The Christianville Spirit: Halloween Double Feature

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 30th, 2019-TCS # 660

So, Happy Halloween, My Readers! I do not like Halloween. Remember to be Kind to The Kids Trick or Treating and Try Not to be too Scary. Happy Halloween Everyone! Yes, Halloween is one of those Holidays that I dread! The Scary, The Spooky, The Screaming, and Of Course, The Masks! It is said that on Halloween, You can be anyone or Thing that You want to. It is Fun! You should try it! I have heard People say! Some Times, People test the Limits of Who They want to be and Get Very Creative. Be a Figure of Modern Day (US President, Donald Trump; Former President Obama; Perhaps, Something from The Movies like The Clown from “It”, A Chucky Doll, or Freddy Kruger Come to Mind); You can be The Actresses of The Hallmark Channel who got their Kids into College by Faking. Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, respectively. Not Kidding You, Someone actual might be that!; Jake from State Farm   (Referring to The State Farm Commercial). 

In Honor of The Future 2020 Election, You could be a Ballot (Yes that is Reference to The TV Show “How I Met Your Mother”); The Sky is The Limit! Well, Perhaps, be a little mindful of Certain Costumes. I Digress. But, To Me, Halloween is a Scary Holiday. Again, To Me, It should not be. In Fact, I would fine if It were more about Autumn and Perhaps, People dressed as Their Favorite Part of Autumn. 

Anyway, so This Week’s Newsletter is going to be a Real Treat, a Double Feature! Yes, My Readers! A Double Feature! I am going to talk about Halloween and It’s Origins and Then, How I feel about Halloween in The Second One. It is My Treat for You!

Happy Halloween, My Readers! I’ll be ready for November 1st!

Let’s Talk about Halloween

This Newsletter was written on October 25th of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 567)

So, Happy Halloween, My Readers! and, a Happy Birthday to My Brother, Michael! His Birthday is Tomorrow! I do not like Halloween. Remember to be Kind to The Kids Trick or Treating and Try Not to be too Scary. Happy Halloween Everyone! So, It is that Time of Year again, The Time of Year that unlike Christmas, I dread. Halloween. Okay, so, Two Things that come to Mind with This Newsletter. One Thing is Halloween was NOT as Scary as it is Today. Yes, I thought that Halloween deserved a History Lesson because Halloween might as well be a Holiday from Hell (Sorry Kids!) Actually, There are People who believe that and can back it up with Scary Facts. So, Halloween (otherwise known as “Hallowe’en” or What it originally was called back in Pagan Europe, Pre-Christianity, “Samhain”. (or Basically, My Least Favorite Holiday) Anyway, Halloween or Samhain is a Celtic Holiday that is basically the Eve before All Saints Day. A little darker version of Christmas Eve basically. Anyway, People in the Celtic Region went to Neighbor’s or Friends House to knock on Their Door and Recite Poems to The Door Answerer, and for that, They would get a Treat of some sort. Yes, they did dress up, but only as Angels or Mock-Spirits to prevent Real Spirits of The Bad Kind from Harming them. So, In other words, They would trick The Spirits into thinking that They were another Bad Spirit. Again, The Celtic Rumor at the Time was that Spirit of Good and Bad would come to Earth more likely on Samhain. Maybe because All Saint’s Day was a not-so-great day to do that. So, “Trick or Treating” took it’s form going from Reciting Poems to Pranks for Treats, which then turned an Americanized Holiday and Now, We “Trick or Treat” to get Candy. Some say, It is a Night for The Kids to get Candy and Get High on Sugar, that and dress in Cute Costumes (like Super Heroes). As long as There is No Mask, I am okay in that category. Others say It is a Night for Mischief. Now, to be fair, Mocking Spirits in either Good or Bad Ways, back in The Celtic Days, probably was considered Mischief. and, This is where Halloween gets Bad because Today’s Mischief means Toilet Paper and Egging. I, of course, would never do that. and, Finally, The Pranks. Now, People can get Extreme with Pranks and of Course, dressing as Scary as You can and Scare Kids. Logic says, It is Scary Holiday, Right?! Well, The Pranks, The Scary (Costumes with Masks and Scary Figures), and The Mischief are Why I Hate Halloween. Honestly, for Some People who don’t celebrate Halloween, those are The Facts that They use to say that Halloween is a Hellish Holiday. Now, Here comes the Second Thought here, but, I was reading an Article from a Site called “Scary Mommy” it basically described Halloween for a More Autistic Kid Way of “Observing Halloween”. They, I feel are The People in The Middle. The People that really don’t want Observe Halloween but, Yet They don’t want to be Counted Out of Halloween. In Other Words, They have to Conform to Halloween. Come to Think of It, They would be Okay, Reciting Poems and then, Maybe flipping on and off The Lights! Now, Back when I was Kid, I pretty much had to Conform to it. I did not want to go Trick or Treating, but Everyone else was doing it and I did not want to not be Included in it. Luckily, I lived on a Street that had a Cul’d Sac and Four Yards interconnected. So, We would have a Little Block Party on Our Cul d’ Sac. At That Time, I was more fascinated with Hanging Out with The Block Party because it seemed like Fun to do so. Of Course, When It was time to go Trick or Treating, I did not want to, I wanted to stay at the Block Party but, I went Anyway. The Most Exciting Part to me of Trick or Treating was not The Candy or Shouting “Trick or Treat!” I was more Excited about Ringing The Doorbell and Seeing The Inside of My Neighbor’s House. The Scary Mommy article mentions that Her Child likes to go inside and Look at The Lights or some off thing in Their Neighbor’s Houses. After all, Special Needs Logic and Regular Logic would say that if You rang the doorbell of Someone’s House and They answer it, that means You can Come In and Talk. Now, I did not do that as a Kid, but I did look inside from The Front Door to what I could see Inside. Because I was Curious about The Lights inside. After that, I did that at Every House. It is a Chance to see what was Inside Your Neighbor’s House even just for a Second. I was a Kid, who really like the Style of Lights. I really liked The Flashing Lights or Lights that did different things inside their House. After going Trick or Treating, I was excited to get back to The Block Party, It is a Fun Time! These Days, I am glad that I don’t have to conform to Halloween. I can Hide in My House, Watch TV, or Maybe go to The Book Store and Read while All the Kids go Trick or Treating. I know that I am not Alone because I have talked to others that feel the same way. All We ask for is Some Understanding and Respect! All in all, Just Because You like Halloween does not mean that Your Child does. Anxiety goes way up and it does not feel good!

My Discontent with Halloween

This Newsletter was written on November 5th of 2014 (Refer to Newsletter 424)

Hello, My Readers! Happy November! It is only a Month and a Few Days until My Brother’s Graduation! So Excited! So, On to This Week’s Newsletter! So, I hope that You had a Good Halloween and I hope You were kind to The Kids Trick or Treating. As for Me, I don’t like Halloween and I believe that I should tell you why I do not  like Halloween not just seeing that I write, “I don’t like Halloween” and You just wondering why. Well, My Friends, The Truth is that it is for Many Reasons but, as I realized This Year, it all ties Together. The First Reason I tell People (and, Myself) is that it is because of The Costumes. To Me, In My Head, that sounds a bit Crazy because after all, I “Dress Up like a Northerner” when It Snows. But, We will start with The Root Cause that I found out, Reason #1 that leads to them all. You See, Because of PTLS, I have lack of Depth Perception, In other words, I can’t see very well in 3D. Because of that, when I see Someone with a Scary-looking Mask coming at Me, My Anxiety Level rises, Add The Lack of 3D, and We have some Trouble! Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I like Happy Costumes, without Masks like Disney Characters (This Year, I counted 2 Elsas). Costumes like Santa Claus I can deal with because He represents Happiness and Holiday Cheer. Plus, Adding to Lack of 3D and Costumes, It probably was not a Good Idea that My Dad took My Brother and I into Haunted Houses when We were Kids, (The Sort-of-Less-than-Scary-Kind) namely Fright Fest at Six Flags, One at Sea World, and Van Helsing at Universal Studios. In My Experience, Six Flags was The Most Scary and Van Helsing was not as Bad. So, With This Anxiety about Scary-Looking Figures moving up and down the Streets, comes an Avoidance Factor that I have been doing since I was 5 Years Old. Now, I didn’t mind Halloween when I was younger, according to My Mom, I would find fun Ringing The Doorbell and Walking Around. It did help calm the Nerves when We had a little Street Party on Our Cul-de-Sac during “The Jeff Era.” But, Now a Days, I find that It is Easier to either Stay at Home and Watch TV with The Lights Off in The Front or Go to Barnes & Noble and Read some Geography Books. Honestly, It does feel a Little Lonely because In My Head, It seems like I am the Only One out of My Friends as well as My Brother, who does not like Halloween. It seems like My Friends like Horror Movies and I am the Only One who Loves Romantic Comedies. I am one of those people who would rather skip Halloween and Get Excited about My Favorite Holiday, Christmas. I think It feels Lonely because I wish that I had Someone who also did not like Halloween and Would Support “Avoiding Halloween” with Me. Now, It did help though, that I ran into Someone We Knew who’s Child was “Avoiding Halloween” also. At The End of The Night, I posted on Facebook about it and Surprisingly, There were People who Understood and It made me feel very happy to hear that. A Bonus is that Not only does it help Me in a Self-Expressing Outlet, but It also helps PTLS Members understand their Child or Prepare for It. Now, Who Knows though, I may be writing this all lonely about Halloween and Later on in Life, I may or may not feel this way about it, Maybe My Soulmate may Talk Me Out of It and We may go somewhere in a Couples Costume (but, still Avoiding The Scary Ones). Wishful Thinking, I guess we can call it. All in All, Do Consider those People who do not like Holidays like Halloween and Treat Them Kindly.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Spread Love to Everyone. You never Know Who needs it.

The Christianville Spirit: My View, My Brother Part 2

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 23rd, 2019-TCS # 659

Hej Hej, My Readers and A Happy early Birthday to My Brother, Michael! In Case, You did not know, This Week is My Brother, Michael’s Birthday. So, This Week’s Greeting comes with a Heavy Shocked Heart. A PTLS Family Member (meaning a Mom with a Child with PTLS) past away this past week. A Mom who We will call “Jenny from Sweden”, She Meant a lot to Us, here at The Christianville Spirit and The PTLS Foundation. Like PTLS Family Relation, Faith, Jenny helped the Foundation in a lot of Ways. She passed of Cancer. So, This Week’s Newsletter, My Greeting is dedicated to Her! Spread Love Everyone! and, Always Remember to make sure that Last Words You say to someone could be their last. I Love You all, PTLS Family Members and Readers! 

Anyway, on a Lighter Note, Going into Part 2 of My Mini-Series about My Brother and His Birthday. This Saturday is Special Day in My Family! I like to think of it as The Only Reason that I celebrate The Month of October (besides Autumn Foliage) because after all, I Hate Halloween. That Reason of course, is My Brother, Michael. You See, Today is actually Michael’s Birthday and He turning 31 Years Old. Yes, I can’t believe it either. So, Let’s Sing to My Brother!

Haaapppy Birthday to You, You smell like a Poo (Just Kidding!); I Love You, My Little Brother, and You smell like One too! Now, Isn’t that Nice?! So, I finally decided to watch My Brother’s Speech that He did at The Conference. Come to Think of it, I am glad that I was not there to watch him do it Live because I feel like My Brother would have not been Comfortable being as Open with Me sitting there. I actually was Very Pleased as well as Proud of His Speech, it took a lot for Him to do that. Yes, There were times when I was touched by it but, I also laughed because I knew what He meant. There were Times that My Brother was Hilarious in The Way that He put things. Of Course, There were Times when My Brother was Serious and Proud and followed it with a Purely Michael Joke. It was Amazing! By The Way, if You do not know what I am talking about, Refer to Last Week’s Newsletter. It seems like The Answers given in The Interview that I did with Him are similar but, at The Same Time, His Speech is a lot more Heart Felt. So, for Part 2 of My Mini-Series, I am going to Rerun a Newsletter about a Prequel, if You will, to The Interview with Him. I titled it “My View, My Brother”. Enjoy and Happy Birthday, Michael!

This Newsletter was Originally written on June 3rd of 2012 (Refer to Newsletter 304)

So, I know quite a few PTLS Family Members wonder how both, the PTLS Child and their Brother or Sister views them. Well, I think it’s overdue that I tell you how I view My Brother and write about My Brother. My Brother, Michael, my only brother I have in My Family, is really awesome. For those who are wondering, Yes, he is my blood brother. Anyway, My Brother is awesome because he takes care of me and understands me. He is 23 Years old and goes to University of North Texas, he is an artist, a good one at that, and he is going to get his bachelors degree in Art. Michael is a really goofy guy once you get to know him and there are sometimes we wish we had hidden cameras in our house because he’s that goofy and he makes us all laugh. He puts that saying, “Dance like no ones watching” to a new meaning. He is a good judge of character when it comes to meeting new people and he has interesting views when it comes to the news, politics, and life. One of the things I love about him is that he was and still is caring and loving enough to introduce me to some of his friends. After they get to know me and who I am, they treat me like I’m part of the pack and wherever they go, I go with them. It was like that a lot in High School, he was my driver in a way because he drove me to and from school during the school year, unless he had to go to school early, then, My Mom would take me. In Elementary School, We and the Herricks would walk to school sometimes, most of the time we would drive. It wasn’t that far from the house, only a couple blocks. Michael’s Art is one thing that I’m very proud of him for because it really makes you think and wonder. Sometimes, My Mom will interpret it one way and I’ll say, “Art is subject to ones own interpretation.” Also, this past semester in College, My Brother got straight A’s, a 4.0 Grade Average, and He’s gotten on the Dean’s List twice. The classes that he was taking that semester were very tough classes, to the point where he had to do a project every week or every other day; so, I was very proud of him when I heard that. My Brother has always treated me with the greatest of care, protection, and treats me like every other kid, he doesn’t make a big deal about being a brother to someone with Special Needs. He will one day be My Guardian and I know that he will do a good job at it. Also, I know that whatever I do, he’ll help and love me. All in all, My Brother, Michael is an awesome brother that I have.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. I hope you have Family that will there for you, no matter what.  

The Christianville Spirit: My Brother's View on Me Part 1

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 16th, 2019- TCS # 658

I Love My Brother, My Readers! Yes, My Readers! It is True! I Love My Brother! Truth be told, Even though He may drive me a little crazy at Times, I Love Him! It is actually nearing My Brother’s Birthday. So, In Honor of Him, I am going to do a Two Part Mini-Series about How Awesome My Brother, Michael is. Now, Yes, My Brother still lives in Colorado, I wish He didn’t. I feel like It is starting to effect him, and I wish I could see him more. Don’t Get Me Wrong, I love Him through and through but lately, My intuition is telling me something and It seems that He is not the Michael that I know and love. Now, baring in Mind, that We Humans have Times in Our Lives when We are growing, But I do not like this time for him. I Digress. I do have An Awesome Brother, that at His Core, He is Very Loving, Caring, Nurturing, and Also, a Goofy Person at Times. It always touches My Heart when It Shows It. A Prime Example was at This Year’s PTLS Conference here in Dallas. For The Second Time, My Brother came to The Conference but to His Credit, and second time he was around a Huge Amount of People that had the Same Thing I have. But, This Year, He really showed his real self! He treated Everyone, PTLS Family Members, and PTLSers themselves like They were were His Own Family. With The Same Goofiness that He treats me. What is even better was That He actually spoke about PTLS from His Point of View. Now, Baring in Mind, In My Head and as well as My Mom, neither of us knew what He was going to say. My Mom recorded a Video of It for All to See. This is The Link to The Speech if You would like to Hear it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh4PNMnWYs&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3o3m7FHSafykPVV4WNAR8XxXWd4u3kJTZWiCvHXRpMP8Ht9JzYDGREaXg) I do Remember though, Years before His Talk (7 Years Ago), I submitted for PTLS Family Members to ask Him Questions via My Newsletter in an Interview Format. At The Time, I was anxious about The Idea of Having These rather Deep Questions about His View on Me but I finally asked him to do it. The Results, I must say Astounded Me as well as got me a Little Emotional about it. When His Talk came at The Conference, I mentally prepared myself for Possible Emotions about it. Not because I feared He disliked me or resented me in Some Way, No that is NOT My Brother. Michael has known about My PTLS, My Whole Life. I knew that I might get Emotional because I am Very Proud of My Brother! Now, luckily, My Mom pulled me out of The Room before He spoke so He could Speak about Me without Me getting upset about Whatever He was Saying. Regardless, I know that He loves Me and Very Proud of Me. He always has been! For Comparison, I am going to Re-Share a Newsletter that I added to My “Christianville Classics” List (It is on The Lower Right Corner of My Newsletter Site). You see, This Newsletter is actually an Entirely Different Point of View. It is actually The View of Myself from My Loving Brother, Michael. PTLS Family Members, They don’t make it be know too much, but They do worry that How The Siblings of PTLSers feel about Being The Sibling of a PTLSer. I am here to tell you, My Brother views me Very Greatly, but You will have to read on to Find Out How! Without further a due, This is The Christianville Classic “My Brother’s View on Me”!

This Newsletter was Originally written on June 2oth of 2012 (Refer to Newsletter 305). Hope that You Enjoy what My Brother has to say!

So, Now that I have written Last Week on My View of My Brother and you enjoyed it. Well, now your really going to enjoy this! It’s the long-awaited Newsletter on how My Brother views me. This idea has been in My Head for a while before I finally decided to do it. My Mom and PTLS Family Members had always wondered about My Brother how My Brother felt about me having Special Needs and Having PTLS (or dup.17p11.2, as it used to be called). The idea came when one of the PTLS Members suggested that I should do a Newsletter on My Brother and his view of it all. I mean, considering that I mention him a lot in My Newsletters, people start to wonder about him and how he deals with it. It took a while at first, getting the nerve to ask him to do this, and even the idea of what questions do I ask? Because first off, I didn’t know what to ask him or even more unnerving, what would he say? So, I sent out a post on Facebook to PTLS Members on what questions they want answered and/or curious about and I got quite a few responses about what they want to know. After reading a couple questions, I thought, “Man, these are deep questions” and “I’m not sure if I really want to know about it or not.” So, then came, “How do I do this? A talk? Dictation to My Mom? or an Interview?” Well, long story short, I asked My Brother about it and he said, “We’ll do an interview” and finally, after a while of asking him (because both he and I kept forgetting or it wasn’t the right time of day,) He sat down to answer the questions. He finished it yesterday and it’s ready to go. First, I want to thank him and let him know I appreciate his honesty and willingness to do this. So, Get Ready Everyone cause here’s the interview. As a note: the Bolded Questions are from the PTLS Family Members and below it are Michael’s Responses. So, as they say in Television and Radio, Roll it!!!!!   

TCS: When you were about 10-13 years old, can you tell us as a sibling how you felt when your bother had an aggressive outburst? Did you truly understand what was going on with him?

 Michael: For as long as I have known him, which is practically my entire life, he has never had an aggressive outburst. For the most part if he ever got really upset he would get more emotional. He would work himself up and start crying. There would be the occasional times where he would raise his voice but nothing that could ever be put as an aggressive outburst. At that age I had already seen him do things like that before so I wasn’t to worried about it. I just figured that he was more sensitive to things then I was, I never really linked PTLS to his sensitivity. I also figured out by then he was extremely stubborn and if he didn’t want to do something, he would put up quite a fight. Which would also cause him to get upset.

  TCS: How did having a sibling with PTLS effect your life both good and things that were difficult?

 Michael: Well growing up, nobody knew what PTLS was including myself. I was told that my brother had special needs and I just took that as the literal sense. I never considered him special or different though. I treated him like my bother with no exceptions and restraints. Naturally I picked on him and gave him a hard time. The one thing that I did do growing up was take on the role of big brother. I looked out for him and tried to teach him things. Christian has also taught me a lot growing up with him. I learned from a young age that people in the world see things differently. There’s nothing wrong with looking at the world differently and having a sense of individuality. Everyone goes through highs and lows, it’s how you deal with the situation that makes the difference.

TCS: How do you deal with your peers asking questions about your brother?

 Michael: Honestly, when I was younger I can’t really remember to many people asking about him. I think the main reason was that he was always pretty friendly to everyone. No one really could tell just by meeting him that he had special needs. After a while of getting to know him or seeing him then they might ask questions. I’m always proud to tell them what’s up. I just tell them that he has this rare chromosome duplication and he was forth to be diagnosed with it. After that, some people keep questioning and are really interested others just move on to the next order of business, whatever that might be.

TCS: PTLS kids need a lot of attention/ extra help. Were you ever envious of this?

 Michael: Nope. If anything when I was younger I found it annoying and frustrating. Not that he was getting more attention then me or anything like that, it was just because I was ready to move on and progress while Christian was still trying to learn.

TCS: As a sibling was there a time say around preteen where you were embarrassed when you were out with the family?

 Michael: Not really.

TCS: What did your mom do to help you understand Christians PTLS?

 Michael: I think that the best thing for me was learning patients and acceptance. I was taught that not everyone learns the same way and each person is different. Some people require more training on particular topics. Really that advice goes for everyone and didn’t segregate my brother from other people. It didn’t hurt that my mom likes the medical field and could give me facts and explain information easier to me.

TCS: When did you realize Christian was different?

Michael: I don’t think there was really a point of epiphany where all of a sudden I knew he was different. Living with him and growing up together, you just kind of known as life. Its really the same as getting to know anyone else, you hang out with them enough you learn things about them. All it takes is some powers of observation.

TCS: Growing up, can you give some examples of things you showed him how to do/ taught him?

 Michael: Ha ha ha!!! When I was seventeen or so I let Christian drive my car down the neighborhood street. That was exciting to say the least!! I taught him how to play video games and things like that. To recall everything I taught him would take some time. I just try my best to show him and explain to him anything that he has questions about and would like to learn about. His memory is pretty freaky. He can recall all sorts of random stuff. If others put in the effort and energy to teach him, he can learn anything.

TCS: Do you feel any angst or nervousness about being Christian’s guardian later in life?

 Michael: I suppose so, it is kind of nerve racking. I’m not stressing out too much though. We get along great and for the most part he is pretty self-reliant. I am confident in my self and my abilities to overcome any obstacle that dares to stand in front of me. Ha ha ha! But for real, I have known about being his guardian for a long time now, so I’m mentally ready.   

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So, I hope all of this helped to answer your questions on Siblings and My Brother. It was quite surprising to hear some of these because I didn’t expect it. Well, you know, I guess it’s like they say, “You’ll Never Know Until You Ask”, simple as that. This whole interview turned out to be more fun than I thought it was going to be, but then again, I didn’t know. I mean, you know, how much someone loves you but, sometimes, every now and then, you might be curious as to how much that person loves you. As for me, I know that My Brother loves me and understands me, and I love him so much for that. All in all, I say it a lot, but I’ll say it again, My Brother, Michael, is Awesome!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Let the ones you Love in your life, know that you love them; Everyday.  

The Christianville Spirit: Words, Words, Words Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 9th, 2019- TCS # 657

Ciao, Tutti! That is a Fancy Greeting! Something different than Saying “My Readers”. It is actually is a Greeting in One of My Favourite Languages, Italian. It means “Hello Everyone” in a Less than Formal Way. Funny thing that Romance Languages which I find rather interesting is that in Romance Languages (Spanish, French, and Of Course, Italian) they have a Word in that language in Addressing People in both Informal Ways like Your Best Friend or Someone that You know and Uniformal Way that You can use for Anyone and Everyone. It sure does makes it interesting when It comes to learning that Languages. So, You have learned something new Today! Yay You! Anyway, While We are on The Topic of Words, I have a Great Newsletter that I wrote about that. I believe that it explains perfectly about How Literal us PTLS’ers are.

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!

This Newsletter was Originally 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: Autumn 13th Year

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 2nd, 2019- TCS # 656

Happy October, My Readers! Yes, Some People just love October. It means Autumn, Pumpkins, Pumpkin-spice Lattes, and Of Course, Halloween. Me? I only like it because It is My Brother’s Birth-Month and for Fall Foliage but, Halloween is Not My Favorite Holiday. Yes, At This Time, You can actually enjoy Pumpkin Spice anything now and No One will judge you! So, Onto This Week’s Newsletter. My Readers, It is that Time of The Year and I don’t mean Christmas! It is Autumn. Okay, so In The Context of Nature, I Love Autumn! Cooler Temperatures, A Little Spice in The Air (Not Necessarily, Pumpkin Spice), if Anything It would be more of a Cinnamon or Apple Spice in The Air. Okay, to be fair, If I had Any Spice that I love in Autumn, It would probably be Cinnamon or Apple Spice like Apple Cider with Caramel, Starbucks serves that around Christmas Time. I digress. and, Of Course, My Favourite Part of Autumn, The Fall Foliage. Baring in Mind here that I have only seen Pictures of The Literally Stunning Autumn Foliage of New England, that would be a Dream Come True to see that. Of Course, In My Relationship with Autumn, There is almost a bit of Dread for Me in Autumn, The Holiday of Halloween. Halloween is the One Time where You can be anyone You want to, so They say anyway. If You want to be Elsa from Frozen, A Character from a Movie (like a Super Hero), or Of Course, If You want to be something Scary and Gory, You can do that! Me, I would not do that! I would Rather avoid People in Costume as long as I can see their Face. If Not, Forget about It. Actually, I wrote a Newsletter about It and How I feel about Autumn and Halloween. Happy 13th Year of Writing to Me! Enjoy!

This Newsletter was Originally written on October 8th of 2014 (Refer to Newsletter 420)

So, My Readers, it is that Time of Year again and Unfortunately I don’t mean Christmas. I usually say, “It’s that Time of Year Again” when It is Christmas because it is My Favorite Time of Year. So, What is “It’s that Time of Year Again” for then? Well, It is This Time of Year, Autumn. The Season of Autumn (or Fall, as it is Normally called) and I have, I guess You would refer to as a Love-Hate Relationship. Autumn is a Season that covers September, October, and November as well as Two Major Holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. So, Why do I have a Love-Hate Relationship with The Season of Autumn? Well, I will start with the Happy Side of Autumn. You See, I Love Autumn because of The Leaves. What People call The “Fall Foliage” and I Love It! Unfortunately, I don’t live where There are a lot of Tall, Pretty Trees. To Describe what The Trees are like here, They look like Over Sized Broccoli. So, I celebrate Autumn’s Foliage with Looking at Pictures of and Reading Fall Reports from My Favorite Area of The Country in Autumn, New England. I love seeing those Eye-Blinding Colors! It is Beyond Amazing! Other than The Foliage, The Temperatures are finally coming down but, It is in that Comfort Stage where it is Not too Hot and Not too Cold. Of Course, We can’t forget about Thanksgiving with All The Turkey and Stuffing You can Eat. So, Now comes Why I hate The Season of Autumn. Okay, It is not Autumn’s Fault but, It put, In My Eyes, a Very Ugly Holiday known as Halloween. Halloween means a lot of Things that I hate and I will explain why; Pumpkins, Scary Things, Horror Movies, and Costumes. Now, Pumpkins are not at the Top of My List but, There is a Reason. You See, Back in The “Mr. Jeff Era”, We used to Carve The Pumpkins and That sounded fun..until I found out what was Inside. What is Inside is Pulp but, to me, It looks like Seed Covered Orange Goo coming out. It makes My Stomach turn just looking at it, and At Times, Thinking about it. The Reason being because It Looked Gross to Me. You See, As I have Told You many times about My Texture Issues. Well, I have Texture Issues with The Way Something feels as well as The Way It looks. Now, On The Upside, I would probably enjoy watching Pumpkins being Chunked in a Fun Event known as “Pumpkin Chunkin’”. It would be Interesting to see How far They would go. The Next Couple Reasons are Truly Why I Hate Halloween. Scary Things like Horror Movies, Haunted Houses, and Scary Costumes. I do not like Costumes in General, so making them scary is Much Worse! Of Course, I Hate Costumes, Especially The Scary Ones as well as Any that has a Mask. My Mom actually explained it to a PTLS Family Member once and Now, I know why I don’t like Costumes. “They (The PTLSers) don’t have very good Depth Perception, They Can’t see very well in 3D”, My Mom says. She also explained that We like it when You can see the Person’s Face, not a Scary Mask covering The Face. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the Cute Child Costume that is not Scary and I can see Their Face clearly.

I would never watch a Horror Movie, unless It is a Horror Movie in a Funny Way. Although, It seems like Most of My Friends (including My Brother) like Horror Movies and I don’t understand why You would. It probably pertains to The Fact that I don’t like People and Animals in Distress. To Me, Besides The Movie Scaring The Pants off You, There is usually a lot of People in Distress in Those kind of Movies. Haunted Houses, Definitely Hate Them and Believe Me, I have Tried a Few. Those being Van Helsing at Universal Studios Hollywood, One at Sea World in San Antonio, and Fiesta Texas’ Fright Fest, Most of these with My Dad. So, At Least, I can say that I tried them and I Hated Them. So, I would rather celebrate with The Fall Foliage, Hot Apple Cider with Caramel, and Cool Weather. All in all, I Love The Weather Part of Autumn, Eating Stuffing at Thanksgiving, and Spending Time with Family. But, I can do without Halloween, A Little Christmas Music helps get me through.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Cheers to Apple Cider and The Beautiful Fall Leaves.

The Christianville Spirit: People's Perception of Normal

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

September 25th, 2019- TCS # 655

What Do You see as “Normal”, My Readers?! Wow! A Question within a Greeting! Crazy, right?! So, I do need to address something before I continue onto My Newsletter. You may have noticed that I took a Week off Last Week. I do have a Reason Why, but I did not make it too Public, only on Facebook. You See, as You Know or Are About to Find Out, We had to put our Oldest Dog, Zoe down Last Wednesday. For Reference, We had 3 Dogs being Zoe (We referred to Her as The Sophie Incarnate, Later to be Known as “The Guard Dog” or “The Referee”), Sadie Good-Lord (As in “Sadie! Good-Lord! What are You doing?!”), and then, Of Course, My Little-Not-So Little-Anymore Boy Dog, Paco (The First Boy Dog in Our Family). Zoe was, believe it or not, 12.8 Years Old (or 12 Years and 8 Months Old). A Shorter Life Expectancy than What I expected. Some Dogs have Different Life Expectancies, Some are Longer and Others are Shorter. Some can live to only 9 Years, Others upwards of 15 or 16 Years. Very Odd how that Happens! It depends on The Breed of The Dog, I am told. Anyway, She was a Great Dog! The Greatest We have had, My Mom says. Good Traveller and Protector, like to The Point of When My Mom and Brother (or I) would Hug My Mom, She would bark and growl a little bit. So, Long Story, Short. She is much better now in “Doggy Heaven” as My Mom says. No Longer in Pain (She was in a lot of Pain) , She can Run and Spin around all She wants (She used to Literally spin in a Circle with Such Speed!), No More Thunderstorms, or Noises that sounded like a Fire Detector (She Hated That!). Anyway, We will Miss You, Zoe. The Guard Dog or as Young People would refer to as The OG Dog 2.0 because She looked like Sophie, The OG Dog! Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, The Question I asked as The Greeting, What do You think is “Normal”? My Mom and I had This Discussion a Couple Weeks Ago about The Same Time as The School Funding Talk, Refer to The Newsletter before This One to get the Context of It. Now, What People Think is Normal, or More on The Lines of, What People Perceive as “Normal”, is actually a Very Fascinating Topic. Sometimes, Acting a Certain Way and Believing in Certain Things is what People perceive as “Normal” and That is Okay. Some People, believe it or not, think that Swearing to Each other in a Joking Way in a Family is Normal. Some People think that Thinking one way about Other People is Normal; This can apply to Disliking Someone, Judging Someone, and Yes, even Liking or Loving Someone could be Perceived as Normal. The Most Fascinating of This Topic is more on The Lines of what We as Americans see happening around The World and The Behaviours or Lifestyles that We may be fascinated with and Wonder Why They think that is Normal. I like to point out that Places that I have been where They have Lifestyles that I think are Fascinating but, They think is Normal. For Example, In Spain, They believe that taking a Nap in The Middle of The Day, Commonly known as a “Siesta” as well as They do Everything Late, Most Commonly Lunch and Dinner is Normal. Lunch is at 2:00 in The Afternoon and Dinner, again, Believe it or not, People in Spain don’t Eat Dinner until 9:00 at Night. Yes, You read that correctly, 9 O’ Clock at Night to have Dinner! Here in The United States, We eat Dinner between 4 PM and 7 PM. Now, with The Perception of Normal also comes with a Reason. People in Spain don’t Eat Dinner until 9 because, They don’t have Air Conditioning and Therefore, It is better to wait until Later to Eat because otherwise It is going to be Hot inside The Restaurant! Another Example, One of My Favourites Actually, is that in One of My Favourite Countries, Sweden, They have What is called a “Fika” (Pronounced Fee-Kah) which is basically a Coffee Break among Family, Friends, or Co-Workers, Twice a Day at 10 and 3 Respectively. It is sort of a Rule that Whoever You are with and Where ever You are, You stop and have a Fika. Literally, a Business Meeting will stop suddenly to have a Fika. It actually happened at Our PTLS Conference On The Road where My Mom was talking and People started getting up and walking over to get their Fika. It dawned on both of Us that It was Fika Time! While We were Driving with PTLS Member, Josefine between Stockholm and Sundsvall, We saw a Couple Cars on The Side of The Road and We thought that They might be having Problems but, They were actually having Fika. Like I said, Perception of Normal is not just Behaviors. In Fact, According to Swedish Law, as Long as You are not on Private Property and Not Bothering Anyone, You can camp anywhere in Swedish Nature. That would be Very Weird to see happen in The United States. Of Course, Perception of Normal can be things that You wonder Why They do that. 

Of Course, I do have to Mention about Even The Perception of Something like Having PTLS. Now, People who are more on The Typical Side would think that a Person like Me having PTLS is a Big Deal and It really isn’t. I perceive it to be Normal that I have PTLS, I know that I am Unique in a lot of Ways; I may have Anxiety, See The Good in People, Always Needing a Routine and Predictability to help me Function, among Many Other Things but, That is seems Normal to Me because I have had PTLS My Whole Life, I don’t know anything different. That is actually The Perfect Way to Explain about the Big Deal about Having PTLS. People do perceive that Having PTLS is Easy, like “Oh! The Youth Gene! I want some of that!”. I am over here thinking, “Well, You can’t have JUST The Youth Gene in There! You would have to have All of The PTLS!”. Don’t Get me Wrong, I would not trade having PTLS for Anything. PTLS is Unique. Very Unique, If I might say so Myself! But, I will Say that PTLS is not Easy! The Things that Us PTLSers perceive as Normal is not Wrong, It sure is Different but, We PTLSers see you as Being Different! For Example, When We are Lining up Our Toys when We are Kids, To Us, We are thinking of Different Scenarios in Our Mind. There is a lot of Organization going on in Our Mind, People might think that We don’t understand what is happening. But, We perceive more than You Think! All in all, The Wrong Perception of Someone can make a cause a Big Mistake!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Take Time to Get to Know People or Situations before You pass Judgement.

The Christianville Spirit: The Four Segments of School Funding

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

September 11th, 2019-TCS # 654

So, Before I write about This Week’s Newsletter, I want to wish Everyone a Happy Patriot’s Day (according to The Calendar in My Kitchen, it says, “Patriot’s Day.”) Never Forget What Happened that That Day, 18 Years Ago, Can You believe that?! 18 Years! and If You see a Fireman or Police Officer Today, Thank them for all their Service! Thank You Fire and Police for Your Service in America Today and on That Day from The Christianville Spirit! So, with that said, We move on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, My Mom and I often have The Best Conversations when We least expect it! Sometimes, It comes when We are having a Rough Time with Something and Other Times, It comes from Talking about One Thing that leads to Another, that leads Another. Among Them, We talked about What People Perceive as Normal and Funding of Segments of The School System. I probably write on that one later, but This Week, We are going to Talk about The School System, an Often Oh-So-Sensitive Politically Un-Necessary Conversations. But, I feel that It needs to be Addressed. Now, Baring in Mind, that People have Opinions about Which of These is more Priority and Honestly, in Some Ways, They are all Important. However, Schools only have so much Money from Regional Taxes and other means like Fund Raising, commonly referred to as The PTA. The Segments of Funding go as Sports (Football, Baseball, Soccer, and Basketball. Go Jags, Ravens, and Tigers!); The Next is The Most Important One, Academics (in Other Words, School itself. Math, Science, Social Studies, to Name a Few); Then There is The Fine Arts (Meaning Art of All Kinds and Music); and, finally, Special Ed (In other words, Those with Special Needs. of All Kinds!) So, Let’s Touch on all of Them.

So, Sports.. Sports is The Thing that is Argued that They should fund the Most in School outside of Academics and Truth be told, They do. It does make People move and It makes the Students proud of Their School besides Well, School. Personally though, It make sense to let Students move a bit while doing Academics because A lot of Students learn differently. Some like to Move and others like Silence, truth be told if all students were to move about in a Quiet and Mannered Way while the Teacher is Teaching, that would be Awesome. However, In My Humble Opinion, Sports should be Funded on It’s Own and A lot of Local Sports Teams have The Power to do so. I mean, The Cost of Tickets and Food at a Game is enough to Fund the Team. Plus, Everyone would love a Team fundraiser, right? The Prouder You are of The Team and The School, The More Money they get. And, Come to Think of It, It is quite The Economics lesson too!

Academics..In my Mind, That is just a Fancy Word for School. The Everyday, Having Tons of Homework, Learning Some (Keyword here Some) Useless Subjects. Subjects like Math, Reading, and Writing are The Core Subjects, in other words, The Most Important Ones! Now, Algebra and Higher, to the Average Student anyway, is not Useful in Life. Unless, You want to be a Scientist or a Profession that requires that. In Which, that is More College kind of Stuff.  Now, It would help to have Subjects in School, that like the Core Subjects, would be Useful in Life. Like How to budget your money, change a tire, How to Handle Emotional Challenges, and Community Involvement Skills (being a pert of the community and helping others). A Note, Please Make a Subject like History, a lot more Exciting. History is more than Just Dates, It is also Stories. History and Geography, and Yes, even Politics all mix together in a lot of Ways! Like I said before about The Students Moving, that would help a ton with Helping those who Learn in a Different Way. In Terms of Funding, You are Fine because You are The Parent, the Master, if You will of This Show. This Show can not survive without You!

And, Next is another Oh-So-Sensitive Opinion, The Fine Arts. Now, When I was in School, Yes, It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to Make or Create but, Looking Back on it, I really liked Art Class and Most Importantly My Brother loved Art Class. So, If You are like me, You would know that Art covers Everything from Ceramics, Sculpture, Painting, and Of Course, Music. I think that if Students could do Art and Let Their Creativity Fly, It really could help them in Their Emotional Output. Now, I could argue too that Yes, When It comes to becoming a Real Artist or a Musician, It is a Dog-Eat-Dog World out there! There are only so many Artists in The World and In Music, There are only So Many Keys on a Keyboard, eventually Music starts to Sound The Same and That is Where You could get into Trouble. But, Music, or actually Songs, are basically Poems with Music. In Case of Funding, I think that You should be Funded after Academics. Now, You can also Fundraise and Have Music Festivals where You can Showcase The Best Artist in All Kinds! Perfect Idea!

And Then Finally, Something I know personally.......

 Special Ed. So, A Thing that Most People do not understand about having Special Needs is really, What Type of Special Needs are We talking about. And, No I don’t mean Your Syndrome, that is just a Label. I feel that There are 3 Sub-Categories for Those with Special Needs and in Context of Where to put them and Most Importantly, How to not divide them too much that it blows the School Budget. Oh The Complication! So, The There are schools that like to Categorize kids with Special Needs. Some just put all into one room and not help them. Categories, There are Those that have Special Needs but are Very Smart, have some delays that they Struggle with, Considered High Functioning, and Intellectual Abilities in areas that are different (like me, Maps and Geography). Those who are Mild, I like to call us. Those of Us that have a Good Potential in Life, In Our own way, and Given a Chance to Learn. As a PTLSer, I Think, It is better to group us with These People and Give Us a chance. Then, We go into The Hardest Parts, The “Mids”. They are Very Smart but, have a Few Behaviors, or They have a More Behaviors and have some Challenges Intellectually. In My Humble Opinion, The Schools Focus too much on The Diagnosis and Thinking that The Child won’t be Successful to make it into Life, Get put Here, which again in My Humble Opinion, Is not Fair! Because They have a lot of Potential and If They mimic The Behavior of those that are More Intellectual Disabilities, You and They will have a Problem because the learning has to fit Each Child. and, Finally, We move into The Severe Category. The Ones who have A Lot of Behavior Issues, more severe Physical Difficulties, or Have Severe problems understanding. They Have more Struggles with Intellectual and in terms of Life Skills (which I saw in my own classrooms When I was in School), They will more than Likely be at Home a lot of Their Lives.  When I was in School, I was in these classes and It was Not Helping Me Learn Enough, until I was In a Class with Teachers who saw I could learn more. It really is a Harsh Reality and a Sad Reality, but It is Truth. Now, Some Schools do a Good Job in Separating the Kids. Milds here, Mids There, and Severe There. More often than Not, though The Milds are Here but, The Higher Intellectuals of The Mids go with them. and, The Lower Mids go with The Severe’s. Or God Help You, All of The Mid go with The Milds and Severe only with The Severe. The Segregation and the Lack of Integration can be Messed Up. It does not matter where You are in Your Ability to Learn, Funding is Needed in The Special Ed Classrooms, so Each Child can Reach Their Potential in Learning, We deserve a Chance to Learn! All in all, All Children can benefit from Fine Arts, All Children deserve to Learn in Their Own Way and All of This needs Funding! Maybe The School System should re-think in What Segments The Money goes.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Respect How People Learn!

The Christianville Spirit: School Days, Overwhelming Days Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

September 4th, 2019-TCS # 653

Happy September, Everyone! This is The First Month of The Fall Foliage Season, so Get Yourself and Cameras Ready! I Love Fall (or Autumn) Foliage Season! It is so Pretty to look at Pictures of Nature’s Pure Beauty that is Fall Foliage! I wish to see it for Myself One Day! Also, for Those of You who are Obsessed with Pumpkin Spice, Go at It! Me, I don’t see it as a Big Deal! I Love Fall (Autumn) more because of The Fall Foliage! So, On to My Newsletter! So, It has been Many Years, 12 Years actually High School and I still from Time to Time have Dreams like I am still in School. Truth be Told, In Life after School, It is Hard to imagine being out in The Real World because School was All We Knew at The Time. Every Time I see Everyone’s Back to School Pictures, I am reminded how it felt to have a Routine going to School everyday and I know that for PTLSers, Routine is Very Important to Us! Because We are Very Routine oriented. So, Because It is Time for Your PTLSer to go back to School and get back into Their School Routine, I am re-running a Newsletter about going back to School and How Important Routine is.  Enjoy!

This Newsletter was originally written on August 23rd of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 558)

Welcome Back to School, My Readers! Okay, actually, Your Children are probably have already been told that or will be told that! Yes, It is Back to School Time! The Time when Everyone, young and old go back to School. I guess You could consider This Newsletter, School. Because I teach you things that You may not even think about. How School is that?! Get It? Just figured that I would make a Joke for those actually Going to School, both Kids and Young Adults. Young Adults can go to School too via College. Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, Speaking of School, Going back to School means at least for us, PTLSers, that We finally get into a Nice Routine. I remember I did. I obviously talk about The Importance of Routine in My Newsletters a lot. Routine is Very Important to us PTLSers. But, Here is something that I am not sure that I have talked about or have only mentioned in Brief. Usually, I mention it at The End of an Exciting Event in My Life that I tell you. Or It is in the Newsletter after. So, What Am I talking about? Well, Like I said Routine is Important but, being Human and having Out-of-Routine Events happen. That is a Given. Like a Vacation, A Family Road Trip, A Cruise, Someone coming to Visit, or Some Kind of Adjustment to Our Routine. The Thing that makes it easier if It is Predictable, but Again, that does not happen. I am reminded of a Question of One of The PTLS Member’s Boyfriend asked me at The Conference, Being that You need Routine, How do You come down from a Routine-Changing Event? Usually, It involves what I call a Recovery from Whatever Event. My Theory is that My Recovery comes from a lot of different factors like How Big is The Event? Lots of People or a Group of People; How Much of a Difference in Routine am I dealing with? For The PTLS Conference, It was 4 Days. For My Cruise, It was a Week but, with Somewhat of a Different Routine than My Own. and, Probably, The Biggest Factor, What is The Craziness Level in This? 10 being Lots of Activity and/or Distress (or Both) or 0 being I am going out to Dinner with Friends to a Familiar Restaurant. So, How do I recover from Something like a PTLS Conference? So, once The Event ends, I describe it as Driving Very Fast on a Highway and all of a sudden, There is Nothing pushing you, Nothing left to do except Slow Down and go back to Your Routine. To Me, that basically means, that I have to Literally Slam on My Brakes and that usually causes me to Need Time to Calm Down or What I call, “Coming Down” (In Kids, It would be called a Meltdown, only They cry, scream, and kick their legs) after all The Excitement. I have one after Every Big Event that I go to. What I mean is that I am Tired Physically and Mentally. I am Overwhelmed.

Sometimes, My Excitement gets to be Too Much for Me to Handle before My Big Event is over, There have been numerous times when that happens. Two Times that I really remember, Once while at Disney World when I was Kid and Another when We were driving to a PTLS Member’s House during The Stockholm and London Trip.  

After I have My “Coming Down” and Assess all of My Emotions, and Is It normal that I am having them. Then, I get into My Routine as much as I can but, Also It still takes a while to Digest, depending on The Size of The Event. PTLS Conferences (Refer to Any PTLS Conference Newsletter), Great Wolf Lodge (Refer to “Great Wolf Lodge” Newsletter), My Cruise with PTLS (Refer to “Cruise of a Lifetime” Newsletter), It took anywhere from a Week to Week and a Half to Recover. It does help to talk to My Mom about Everything, both exciting (which comes first) and then Emotional, It also helps to Listen to Soft Music (Back when The Great Wolf Lodge thing happened, I listened a Ukulele version of The New Zealand National Anthem. It is Beautiful, I recommend it!), I Take a Nap, or Watch a YouTuber driving on The Road and Listen to sounds of The Road and Bridges (I like Bridges more because They make a Better Sound). Just some Quiet Time with Little to No Activity is all I need. But, I know that all of Us PTLSers have the Same Needs like This, so I am not Alone. Only the Little Kids cannot express this well for a Parent to know what is going on, so The Parent complains of The Child’s Meltdown, not really understanding what is going on. This happened to Me when I was Little, but Good Thing, My Mom knew what to do and Still knows My Facial Expressions which She knows when I am Overwhelmed and Ready for a “Come Down”. When I was Younger, The Teachers could always tell when I had spent the Weekend with My Dad because of The Lack of Routine and Too Much Stimulation, I had My “Come Downs” Monday Mornings at School and They said, I could not focus. I would rock back and forth, hum, and Stim More intensely, and The Teachers had a Problem with getting me to re-focus. But, They knew that I would be Okay in a Day or Two and Back to My Old Self. All in all, Going back to School means a lot of Excitement both Good and Bad, We PTLSers love School, Love to watch The Kids, Just have respect for Our Need to withdraw to “Come Down”.

Thanks For Reading The Christianville Spirit. Celebrate going Back to School, Balanced with Quiet Time.