May 25, 2022

The Christianville Spirit: Last Words Matter Rerun



The Christianville Spirit 

The Spirit that Moves Mountains 

May 25th, 2022 - TCS # 772 

  

QuĂ© Paso, My Readers?! I realize that This is not My Usual Greeting. Actually, This was a Greeting I heard from My Grandparents on My Dad’s Side of The Family, The Centeno Side of The Family. I remember This Greeting well and I was greeted with It Every Time I would see Grandma and Grandpa. We had a Unique Name for Them, We referred to Them as “Bella” (Spanish for “Abuela”) and “Bello” (Spanish for “Abuelo”). 

If You can't believe it, It has been Two Years since “Bella” passed away. Honestly, It does not feel like it.  

Part of Me says that It feels like It has been much longer than Two Years/ Part of Me also says that It feels like It has been Shorter.  

It is a Weird Feeling though. I remember that The Last Time I talked to Her Very Well. You See, My Mom and I were doing a Short Drive while Staying Close to Town, Going to Get Pie and Popeyes, When My Dad called, I could not answer at The Time but, When I heard His Message, It sounded Serious. I felt a Strange Feeling like Something wasn’t Right. It was on Our Way Home after Getting Popeyes (Fast Food) that I called Them. We Facetimed with My Dad and Bella for 30 Minutes. Again, The Way that Bella was Speaking, She did not sound Very Good. A Couple Days Later, I found out that Bella had Past Away from Diabetes and Kidney Problems. Somehow, I knew that, that would happen. My Intuition, I tell ya. So, In Honor of Bella’s One Year Anniversary, I am going to Rerun The Newsletter I wrote when She passed way. 

Happy Bella Day! 

 

This Newsletter was Originally Written on May 27th of 2020 

(Refer to Newsletter 689) 

 

CĂłmo Estás and QuĂ© Paso, My Readers?! This is a Very Different Greeting! It is what My Grandparents on My Dad’s Side, We called Grandma “Bella” (Abuela in Spanish) and Grandpa “Bello” (Abubelo in Spanish) every Time that They would greet me. Bella would say Como Estas?! and Bello would use both greetings. My Dad and Bella are both of Puerto Rican Decent. Anyway, as The Late Joan Rivers would say, “Let’s Talk” and This is a “Let’s Talk” Newsletter indeed. (Joan Rivers passed away in May of 2015 and I figured that I would honor her). I have used that when Talking about PTLS Questions (Refer to that Newsletter) But, In Times of Difficult Newsletters, that is My Go-to Phrase. So, This past Monday I found out that My Grandma on My Dad’s Side, Bella passed away due to a Large Amount of Health Issues like Diabetes and a Stroke. Now, This is Difficult for Me because Myself and The Centeno Family Country, Let’s just say have not always agreed with Each Other. The Centeno Family Country (or FC for Short) was more of a Let’s have a A lot of Fun without a whole lot of Responsibilities and Understanding of PTLS. Well, My Aunt Cindy actually came to a PTLS Conference One Time! That was Astounding! She is The Only One who I felt understood me in the Centeno FC but, I digress. This is Not about that. You See, My Mom and I were doing a Short Drive while Staying Close to Town when My Dad called, I did not answer at The Time but, When I heard His Message, It sounded Serious. So, As We got closer to Home, I decided to Call Him. Again Lack of Understanding. He had been in San Antonio, My Birth Home Town since Marzo (March) because Bella was not doing well. So, Between My Mom and I, and My Dad and Bella, We FaceTimed for like 30 Minutes. There was Something Off about The Way Bella was Talking. I thought to Myself, something that I usually tell Other People including My Friend “M.P Twinee” that Last Words Really Matter! They don’t have to be Serious or Meaningful, They can be Funny too. They can Range from I Love You to Some Random Word that You came up with that Sounds Funny. Anyway, I thought to Myself, that Yes Myself and My Dad, and Myself and Bella (More than My Dad) did not Agree. But, I do know that If This was The Last Time that I talked to Bella, which again My Intuition said Something was not Right, I owed her Some Good Last Memories/Last Words. We did have a Good Conversation in those 30 Minutes, If It was the Last Time, It seemed Peaceful mostly. When I found out about Her on Monday, I somehow knew that It would happen and Yes, that My Last Words meant something to Her. Now, had I really thought about it, I probably would have Re-told a Funny Story about One of The Many Things that She let My Brother and I get away with, like Going to see The Bevis and Butthead Movie when We were 13 Years Old because We insisted on Seeing It. So, I have been reflecting on The Funny Memories and Some of Not-So-Fun Ones that keep wanting to pop up. It gives me Comfort that I know that She is Out of Pain up in Heaven and She can watch me now to see who I really am and Have a Better Understanding of How My Mind works. I know that She must be Dancing the Salsa and Hanging Out with Her Favorite Singer, Selena. All in All, You may not Understand Someone, Even in Your Own Family but, Always Remember to End a Conversation with Good Last Words or I Love You or both.  

 
 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. I Love You, My Readers! You Guys are Awesome! 

May 11, 2022

The Christianville Spirit: My Fascination with Eurovision


The Christianville Spirit 

The Spirit that Moves Mountains 

May 11th, 2020 – TCS # 771 

 

Happy (Belated) Mother’s Day, My Readers! You Know, It really felt like This Mother’s Day came Early This Year. I understand that Mother’s Day is always The Second Sunday in May but, Because The First Sunday of May, was May 1st, I am thinking that is Why I got a Little Confused! Regardless, Happy Mother’s Day to You, in Case I had not Wished You a Happy Mother’s Day. 

Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, In My Newsletters in The Past, I have mentioned about wanting to Expat to Europe, My Fascination about Europe, All about Europe. So, I am sure that Most of You are wondering Why exactly. So, This Fascination deals Not with Geography of Europe, (Although The Geography of Europe is Fascinating on It’s Own.) 

This is Something Different! This Time, It’s about Music! Now, Here’s a Question? On a Dense Continent of Europe that has Languages in Either of Three Languages Roots, Romance, Germanic, and Slavic; Each Country has Music of Their Own in Their Own Language; How do You Unite The Continent with Music? With One. Huge. Music. Show! I Present to You, The Eurovision Song Contest! 

So, What is The Eurovision Song Contest? Well, To explain it to Americans, It is like The TV Show, American Idol, Only It Involved Countries and had a Child with The Olympics. People in Europe will tell you that It is like “The Music Olympics” when The Eurovision Song Contest is hosted in Their City! Then, There are The Fans! Some People and Countries are More Fans of The Eurovision Song Contest and Others think that It is a Rigged Music Show! But, I think I am getting ahead of Myself!  

In Europe, They have a Television Broadcasting Corporation called The European Broadcasting Union, which covers All of Europe and Oddly Australia. Sorry, My Own Bias! Australians are from Europe, Not Part of Europe! Anyway, The European Broadcasting Union or EBU, They are The Ones that put on The Eurovision Song Contest! 

Basically, They had 2 Rounds of Song Contest before The Grand Final. 

Now, With Watching The Grand Finale of The Eurovision Song Contest, Pretty Much anything goes.  

The Wilder, The Better! That is What Eurovision is All About! It is about The Song itself, The Dancing, The Costumes, and The General Attitude of The Nation’s Singer. After All The Performances, The Jury of Each Country gives Their 12 Points to The Country of Whom They thought was The Best Singer and/or Performance. And, I know You are thinking, No The Voting Country’s Jury cannot Vote their Own Country. It is The Part where The Eurovision Song Contest Stops making Sense, so I will try to Explain it in The Best Way I can. Basically, After The Professional Jurys of Each Country voted, Now It is Time for The Viewers to Give Their 12 Points to What Country and In This Case, You CAN Vote for Your Own Country! This is The Singer/Country that You thought (Keyword here, Thought) was going to Win, either Does Not or Comes up in Flying Colors! After The Viewers Votes are all Counted, The Country/Singer with The Most Votes Wins! Now, This is Where The “Music Olympics” Part, Kicks It. The Country that Wins The Eurovision Song Contest, get the Host The Next Eurovision Song Contest! Like I said, Some Places like Sweden or The Netherlands, They Love Eurovision! So, They would likely Love to Host The “Music Olympics”. However, A Country like Spain, Not so Much. Okay, Now I am sure that They are Spanish People that LOVE The Eurovision Song Contest, but The Spanish that I talked to, Did Not. 

So, Then, I am sure that You have Questions for Me! Like How did I, Someone is The United States, get Interested in This Eurovision Song Contest “Music Olympics”? Well, My Mom’s Friend, Monica liked A Page called Umgas Magazine, said to be The Magazine for Swedish-Americans! Or Anyone Who is Interested in Sweden for that Matter! Eurovision Song Contest is a Big Deal in Sweden, then again, The Swedish Band, ABBA were in The Eurovision Song Contest several times in History! Anyway, I found out that in May of 2016, They were going to broadcast Eurovision here in The United States, on Cable Channel LOGO-TV. Bonus too, Stockholm (S) Sweden was hosting The Eurovision Song Contest in 2016. I figured that since I have been to Stockholm, I would watch The Eurovision Song Contest to see what It was. One Listen to a Song called “Ghost” from Singer, Jamie-Lee from Germany (D) getting Stuck in My Head and I was Hooked. 

In May of 2017, I started looking to see if LOGO-TV was going to Broadcast It and Sure Enough, They were.  

If I thought I was Hooked in 2016, They got me even more This Time! Singer, Blanche from Belgium (B) sung a Pop Song with a Really Cool Performance of Light! A Sister Group named OG3NE from The Netherlands (NL) sung an Emotional Song about Their Mother with Cancer; A Pop Song with Yodeling from Romania, Song called “Yodel It!”; I thought Yodeling was Only in Switzerland! A Brilliant Singer from Croatia (HR) who could be a Normal Singing Voice AND An Opera Voice! And, Finally, A Song from Italia (I) Italy that, Let’s Just Say, Shows The Wild Side of European Music. Spoiler Alert! There’s a Gorilla!  

(Here’s The Link, If You want to See It) 

In May of 2018’s Eurovision Song Contest held in Lisbon (P) Portugal. A Song from Denmark (DK), sounded Dark at First, but Was an Uplifting Song in The End! A Song about Growing with Your Romantic Person was Romantic. Singer from Lithuania (LT) 

An Uplifting Pop Song from the United Kingdom (GB/UK) shows that Storms don’t Last Forever and Not to Give Up! And, Finally, A Song about Love from Ireland (IRL).  

After that, Watching The Eurovision Song Contest has become a Tradition that I watch Every May. Whether I have to watch using a VPN either on YouTube, Eurovision.tv, or Perhaps a TV Sation out of Iceland? I question that, because that is I am trying it This Year, Commenter on YouTube told me about Once. 

So, You want to experience it, You can watch on:  

YouTube (Eurovision Song Contest) 

Eurovision.tv 

RUV-TV (Iceland) 

Or, If You Live in Europe, The National Channel of Your Country like SVT (Sweden), BBC (UK), RTVe (Spain), or RUV (Iceland), to Name a Few. 

The Eurovison Song Contest will be  

This Saturday, May 14th at 2 PM Central (3 PM Eastern) 

Additionally, I am going to Show You of My Favourite Songs that I have heard: 

 

The First Song that Got Me: Germany (D) 

 

Brilliant Voice from Croatia (HR) 

 

“Yodel It!” - Pop Yodelers from Romania (RO) 

 

Reach for Higher Ground (DK) 

 

Storms Don’t Last Forever 

All in All, I hope that You enjoyed This Trip with Me to Europe to explore about and Fascinate about The Eurovision Song Contest! 

 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Music from Around The World is Good for The Soul!