence is what it is all about.