VernetteOutLoud

Cohort of Awesome

Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself-and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to-letting a person be what he really is. – Jim Morrison

My Cohort of Awesome
This elite group knows and accepts the real me…the hard shell with soft underbelly me.
They call bullshit on my bullshit.
They get it when I need to go inward and need to be alone.
They are there to celebrate my highs and help me laugh through my lows.
They are the ones who said, “I’m here for you” and proved it…again and again.
They allow me to do the same for them.
They never make me feel like I have to fight for their time and attention or insist myself upon them.
They don’t judge me when I have Tiramisu for lunch and then complain about feeling sick afterward.
They are the reason Wine Sundays exist!

My Cohort of Awesome:
The one who has been putting up with my special brand of crazy for more than 25 years.
The one who is always up for a Tiramisu date.
The one who I can get lost on an island with.
The one I met and fell in love with the first day of 6th Form orientation.
The one I can send a “sweet” email and who reads between the lines.
The one who brings me homemade wine and leaves me changed forever.
The one who helped me through the worst September of my life.
The one I just “clicked” with.

My Cohort of Awesome.
The Family I happily chose.

7 for Seven

Today is the last Monday in January 2014. And yes it still sucks to be me sleep-walking to the office bright and early this morning.

Let’s face it // Mondays stink. Or at least we typically expect them to stink. That is why, every Monday, we post seven positives from the previous seven days of the week as a reminder of what we have so that the week starts out on an upswing. There is much truth in the belief that happy people attract good things, so it is important to start the week out right. Sometimes it’s the more grand, but other times, it’s the simple things. ~ Key + Arrow

7 for Seven originated at Key + Arrow and I think it’s the best way to start my week, since I am trying to change my Mondays suck thinking by being thankful for all the goodness in my life.

This is my 7 positives for this last week in January:

7 for Seven week 4

My hope is that by turning my focus to all that I have to be grateful for at the start of the week, I can carry that “positivity + balance + bliss” with me throughout the days ahead.

As January winds down, what are you grateful for today? Please feel free to share with me below.

Here’s to a productive week ahead!

My Favourite things

The Really Good Stuff Did you know that Micronations exist? Have you heard of The Principality of Sealand? They have a website and everything.

This is what happens when you mess with an Aussie’s sleep time.

Men do you want to look great without the all that time at gym? Then check out The Push Up Muscle Shirt! You’re welcome!

If you haven’t seen Disney’s Frozen, here are 7 reasons why you should. And I’ll add my own reason: 8. Finally, in a Disney movie true love has nothing to do with romance!

We said Bon Troyage to Troy Barnes a.k.a Donald Glover a.k.a Childish Gambino with an epic Lava Game on Community! I will miss Troy! If you haven’t seen Community, you.are.missing.out.

Happy Sunday!

BBQ: Loving is hard work

BBQ 25.01.14

I had an hour-long conversation on Thursday with one of my cousins in the US just catching up on our lives and other family issues. As we discussed an ongoing issue she reminded me that people will hurt you but who are you willing to suffer for?

Yes I know we all have issues with our families: The ones we are born into and the ones we choose. But the fact that we call them family means that they are the ones we decide are worth suffering for. It’s a lesson I learned from my mother as well. She had 10 siblings and she was in the middle. So of course there would be disagreements and hurts and slights real or imagined. However, it didn’t matter what happened between them, my mother always said, “that’s ok, that’s my blood.”

Today’s Beautiful Blog Quote comes from a comment on this post. Vikera was sharing her own six-word story but it resonated with me because it was what I was feeling at the time about my family.

It is hard work loving this family I was born into..especially since we are a stone-cold pack of weirdos. But they are the ones I will suffer for any day.

Vikera just started her blog and already she has been featured on BlogHer. She is fast becoming one of my favourite bloggers and you can enter her Mind Maze here. Good stuff I tell you.

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I’m participating in this wonderful series created by Kozo over at everydaygurus.com If you haven’t heard about it please click here to read more.

BBQ
If you want to be part of this awesomeesauce BBQ, here’s how you do it:

  • Take a quotation from a favourite blogger
  • Create a BBQ post with the quotation
  • Link back to the blogger you quoted
  • Tag your post BBQLUV
  • Link to other BBQLUV posts (optional)

Yup! It’s that simple.

Five Minute Friday: Visit

Folks I feel like I have truly found my tribe. I’m linking up again this week with the fabulous Lisa-Jo Baker and the lovely writers of Five Minute Friday. Click on the button below for more details on what this challenge is all about and how you can participate.

5-minute-friday-1

GO

When my uncle’s wife was dying in the hospital, I went to see her. I knew it was going to be hard but I felt that it was something I needed to do. Because my experience with my mother and hospitals taught me that no matter how hard it might be for you to see someone in a hospital bed…you’re not the one in the hospital. So suck it up and go.

So I went with my sister to see her. It was actually a few weeks from my sister’s wedding and my aunt started talking about the wedding. She told my sister that she didn’t think she would make it to the wedding and then she started saying her goodbyes and I lost it. It was exactly what I was afraid was going to happen.

Where did this come from though? Hmmm, I am realizing that for me the word visit is associated with hospitals and sickness and sadness.

I never describe catching-up with a friend as “visiting”. I might say, I went to check so and so or I had a small lime with this one or we had dinner.

I never use visit.

STOP