The Christianville Spirit: Long Lost Family (LLF) in Atlanta

 

The Christianville Spirit 

The Spirit that Shines Brightly 

July 10th, 2024 – TCS # 862 

 

Happy July, My Readers! Yes, My Readers! Can You believe It is July now?! So, Happy July! Today being July 1st means Two Things. The First Thing, of course, Is that We have reached The Point of What I now call “Mid-Year”. Between The Days of June 30th and July 1st, is The Middle of The Year. For Me Anyway, The First Half of 2024 has been Relatively Better with My Anxiety than The Years before. At The Same Time, This First Half of The Year has been Where You are Like, “Woah! Okay, Didn’t see that on The Bingo Card of This Year!”  

Myself and My PTLS Best Friend, “M.P Twinee” have been saying that Alot Lately. 

The Second Thing only applies if You or Your Child is still in School, but Overnight, They changed into The Next Grade that They will be in. I know a Few People who became Seniors overnight. Yes, Really. Seniors! Of Course, I know a few Seniors who will be now going to College. That is a Bigger Jump than becoming a Senior.  

So, A Big Congrats to Them! 

Anyway, Onto This Week’s Newsletter, Remember when I said before about “That wasn’t on The Bingo Card of This Year”;  

Well, My Readers! I have quite a Story for You!  

Gather ‘round, My Readers! Gather ‘Round! For I am about to Tell an Untold Story of My Life.  

Actually, It is an Untold Story, Not Only about My Life, but also The Life of My Family!  

We open with a Scene of My Mom, She’s an Amazing Mom! Bull Head at Times and also, Gets These “Wild-Hair” Ideas with Such Determination, It is just Amazing! Enter Grandma Honey where She tells My Mom that She (Allegedly) has a Half-Sister that She didn’t know Even Existed until Now. Now, Meaning back in 2020. 

My Mom being The “Wild-Hair” Idea Person that She is, Decided to do an Ancestry Search on Our Family. Let’s Just that She found The Treasure and Lots of It! After Tracking This “Treasure” Down, She found that Grandma Honey in Fact, does a Half-Sister that She did not Know about!  

Back in 2020, Grandma Honey was introduced to Her (Alleged) Half-Sister and Yes, You’ll find out about Her as We go, but, Read Along. If You must skip The Mystery, Don’t Spoil The Mystery for Everyone! 

(Clearing Throat) As I was Saying, So This Half-Sister, We will Code Name Her LLF, meaning Long Lost Family decides that It is Time to Meet! And, Meet in Person! So, When did This Happen? Well, Between Grandma Honey, My Mom, and The LLF; This has been in The Works for The Past 2 Months! Yes, Folks! That’s Right! Grandma Honey was getting A Visit for Someone that She never knew Existed until a Few Years Ago and They were coming to Atlanta to See Her!  

And, My Mom and I, We were Set for a Wild Ride! 

I am Calling This Story,  

Historic Family Trip to Atlanta 

And, Action! 
Anxiety-Wise, for This Trip I did better This Time! However, I knew that This Trip was going to be One for The Record Books! 

So, Like Every Good Story, There’s Always A Little Background Story to Go with It 
You See, My Mom and Her Research Mind, decided One Day back in 2020 (I think), decided to do an Ancestry Report for Our Family. Curious about Present Family as well as What We codenamed "LLF (Long Lost Family)" 
My Grandma Honey at One Time, had a Dad that Let's just say, was not Very Nice to Her. Her Mom, aka "Great-Grandma Mimi" was Married to A Guy that We'll Code Name "Birth Father" (His Name was Jack). 
 
"Great-Grandma Mimi" eventually, Divorced Jack and Got Re-Married to Someone, Whom We refer to as Baba. 
 
Well, It turned out that Jack had Kids after Grandma Honey, They had Kids, and They had Kids. It was sort of an Alternate Destiny of a Family (If You will) 
 
My Mom found that She had Some Extra Cousins after that Ancestry Report and Eventually, Reached Out to Them, and Grandma Honey and This "Long Lost Family" have been having Monthly Zoom Meetings (Sort of like What I do with My PTLS Friends!) 
 
Well, about Two Months ago, My Mom's LLF Cousin and Her Husband decided that Now would be a Good Time to meet in Person, in Atlanta Two Months from Now, for a Little Weekend Trip. 
 

Now, This LFF Cousin and Husband flew out to Atlanta, All the Way across The Country from Portland, Oregon 
 
Grandma Honey, The Prepper that She is, had been Preparing for This Event for 2 Months, literally! 
 
Little did She (or I, for That Matter) did not Realize how Historic This Trip would be! 
 
Of Course, A Historic Trip wouldn't be without a Few Stories! 
 
One,  We did not realize what was Happening in Atlanta (Outside of Our Trip) until We got there, but We did Know that A Huge Political Debate, which Honestly, I thought would be in New York was going to be in Atlanta, The Day that We were Planning to Come In 
 
So, The Plan was that We would Drive Halfway on Wednesday and then, We would (Keyword Here: Would) get up on Thursday and Drive the Rest of The Way to Atlanta. Of Course, Weather and Traffic would be an Issue if We did that. 
 
By The Time, We got to Our Halfway Point, It was too Early to Check-In, so into Alabama We went. When We got to Tuscaloosa (Where We stayed before Christmas); My Mom wanted to keep The Momentum going. Maybe Birmingham then? Stopped There for Gas and then, We just decided to go Full-Term because The Weather, Traffic, and Debate 
 
It wasn't until I saw a Message Sign that said "Major Events in Downtown Thursday; Take Carpool or Commuter Rail" that I realized that This Debate was a Big Deal (It was More than That though!) 
 
I saw another Message Sign, saying Something about a "Pace Car" right next to The Exit to Grandma Honey's House. We passed a Quiet Section of Road before Hitting the Traffic Jam before The Exit. 
 
It was then, as We were getting off at Grandma Honey's Exit that I saw a Bunch of Police Cars, It turned out It was Trump's Motorcade and The Traffic was because of a Deadly Accident farther up The Road 
 
My Mom talked to The Person at The Hotel that We were Staying at and They said that They were Glad that We drove all the Way on Wednesday because Atlanta would be on Look-Down because of The Debate 
 
It is Turns Out that A Political Debate (Trump v. Biden); a Swimming Meet (I think It was Olympic Trials); and A Latin American Soccer Match was happening in Atlanta on The Same Day. Add to That, It was Raining on and off on Thursday! 
 
Amazing you even got those reservations! 

Thursday was More of A Day to Hang Out and Do Final Preparations for The Big Event The Next Day 
 
Of Course, I made sure that We hung out with Grandma Honey enough until She was Tired and then, Be back at The Hotel by Debate Time 
 
The Next Day (Friday)  

was The Historical Event! 
I went to The Waffle House with Grandma Honey and My Mom to have Breakfast with Them and Then, To The Grocery Store for Final Food Items! 
 
At about 4:30 on Friday Evening in Atlanta, It was Go Time. Food Coming to Grandma Honey's House! LFF had Landed and on Their Way in Atlanta Traffic on a Friday! 
 
My Mom and Grandma Honey went to Meet The LFF at The Hotel as Sort of a Surprise 
 
Me, I waited for The Food Delivery from A Company called "Instead of Flowers" (Brilliant Idea!) while Playing Music that been in My Head 
 
At about 5:20, Grandma Honey, My Mom, and LLF & Husband had Arrived at Grandma Honey's House! 
 
The LFF (Long Lost Family): After Asking What My Role to Them was; It turns out that I now have a 2nd Cousin named Nikki 
 
Actually, All The People that Grandma Honey talks to Every Month are Basically, 2nd Cousins 
 
That Night; We had 10 People in Grandma Honey's Little Condo! 2nd Cousin Nikki and Husband, Ryan; Uncle Bruce and Aunt Carolee; My Cousins, Gram, Parker, and Callie; My Mom and,  

Of Course, Grandma Honey 

 

Many Stories and What We'll call "Alternate Storylines" were Had. Lots of Laughs and Genuine Family Time. Grandma Honey was Filled to The Brim with Happiness! 
 
Honestly, I don't think that She has been That Happy in a Long Time! 
 
Next Day, Saturday, My Mom; Grandma Honey; 2nd Cousin, Nikki & Ryan; and, Myself hung out at Grandma Honey's for Much of The Day 
 
Until We decided that We would have a Family Outing to see The Area around Truist Park (Where the Atlanta Braves play) 
 
Yes, Myself; Cousin Gram; Uncle Bruce; 2nd Cousin, Nikki & Ryan, All went to The Atlanta Braves Game 
 
Now, Yeah, My Anxiety popped up a bit but, It got Better once I got Settled in Our Seats 
 
It felt so Weird to be at a Baseball Game, I have not done that since My Time working at The Roughriders. I felt that I was a Traitor to The Texas Rangers (Even though, I'm not a Big Baseball Fan!); At The Same Time, It was Interesting to watch The People and Watch how Atlanta Braves did things.  

"We're in Braves Country" They kept Saying! 
They had a lot going on at This Atlanta Braves Game, A Lottery Ball Race over The Stands! A Woman who was Nailing The Karaoke on The Big Screen! and, Of Course, A Fan from The Opposing Team at The Time (Pittsburgh) and Cheering them on. It was Strange to say the Least! 
 
Oh! and They even had Zip Lining in The Kids Area behind The Fields 
 
After about 5 Innings (Which went by Fast!) because of The "Shot Clock" in which You have to Pitch within a Certain Time; We went back to Grandma Honey's for Dinner 
This Time It was a Less Formal than The Night before, but Fun Non-The-Less 
 
The Conversations and Laughs were Hilarious, to Hear My Cousin and Uncle's Comments on a Joke I mentioned about "Ragers" was Hilarious in Itself 
 
On Sunday, We drove back Home and Nikki & Ryan flew back to Portland. Of Course, Not without a Little MA Action in There! 
 
I had This Feeling that I did not want to go Home; I wanted to stay an Extra Day! I think MA wanted to also! Nikki was at The Airport for like 4 Hours until They decided to fly to Chicago instead!

I felt Anxious leaving. 
And, Then We got Home, The Next Two Days; Our Internet and Cable were acting Funny! 
All in all, It was an Amazing and Historic Trip! It was Amazing to meet My (New) 2nd Cousin, Nikki and Most of All, Seeing Grandma Honey Glow! That was Certainly a Sight to See! 

 

 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Don’t be Afraid to ask about Connections that are Known or Unknown in Family. You Never What could Happen!