#but i thought id go with something easy and post about the clairs

[eroticwound]

Maybe part of my resistance to boxing Carmy and Sydney strictly into the “platonic” category is that I’m not even sure, based on what we’ve seen over the two seasons, if they are even friends. Sydney has been at the Beef/The Bear for a little over a year now (?), so maybe the window has been small to get super close, but you look at her relationships with the other characters and there’s imo much more clarity as to those friendships: she and Marcus of course are very good friends, he was probably her first friend at The Beef; she and Tina, it took some time to build that trust but once it was there Tina became her work mom and Syd values her companionship; although not shown explicitly, I also want to argue that Sydney and Nat have built a friendship of sorts since the end of s1 - they came up with CP at some point, meaning Syd felt comfortable enough (and Nat encouraged) talking shit about Carmy with her when he’s being Carmy. And the omelette was such a lovely act of kindness and care. Syd and Richie’s dynamic is significantly better than in s1, but it’s a bit awkward and kinda in the category of work friend that was once your nemesis but now you happily tolerate, if that makes sense? I do think it’s less intense between them by E10, and I’m curious how them working together like that on expo will make Syd more inclined to trust Richie more. The rest of the crew id say are amicable work friends to just associates?

That leaves her and Carmy. They’ve got crazy chemistry off the bat, their minds operate on almost the same level, completing each others sentences, etc etc. But while that’s great evidence of their strong work relationship, I can see Sydney if asked saying that Carmy is more so just a guy she works (and now is a business partner) with, whereas she’d definitely say Marcus is a good friend, yknow? Syd has huge emotional walls built up, doesn’t like to be vulnerable, though she’s done so when either one of the guys urge her to share more. From Carmy’s end, he actually might (subconsciously) view Sydney as his friend thanks to their easy connection. He also picked Sydney, whereas all of his current “friends” were just inherited from Mikey (sorry Fak). Doesn’t mean he loves them any less or that they aren’t his actual friends — just that with Syd, he’s starting fresh in making a friend. He really wants to get to know Sydney — how she’s feeling, what her former bosses think of her, what Sheridan was like, what her relationship with her parents is like (and he feels guilty for not knowing about her mom) — but his probing always happens in the context of cooking or the kitchen, and so Syd’s default is to be guarded or resort to humor. And I think that there were indications that they were growing closer through the chaos menu, but then he starts to date Claire and that project (and building a friendship) was put on hold for a long time and instead there was big a disconnect cause they weren’t communicating. So like yeah, there are platonic elements, but I say these two are operating as a more ambiguous, “secret third thing”. And especially after E10, I don’t know where their pre-friendship progress stands going forward cause I see their relationship as the one that may need the most repairing post Friends & Family 😔

hey anon! sorry for the delay answering this. i appreciate you dropping these bear thoughts in my inbox :)

i’m not sure what made you think i believe syd and carm are platonic? unless maybe you saw me tag something with “i’m a sydcarmy queer platonic truther.” if that’s the case, let me assure you that puts me firmly in the “secret third thing” camp with you. basically, i think it’s likely carmy is on the asexual spectrum, and what’s more “secret third thing” than a queer platonic relationship?

i agree with your reads on the other, clearer relationships between syd and the bear employees (tho i think there’s also a mentor (syd)/mentee (tina) quality between syd and tina. and marcus obvi feels less platonic/more romantic towards syd)

as for syd and carmy… idk, it’s the most complicated dynamic on the show. i disagree that syd views carmy as “just a guy she works with”—this is a guy she can be *creatively vulnerable* with, a colleague who has serious accolades who is telling her they’re working at the same level. who is telling her out of all the high end chefs he knows, he wants to collaborate with her. like, he believes in her and her food so much that he’s made her his partner in all of this. and that’s in addition to the crazy chemistry you reference! being a chef isn’t just a job for them, it’s an artistic calling. collaborating like they do is more on par with a directing duo than people who just work together in the same department. they make each other better at their chosen art (like that’s straight from under the table scene)

but i agree their friendship is.. in its infancy at the least lmao. and i think your reads for why syd is hesitant are correct. carmy’s only tryna get close and ask personal questions when they’re cooking (because he doesn’t know any other way to bond). that being said, besides her dad, she’s never shown chilling with anyone outside of former or current coworkers. syd clearly forms great relationships with her coworkers, like you point out and as further evidenced by her food crawl in sundae. but it’s heavily implied that syd is just as addicted to work as carm, and might not have a huge circle she hangs out with regularly (yet another syd/carm parallel). she’s got walls, like you say, and is shown to be uncomfortable with a lot of emotion (and can sometimes be a dick about it, like with mikey’s hat <3 ). so there’s allll that at play from syd’s end.

and i do agree that carmy views her as a close friend. i like that you point out everyone in carmy’s life except syd is an inherited relationship. that’s SO TRUE. in general, carmy is really delayed and unaware when it comes to relationships—ALL relationships, not just romantic. fak claims carmy and him are best friends but carm doesn’t think so, or rather he’s not really sure. he hasn’t had enough close friends to say. he thought mikey was his best friend, but then was frozen out and realized he knew nothing about him. he wants to be closer with syd, suggested the palate cleanser, which would have been a great way for syd and him to build their friendship, but then claire came along :\

i *am* super stoked to see where syd and carm’s relationship shakes out next season. like carm’s in suuuuch a bad place, and then syd is SOOO anxious about failing. i fear it’s going to get worse before it gets better… but i do think they’re meant to be together in the best (secret third thing) way :)

#anon #the bear #carmy berzatto #carmen berzatto #sydney adamu #bear meta #meta #sydcarmy #but qpr sydcarmy >:)

[do-you-have-a-flag]

Destiel shippers come get ya’ll juice!

SO @deadwright​ and I were inspired by Some Tumblr Posts and the twitter Roadhouse  Wedding stuff and keep writing headcanons about Thee Destiel 2021 Married Ever After S16 SPN Romantic Event Of The Season, so here’s that. 

Arranged in order of marital chronology and cutting out us keysmashing too much:

oh man imagine all the burgers they get catered for the reception dean got it done himself he would’ve been so particular about the catering bridezilla cas would probably be THEE bitchiest bridezilla

it's also definitely that trope where all the other hunters ect KNOW that that many of them and the wedding party are essentially a target for trouble so everyone spends the 24 hours leading up to the vows taking out every beastie who shows up on a revenge kick out of sight because they'll be damned if they let ANYTHING stop this wedding and Dean and cas are both having their marital jitters oh god im not good enough what if something goes wrong about mundane things while monsters are getting their ass kicked outside AWWWWWWWW for sure for sure, they’re hunter royalty this wedding is a big deal like half the attendees are nursing injuries but grinning widely

they don't do the can't see eachother before the wedding thing because you KNOW dean would be fixing cas' tie last minute

dean wears a blue pocket square to match cas' tie cas wears a FLANNEL SQUARE

I’m obsessed w the idea of cas giving dean a little bit of his grace in a small bottle on a chain for him to wear or like a wing feather or some part of him god the grace in a bottle breaks me every time in fic dean probably builds cas something but every time i try to think of something specific i choke up

i was thinking like what if trading grace is as close to a romantic gesture as angels have and he's like..... technically i left some grace behind in your mark when i dragged you from the pit and dean is like ARE YOU SAYING WE'VE BEEN MARRIED THIS WHOLE TIME? 

they are so sweet i’m on the verge of tears the ability to do anything by halves in their relationship was burnt out by like the second return from the dead moment they are too insane to be anything less than All In And Then Some

at one point someone was like hey cas do you want to run your vows by someone as practice? and he started reading what he'd prepared and it devolved into Biblically Grand Statements Of The Power Of Love And The Redemption Of - ect ect ect and it's because unlike the confession scene he's had TOO much preparation and overshot into uncanny angelic vibes he makes some edits because he know the expressions he gets when he reads it aren't what he intended

dean writes page after page after page of unused drafts, none of them are particularly floral

he does the cliche of ripping up his vows and improvising at the altar, something he gets mercilessly teased for because he swore he wouldn't but it classifies as a chick flick moment

THAT’S SO PEAK HIM OH MY GOD and you knoooooow you just KNOW it’s beautiful and emotional and everyone is crying

god the NOVELTY of dean being emotionally honest in front of people......im gonna faint YEA yeah... ONE TIME ONLY DEAL he thinks loudly at Sam's smug expression

anyway, at the wedding dean is the one who spends the whole ceremony with like crying cat meme eyes after the confession scene i’m pretty sure the minute the vows start cas is in the same boat USELESS HUSBANDS dean gets passed a handkerchief for his tears and immediately goes to use it on cas' face and they both laugh sob love the idea that everyone individually thought they were too tough to cry but they all broke at various stages yeah sam definitely starts to choke up just standing up there with his brother sam chokes up before the ceremony even started, like probably when he was pinning on dean’s corsage

anyway, Jack dancing with his two dads at the reception CAS’ BEST MAN / FLOWER BOY FLOWER MAN let him heelie down the aisle with the flowers LITTLE MAN GO NYOOM who makes him a little flower crown he wears with a proud lil smile? claire ofc, with those hair braiding skills? she makes it BEAUTIFUL flower crown: on nails: painted dads: MARRIED!!!!

when they say i do and kiss and everyone is cheering you can't convince me that someone doesn't let off what is either a gun or a dubiously legal firework in celebration jack pops a few lightbulbs in his uncontrollable joy

Dean and Cas can't let go of each other, it's at LEAST one point of physical contact for the rest of the reception PERIODT

CAN YOU IMAGINE THEM DANCING TO AIR SUPPLY

they definitely didn't do the wedding gifts thing but a few mysteriously show up anyway; discuss waffle iron from sam bc he remembers the becky incident meanwhile claire gets them flavoured lube because she’s an insane little mean girl she gets them a sampler package with like novelty flavours, gotta spring extra for a wedding PIE FLAVOURED LUBE

it’s gonna be the party of the century omfg you KNOW it! that dancefloor going OFF the BAR is FLOWING

dean gets dragged up onto the bar to make a speech and there's a moment at the end where he drags cas up there too and they're being playfully yelled at not to scuff it and there's hooting and catcalls as dean and cas kiss and dean gestures rudely before almost falling backwards off the bar before cas grabs him and climbing down is less romantic or dignified but he couldn't care if he wanted to

meanwhile sam and claire are outside defacing the impala with silly string and lewd graffiti and tin cans tied to the bumper for the going-away oh it is one hundo percent a just married atrocity there's enough condoms hidden in the car that they're still finding them months later

anyway wanna hear my disgustingly soppy honeymoon roadtrip concept? YOU KNOW I DO OKAY SO

you know at some point dean must have said some sad thing like for the longest time he never thought he'd live long enough to get married and the only circumstances he could imagine was hooking up drunkenly with a stranger at some vegas wedding scenario like that's the best he would ever get and he thinks it's mostly forgotten but then during their cross country honeymoon roadtrip castiel does in fact navigate them to las vegas and quietly mutters that the legal veracity of the little chapel on the city limits is dubious at best and they're already married so it couldn't do any harm and they get officiated by an elvis impersonator and a woman wearing more sequins than fabric throws cheap confetti over them

and after that they stop into every venue they can find that would be friendly to them to pretend they're eloping and at one point dean even pulls out the fbi id badges and the officiant is under the impression he's facilitating some sort of covert workplace romance 

one place is a kitchy little house that's clearly just the couple who run it opening their strange home to anyone who needs it and have been since the 70s and Castiel thinks for a moment when they're asked to pin something to the collection of stuff on the walls and ceiling before pulling the receipt for the pie they'd shared earlier in a dinner out and scrawling his and dean's name on it to be added to the clutter 

and at one point they stand ankle deep in a pond while some old hippie lady wraps their clasped hands together with soft fabric and chants something that dean knows isn't real magic but hey he's not going to tell her that and after the ceremony they sit on the grass and feed each other sweet bread to complete the binding or whatever and it's nice but it doesn't compare to the ranch where they both tossed their cowboy hats in the air and were given a horse to ride to their camp site

i thought about riverboat gambling for point one seconds and now i know in my bones that one of their many weddings was on a riverboat, they made the captain officiate after cornering him on deck in like five minutes, the crew sent them complimentary champagne and they threw fries at the birds following the boat while sharing it straight out of the bottle

if destiel can go canon multiple times they can get married multiple times CHANGE MY MIND THEY GET MARRIED SO MUCH the MOST married i just want them to get gay cowboy married

eventually i want them to end up at the beach bc dean has canonically never been to the coast their road trip is to get to the other coast

they send just married postcards back to sam from every stop sam stops feeling hurt he was left out of their vegas elopement wedding by the third wedding postcard he recieves sam saves them ofc bc GOD can you imagine them looking at the postcards on their 30th anniversary or s/t 🥺 showing their grandkids and recounting the story of each wedding there's a seashell taped to the last one

cas gets a terrible sunglasses tan and dean gets burnt on the tips of his ears and there's sand on sand on sand in all their clothes and at one point dean is blinking away salt water and cas is gripping his arm and saying something about the coral by them in the water and dean thinks that he likes floating beside cas a lot better than flying

dean has cas pick ice cream for them from a truck and hustles at carnival games enough to win them both big novelty foam hats and they both go back to their room and pass out immediately post shower sprawled across the bed and still smelling like sunscreen and salt water

dean tucks a little cocktail umbrella behind cas’ ear

cas spends most of the next day in dean's zepplin shirt and a pair of shorts they only picked up once they got there because neither of them thought to bring beach clothes, they sit on the balcony and dean sips his beer and idly plays with the ring on cas' finger and they play a game of what fictional monsters could they beat in a fight

cas’ true form is the size of the chrysler building he can fight king kong easy that's what he says and dean's like okay but what about mothra and castiel is like how would YOU defeat mothra and dean just goes "bugspray." GDJSGSHSGSHDSJ DEAN WOULD

in honour of misha putting his whole pussy into the role, cas wears a dress in at least one of their weddings

it's at one of those theme parks that's just historical re-enactments and people get their vows renewed there and there's costumes for the photobooth and the staff are like how long have you been married? castiel says two weeks, three days, eighteen hours, and twenty five minutes................ approximately.  and the photo is cas in a classical wedding gown and dean is wearing the veil with his old timey suit and there's a moose head on the wall behind them wearing the top hat he was given and they send that print with an arrow pointing at the moose with sam written next to it

i keep thinking bitch!!!! you KNOW WHAT!! you KNOW that dean is the type a guy who's heart races every time he feels his wedding ring/is always fiddling with it in the weeks after the wedding, like an anchor to remind him they really got married this is real he would NEED that physical reminder that he can have good things

he’s never ever going to take it off, the tan line will be permanent

how funny it would be if dean gets injured on a hunt and the monster guy is about to kill him and then the lights blow out and the monsters are like what was that and dean is just like "[spits blood] that's my husband." and nek minnit cas has just ripped through them thanks to teleporting in angel style and is just like Cas: [heals dean] "you're late for movie night" Dean: "Well if you'd gotten here earlier i would have been on time." Cas: >:| [kisses him]

cas is like i didn’t burn the popcorn this time you BETTER be alive to see it

#destiel #supernatural #long post #supernatural season 16 #twitter roadhouse wedding about to pop OFF #destiel wedding #deancas

[perriewinklenerdie]

Goddess of Dawn (Ethan Ramsey x MC) {AU} *part 1*

Open Heart, Ethan Ramsey x MC

{AU}

Author’s note: Hello, hello, hello! I’m emerging from the other side of the first week of uni! It will be a doozy, let me tell you that. The fact that I had exactly zero time or motivation to write, I decided to dig up my secret stash… an AU I was mentioning here and there.

So, it’s set about two years after OH1 and that’s all I’m gonna tell you, so I don’t spoil anything for you.

At the time of me posting this, AO3 is down temporarily, so I’ll add the link when I can

Enjoy! <3

-------------

I.

Rain was falling heavily from the sky, thick clouds coloring the world with grey colors and deep shadows. Puddles of water and mud covering the streets, shoes sinking into the ground. The ER was busting at seems, people coming and going, doctors struggling not to trip over one another.

Ethan moved from one room to another, placing quick but careful steps as to avoid slipping on the wet floor. He stopped by the entrance to the hospital, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. The coldness embraced him, making him shiver, his thin white coat providing not enough comfort to keep him warm.

The apparent tranquility was severed quickly by the screeching sound of tires scraping against the asphalt. It all happened quickly and quietly, the door of the car opened, a pair of hands pushed the black bag out onto the ground and then, as quickly as it appeared, it vanished, the movement showering the dark mass on the ground in dirty liquid. For a moment the world stood still, until someone approached the strange object and screamed at the top of their lungs.

“It’s a body! Help, somebody help! I think I see blood!”

His body kicked into the fifth gearshift, throwing him forward before he knew what he was doing. Ethan fell to his knees, untying the knot at the top of the bag and pushing the material away, revealing a young man. No more than twenty-eight years of age, his face deformed, nose probably broken, his lips opened as he breathed unevenly. Ethan ran his eyes over the body, searching for the source of bleeding, and sure enough, a wound that seemed to have been caused by a bullet was roaring on the side of the chest of a young man.

Without a moment of hesitation, he picked him up, having previously made sure that he didn’t have any spine fractions, and, as fast as he could, carried him inside. The ER didn’t have empty beds, so he had no choice other than taking his patient to the OR to examine what was wrong. The man was conscious, but couldn’t see to talk, and every question Ethan directed at him was answered by silence. He called for a team of surgeons, letting them take over as he finished the initial examination.

A bullet wound, etched deeply between the ribs. His pupils were blown wide, which indicated that he may have been under the influence of some drug.

He requested a CBC and drug tests, then left the room, letting his colleagues do their work. That’s all he could have done, and now all he could do was wait. In the meantime, he decided to go and ask if anyone knew who the patient was, any clue that could help them understand what happened.

The first thing that came to Ethan’s mind was some sort of a gang activity, most likely a revenge that didn’t come to its fruition yet, because the man was still alive. The way the body was discarded, like a bag of waste, like useless garbage, it made him shiver. The man was young, and regardless of who he was, regardless of what he did or didn’t do, he didn’t deserve what happened to him.

Hours later, when the operation was over, he got the lab results back. No diseases, nothing genetic, drug tests came back negative. Nothing was conclusive, symptoms weren’t adding up, confusing him even more. No matter where he looked, it all led to a dead end, and at that moment he knew that he wouldn’t be able to figure it out on his own. He needed help.

And he knew just who to ask. Just as the thought entered his brain, a blonde braid came into his view, a bright smile greeting him, her eyes sparkling.

“You look conflicted. Did something happen?” Claire’s voice broke through a thick mist of his thoughts, standing next to him.

Claire… Claire has quickly become a significant part of his life. Over the past two years, they went through their fair share of experiences, with her earning a place on his team, which remained hers to this day, her work outstanding and her contribution to medicine tremendous. Of course, having her so close to him was not the easiest thing for him to do, as they both harbored feelings for each other. It would have been much less painful if he could hate her, if he could avoid her, but that was impossible. Whether he liked it or not, he seemed to be locked with her in an impasse, and all roads apparently lead to disaster and pain.

Despite the tension that filled the air every time they were in the same room, despite the sparks that lit up his body every time they touched, they somehow managed to last two years without breaking the promise they made to each other the evening of their first day back after the trial. That they would not compromise their careers and lives of their patients by giving in to desires that were fleeting.

Except they were not fleeting.

Seven hundred and thirty days. Seven hundred and thirty days of remembering how good it felt to have her in his arms, how her lips tasted, how he fit with her like two pieces of the same puzzle. The sounds she made during those nights of passion, ringing through his ears at all times of the night and day. And then they put a lid on it all, sealing the past with a lock, throwing away the key. All would be perfect, if it wasn’t for the fact that the key seems to have bounced off the wall it was thrown at and the lock was getting rusty, easy to break if enough pressure was applied.

“Ethan? Are you okay?” Claire’s voice broke through to him again, pulling him back into reality. Her eyes were trained on him, a few lines appearing on her forehead. Judging by the tingling sensation he felt in his arm, she was touching him.

“Huh?”

“You drifted away. One second you were here, and the other you were on the other side of the universe. Come back to me, Doctor.” She laughed a little, shaking her head at him. “Okay, so what’s going on? Tough case?”

He looked down at the file in front of him, using his hands as support as he leaned over the table. She joined him, her body mimicking his actions, so they were at a comparable level of vision. They observed the results in science, both deep in thoughts.

“I was meaning to ask for your opinion, because I don’t see anything in here. Nothing makes sense, nothing adds up. I mean, look-“ he pointed out one of the tests written on the paper at the same time as she reached in the same direction, and their fingers brushing against one another briefly.

Almost as though they were electrocuted, they jumped back and away from each other, their heads turned towards opposite directions to avoid eye contact. He cleared his throat, choosing to be the first one to break the awkward silence.

“So, um, any ideas as to what it might be?” he questioned, observing as her muscles tensed visibly all of a sudden. When she turned around, she had a haunted look in her eyes, like she was reliving a painful memory.

“I- I think I saw something like this before, but I’m not sure what it was. Who is the patient?” she clearly tried to control her voice but couldn’t help the break in it as she asked for the identity of a man whose results they were discussing.

“That’s the thing. I don’t know. He was thrown out of the car in front of the ER a few hours ago. I saw it happen myself, it was me that brought him in and took him as my patient. I asked if there was any ID on him, but they found nothing. At least for now, he’s John Doe. With some sort of condition that no one can diagnose and a bullet hole between his ribs.” He mused, remembering how bloodied his white coat was after he left the OR room and went to his office. “If I had to guess, some drug cartel fights.” He added, noticing how her whole posture straightened considerably at the mention of an illegal activity.

Claire was awfully quiet, something clearly on her mind. He saw her struggling before, saw the look of despair and sadness on her face when she wanted to save a patient but couldn’t. This, however, was something different. This seemed like a reason enough to make her stop in her tracks, to wipe everything else clean from her mind, leaving only the problem itself. Before he could ask her what the matter was, she turned to him, her face straight again, a desperate attempt to cover up her real feelings.

“Can you take me to him? Maybe we’ll be able to read more from his chart.” Her words seemed small, unsure, like she wasn’t certain if she even wanted to know who the victim was. He nodded, pointing with his arm to lead them both out of the room.

Walk through the halls was quiet. Claire didn’t mention anything about what was on her mind, and he didn’t push, because he wasn’t sure what was the case in the first place, and he didn’t want to overstep. The door was closed when they reached their destination, and it was her that reached for the doorknob first, not giving him a chance to even think about doing so.

She took a hesitant step into the room, her eyes focusing on the silhouette of a man on the bed. If he was confused by the whole situation before, now he reached new heights of perplexity. A shrieking sound escaped Claire’s lips as she threw herself in the direction of a man. She leaned over him, her hands touching his arms gently.

“Charlie?”

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Tag list:   @paleweasels, @lilyofchoices, @hopelessromantic1352, @aloehasrose, @valiantlychaoticbarbarian, @radlovedreamer, @usuallyamazinglyaverage, @palestazure, @cordoniaqueensworld, @universallypizzataco, @princess-geek, @faithhasnowords, @mightyfangirlofthefandoms, @drakewalkerfantasy, @timmagicktoad, @laceandlula, @greywitchyshots, @llamasgrl, @gingerjane15, @bucket-harrington , @marywrites-things , @ethanplaysfavorites , @mfackenthal , @betelgeusebee , @simsvetements,  @i-only-signed-up-for-fanfiction, @buzz-bee-buzz, @owleyes374, @cora-nova, @aworldoffandoms, @l822, @cream-ray, @ughhhxjazzy, @silverlitskies, @justendlesssummerfeels, @togetherwearerapture, @desmaranj, @edgiestwinter, @friedherringclodthing, @daisy-ashton, @waytooattuned, @choicesgremlin , @lapisreviewsstuff, @the-soot-sprite, @writerapprentice, @chasingrobbie,@choicesobsessedd, @cassiusownsmyass, @x-kyne-x, @thisperfectmemory, @drakewalker04, @rookie-ramsey, @jlynn12273, @yesimacerealkiller, @thepinknymph @dr-brianna-casey-valentine, @a-i-n-a-a-s-h,

#ethan ramsey #open heart #choices #au #fic #ethan ramsey x mc #dr ethan ramsey #dr. ethan ramsey #mc x ethan ramsey #mc x ethan #dr. ethan #playchoices #choices stories you play

[wafflesetc]

I’ll be there for you, Chapter 17 (previously)

A/N: Folks, this is it. The final chapter of IBTFY. It’s been a long, slow, ride for these two. And it’s ending on nothing but a good time. Thank you for every kind word, like, kudos, DM, ask and reblog you’ve given this fic. It means more than you’ll know. 

The biggest of biggest thank you’s to @kkruml and @missclairebelle who fix every wrong, make it right, and give me something substantial to post. They’re the real magic workers BTS of this fic and I literally could not have done it without them.

To @jules-fraser and @thefraserwitch thank you for the constant encouragment.

And the biggest thank you for this fic has to go to @balfeheughlywed, for without her text post I don’t even know how many months back, this fic wouldn’t even be here. 

One Month Later Claire

I found it funny how while to any passerby who came through our apartment nothing had changed .We still had the black couch. The coffee table still had a dent in it from a game night six months past where John had inevitably drunkenly fallen and hit his head causing me to do my first ‘at home’ stitches with nothing but the unfinished vodka handle to clean out the wound and no localized anesthesia for the poor man

The kitchen still had a few broken tiles that needed to get fixed from where Jamie punched the wall. The floor still had some stains from a spot where I left a cold beer too long.

So while nothing had seemingly changed, everything too had also changed.

We had yet to out ourselves to our friends, Geillis being the one exception. We had practically almost gotten it on in her kitchen- and she’d never let me live that one down. Jamie’s belongings had slowly trickled from his bedroom to mine. ‘Ours’ I had to remind myself. His extra firm pillow was on the side of the bed where he said he liked to sleep- but I knew well enough after waking up with my entire body spooned against his, we both preferred the right side of the bed. I had learned he liked getting up with me at my ungodly hours when I was on call. There was always a whisky or cup of coffee waiting on me before I left or for whenever I came home.

He never complained when I did our laundry. He caught on rather quickly that folding clothes was not my forte and I had a tendency to leave the clean clothes in a basket in front of the dryer. That would leave him unsure if they were truly clean or dirty… Soon enough he caught on and I would come home to folded clothes that had also been put away. We had set into our own rhythm the last month. It was shocking at times when I stopped and thought about it- being with Jamie was as easy as breathing. I was coming off my sixth night on call- My trauma rotation was nearing its end, and after a massive car accident off the freeway where I had a mass casualty with six dead bodies on my watch.

I had never had that many patients die on my service in all my years as a resident and in one night it had nearly doubled.

I could feel the imaginary weight of the day on my shoulders as I entered the apartment. I could smell the beef stew in the crockpot. The table had been set, a glass of whisky waiting for me (per usual) and a large, red headed Scot with a smile.

“Ye look like ye didna have a good day. Please tell me ye dinna feel as bad as ye look.” The shrug on his shoulders and half smile made me feel like I had just kicked a puppy. He had had something planned tonight and I was coming in ruining it.

Did I look as bad as I felt, though? Apparently. His words were the tip of the iceberg for me, sending me down into full meltdown mode.  “I had six patients die in the A&E tonight.”

“That massive accident I saw on the news?”

“Yes.” My voice faltered. I took a step towards him and he rushed to my side. His arms encompassed me and I felt him crush me tightly against his body.

“Ye did everything ye could to save them, I know ye did Claire.” I felt the tears running down my face as he continued.  “Christ. Ye have a gift, Sassenach. Yer hands- ye’re a healer. I know ye did everything you could and then some. Just because the devil is tryna scheme ye, dinna let him get ye.”

“I could have done more…” My voice cracked as I tried to defend circumstances I knew were well out of my control.

I felt his chest tighten as he squeezed me even more taut to his body. “Dinna go there. Ye did everything ye could. Ye look like ye have been hit by a train. Hell I havena seen ye in nearly a week, Sassenach. Ye’re tired, overworked, and hungry.” He kissed  the top of my head and gave my rear end a tight squeeze. I could tell he was trying to lighten my mood and he was doing a decent job at it so far. “We’re no’ going to have a pity party because that’s no’ who ye are.”

“I love you.” I mumbled into his chest. He knew me better than I knew myself sometimes- and he was right. I had endured a hard week and this was just the cherry on the top.

“I ken ye do, and I thank ye for it. How about I draw ye a bath and then we can eat and try and take yer mind off of things?” I looked up to see his blue eyes darken in the centers.

“You just want to get laid.”

“Maybe.” He smiled, kissing the bridge of my nose. “Ye will have yer courses any day now, and I just want to love on every inch of ye….”

“I know, I’m sorry. I’ve been moody lately. It’s probably the combo of being overworked and PMS. It has been a while since we’ve…”

“Eight days, no’ that I’m counting.”

He was counting and I had to admit it: I found it rather endearing. He had tried to seduce me this past week. The first time was on my first morning of my seven in a row, but when my cellphone went off with an emergency trauma surgery, our supposed hour to get ready together was cut short. The second time he had texted me naughty phrases all day and told me to stay up a ‘wee bit’ past my bed time- and I had tried and failed miserably.

I blushed as I nudged his chest with my head. “You’re involved with a doctor now. Odd hours of being on-call and mood swings come with the territory. This weekend I will be all yours- you can do whatever you’d like to me.”

“A whole weekend, aye?”

“Relationships are compromise right? I’ve been too exhausted to satiate the fiend of a boyfriend I have- so I’ll give him my body, all weekend. Purely at his disposal.” This earned me a hearty laugh and he kissed my forehead.

“Ye make me sound like a nymphomaniac, Sassenach.”

“I mean… There’s nothing wrong with having a healthy sex life.”

“So I can make love to ye then- after ye have taken a shower?” He smiled at me and gave me the worst attempt at a wink I’d ever seen. (And threw me off just a touch.)

“Yes.” I choked. “Only if you promise to never wink at me again.”

“Deal. Do hurry though, Sassenach. I am no’ a verra patient man.”

I disentangled myself from his arms and escaped to the bathroom. I shed the scrubs from my body, tossing them in the hamper as I heard the soft croons from Frank Sinatra come from the kitchen.

“You’re such a romantic,” I said to myself. “And all mine.”

He was, and I was incredibly lucky. Turning the shower on, I felt my phone vibrate on the counter.

Geillis: You need to tell the others. I am tired of covering for you two. John knows something is up!

“Jamie,” I yelled taking a step into the shower. “When are we going to tell the others we’re together.”

“Mmphm.” Jamie grunted entering the bathroom. I rolled my eyes at him through the glass shower door and lathered my hair in shampoo.

“We both know they’ve been rooting for us since you moved in.”

“I ken.”

“And?”

He strode the few feet across to the glass and drew a heart in the condensation. “I like having ye as my little secret.”

“Bloody Scot.” I mumbled rinsing out my hair. “We can’t hide forever. I have that function next week at the hospital- John is a donor there, you know he’ll see us.”

“Fine. Game night on Friday and we can tell them.”

I mouthed I love you as he sashayed away in his defeat. “Hurry, yer food is goin’ to go cold.”

II finished washing my body and shaving my legs. Turning off the water, I heard The X-Files theme song bellow from my phone. Grabbing for my towel I saw the hospital’s caller ID On the screen.

“Dr. Beauchamp,” I answered in my doctor tone.

“Hey, Claire- it’s Geillis,” My female friend started on the other end of the line.

“Hey, what’s up? I’m off. If it’s a surgery, transfer to the night rotation doctor, I am off for the weekend.”

“It’s no’ that…” She took a breath and was silent for a moment. “I dinna ken how to tell ye.”

“What is it?” I asked as I reached for my body lotion.

“Do ye remember how ye were worried about your hemoglobin levels, anemic or whatnot since ye have been working so much?”

“Yes,” I hesitantly said. I had been scared I wasn’t eating and sleeping enough, causing some issues. I had her run a CBC panel just to put my mind at ease. I hadn’t really thought anything would come back- let alone for her to call me.  “What is it?” She caught the edge in my voice as if I were giving bad news to a patient’s family.

“I…”

“Just say it, Geillis.”

She took another breath and clicked her tongue. “You’re pregnant.”

Suddenly- it all made sense. The exhaustion and mood swings, the insatiable demand for Jamie.

“I’ll only ask once,” Geillis said. “Is it Jamie’s?”

“I…” I was speechless. “Yes.” I finished. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.”

“I ken. We’ll talk later.”

As I was hanging up the phone, I turned to the doorframe and saw my 6’3” and rather formidable Scot standing in the doorframe.

“Ye look like ye’ve seen a ghost, Sassenach. Are ye almost ready?”

I opened my mouth to speak but failed at words.

“Is everything alright?”

“No.” I said firmly. A smile crept across his face and he shook his head at me, though I could tell it was merely from confusion. “I mean, no but yes, but no, but yes. I don’t bloody know!” I raised my hands at him and shook my own head.

“Talk to me.”

“I…” I took a breath and placed my hands on the sink turning my face away from his eye contact. “We’re getting another roommate.”

“I’m sorry, I dinna understand.” His voice was quiet. I could practically hear the wheels in his head turning.  He had a pensive look on his face, a small smile in his eyes. I could see the realization coming across his face slowly but surely.

“Another roommate.”  I whispered taking one hand and placing it over my abdomen. “Do ye ken what I mean now, Fraser?”

“Claire….” He uttered taking a step into the bathroom. “Are ye….”

“I’m pregnant.”

I felt his hands on my waist as he turned me back to face him- his eyes covered with a thin film of tears and a smile from ear to ear.

“Another roommate, then.” He agreed placing a hand on my stomach.

And it was in that moment, any unknown or uncertain fear I had about the next chapter in our lives- whatever came, whatever we endured, as long as he kept looking at me like that- I knew we’d be just fine.

“Another roommate.” I smiled, placing my hand atop his, giving it a squeeze. “Another bloody roommate.”

#Outlander #outlander fanfiction #Jamie x Claire #Jamie Fraser #Claire Beauchamp #I'll be there for you AU #myfic! #omg I finished a whole fic?! #WOT #craigh na queue

[jesserwoods]

The ultimate pivot: Changing business course(s) with COVID-19

  By Derek Smith

Special to Ontario Construction Report

Steve Jobs was once quoted “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R and D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R and D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it”.

For many of us, COVID-19 taught business leaders that if they chose not to adjust and pivot their businesses, one of two things would happen, someone else will take their customers, or, the business will no longer survive at all.

There has been a lot written by people far more intelligent than me on what businesses have to do to survive post COVID-19. In fact my brain often hurts with the counterpointing perspectives of what success looks like in the coming months. Many were hit far harder than others, and as for construction, in many ways, the industry was largely spared. This is not to say, it has not been easy and it will remain challenging for a while as the cost of the business of construction, has gone up in ways that could not be factored in pricing of projects even four short months ago.

Between January 2014 and March 10th of 2020, my small business, Constructionlab logged exactly 340,000 km on the 400 series highways of Ontario  On average that is about 1,000 km per week for business, or 10 hours of time per week in normal circumstances, but adding in GTA as a large percentage of that, and you are driving on average about 16 hours per week.

For many that is almost 1/2 of a regular work week.Since Monday March 16, my weekly average driving for business related purposes has dropped to 10 km per week or exactly 8 minutes of driving. What happened? My costs, should I realize revenue another way – went completely in the other direction than many.

Constructionlab’s business model is simple. Construction associations and others offer education and professional development as a service, hiring our expertise to design the course material and facilitate the learning in a classroom style atmosphere. Everywhere from Ottawa, to Toronto, to Niagara to the Soo and more.

Like school, on March 13 in Ontario, it was shuttered. No more education offerings in class, no driving, no more anything. Revenue projections reduced 100 per cent in one day for the foreseeable future. Definitely Q2 of 2020 at a minimum, maybe more.

Construction associations, our clients, on the other hand quite some time ago had invested in E-learning to augment in class professional development. While it may not offer the same level of interaction and opportunity to learn from colleagues or share other perspectives, it is nonetheless, a viable base level learning to gain Gold Seal Points, or CPD points for self-directed professional development.

For Constructionlab, there we were – left hanging. Our model was outdated. It did not account for the “what if”. Like many other businesses, I have come to learn – we did not have a disaster plan.

I had always shied away from distance learning, feeling it just was not the type of atmosphere I had come to know teaching in class at St. Clair College in Windsor, or making decisions on methods for delivery of learning as part of the Fanshawe College Program Advisory Committee in London.

Engaged by the Toronto Construction Association a couple of years ago, John Mollenhauer sought out our subject matter expertise to develop e-learning modules for a few courses, but it was not the same, my heart was just not in it beyond building the content and finding a learning management system (LMS) that could work for TCA.

After years of being in the classroom, I could not rationalize the delivery style being the same or able to come close to emulating that learning experience. I was wrong in many ways.

Why did this now matter? In one day, I had to pivot, or my business would no longer be. But was e-learning via webinar the right move?

Enter on-line meeting platforms. Literally in the past 90 days, anyone reading this article has likely become an on-line meeting expert. We use terms like “zoom in” or “go to”, and they are likely to become Webster’s most used words for 2020, naturally following after – coronavirus, of course.

But for a small business, it was do, or die. Give in to the need to learn quickly something that in the past had just not seemed right. Fear of the unknown, that’s really what that is. It is what keeps many entrepreneurs from going forward.

I said to myself, I have to learn to transition the content that was designed for interaction, group exercises, critical thinking and more in a week…or else, in four weeks, turn off the lights.

But was e-learning via webinar the right move? I wondered. It was the question that needed answering.

Back to Steve Jobs…and his quote.

How does a micro business, that serves clients who are not asking you to make the change, because they too are busy trying to figure how to pivot in so many ways themselves…how do you pivot without a huge investment in time or money, when others in the space you occupy have the capital and thought of this already?

You find the best tool you can, work hard and overnight transition your business to a new format. A new model is the answer. You take a risk.

What I learned, now one hundred hours into on-line LIVE sessions facilitated for CCA’s Construction 101, Construction Industry Ethics, Construction 201,  Prompt Payment, Invoicing Properly and Adjudication Mechanics in Ontario, and more, is that when challenged, we will do remarkable things. When challenged and given no alternative, innovation (this is really not true innovation, but it is relative to Constructionlab’s business model) will happen, and it can happen even if you are not capitalized to any great degree.

Constructionlab did not need an expensive “fully automated” LMS, that was true, we did not need five hundred different features in a software solution. We needed three things. One, the ability to interact with learners through the very slick use of break-out rooms, two, the ability to share our screen, and three, the ability to transfer files.

Oh…and a fourth, be first to market with a solid real time “LIVE stream” learning solution. Not E-learning webinars that “push” information. Sure, annotations are excellent and allow us to mark up and highlight text or drawings on the go, or even sketch out financial or mathematical formulae, but beyond that, so long as the content was strong, the delivery interactive and in real time, and the facilitator had subject matter expertise that is relatable, real and comes from practical experience, you can have success and pivot!

Constructionlabs’ future has never looked so bright. Our incredible association clients, grabbed onto the idea, asked me to run with it – and by all accounts, successfully!  In fact, there are three new opportunities emerging quickly that will forever change my micro business, and they are all really exciting and all because we made the pivot!

I am hopeful that for those reading this story, you too are experiencing success in a new reality. It is what drives the entrepreneurial spirit and confirms that micro and small business truly are nimble and can drive changes needed at a time when the world seems to stand still. Stay tuned an amazing announcement soon…slowly but surely – I am “getting it”.

Derek Smith is lead facilitator with Constructionlab.ca.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8873226 https://ift.tt/3j1NJsN via http://www.rssmix.com/

[cynthiadshaw]

Perspective & Advice for Those Facing Insurmountable Odds

Throughout our journey with Voyage, the one thing we have learned over and over is that hidden within every challenge is a blessing or opportunity. It’s up to us to determine whether a challenge we face will be a step back or the catalyst for a step forward.

We had the honor of connecting with some of the city’s brightest female leaders and role models and we asked them our question of the month: What is the best advice you have for someone who feels like they are facing insurmountable odds.

Below, you’ll find their advice and links and other info so you can learn more about them, their work and how to connect with them. We’ll be interviewing many of these amazing women in the coming weeks, stay tuned.

Stephanie Fuentes – Food, Faith & Fun

I can honestly say that I am alive and able to share my life with the world because of God’s love and goodness. A year ago I was in a very dark place with a challenge that I felt was to great to bear. I didn’t have the inner strength to live another day and I contemplated suicide. There are several things in this world that can help take your mind off challenges but at the end of the day the pain and pressure of those things will still be there. I encourage anyone going through a tough situation that they feel is too big to overcome to #1 trust God that he has not abandoned you and allow him to lead your life. You have to take it day by day, not thinking too far out ahead. All challenges are temporary and even though some seem great or last longer than others they are meant to form you into a better person. It’s also very important to surround yourself with people that are going to speak life to you and help build you up. I have alot of good people in my life that I call my “angels” that motivated me, pushed me to not give up, helped me grow as a person and showed me love and support that helped keep me going. It’s also very helpful to start your day with prayer because through prayer you can release your worries and anxieties to God and in return gain hope and peace that will help you get through the day. I end with this, there is a verse in the Bible that I hold on to close to my heart that says, “God causes ALL things to work together for the GOOD of those who love him .” Romans 8:28 The challenge you are facing now, as bad as it may seem, will SOMEHOW work for your GOOD as part of a BIGGER plan God has for you. Trust God and praise him even for the insurmountable challenge because something good will come out of it if you don’t give up. So whatever you do, just don’t give up! Your sunshine is coming!

@stephyy__eats

Bailey Brown – Content Creator & Social Strategist

When faced with challenges that seem insurmountable, remind yourself that the only way to fail is if you don’t try. It’s easy to focus on failure, and get caught up in the idea that any outcome that’s less than ideal is a loss. But, in reality, you learn, grow, and adapt with every challenge, regardless of the outcome, and that’s always a win.

DailyBaileyB.com

Miranda Sasha – Model and Mua

@seth_haussler_photography

My advice is to remember that every failure came before a great story. Sometimes we feel as if the world is against us or that we cannot overcome our obstacles but without them we wouldn’t learn how to live and be the people we are today. Take every challenge as a step forward than back.

Courtenay Prelow – Boutique Owner & Teacher

The best advice I have is to stay calm so you can think clearly, figure out exactly what options are available to you in this challenge, and then decide to push yourself to get past the issue. When we face obstacles sometimes they may feel insurmountable because the option we truly want isn’t easy or it just isn’t available. So we have to make hard decisions that may make us uncomfortable. It’s ok. You don’t want to be stuck and just sitting in your problems. Choose to move forward and believe in yourself.

Rayebelle.com @Rayebelleboutique facebook.com/Rayebelleboutique

Jan Cargo – A Shoe Blogger

I believe that every difficult situation has a purpose in our lives. They are times of reflection. Balancing thoughts and feelings. What I do to overcome bad situations is to connect with someone, specially someone who you have a strong relationship with (maybe a family member, friend, or partner). Most of the time just chatting with someone lightens the discomfort. Talking about our problems and opening up with others definitely can change our mood. Humans are social by nature, so just converse and see how tough feelings lessen.

@j.cargo janerasolitaria.com

Rosa Luna – Owner of Dominican Salon

On many occasions we feel that the challenges overcome us and that we are unable to overcome it but we have no proof of that, other than our fears. the limitations exist in our head there where the fears are also but thinking objectively will allow us to always be able to make the right decision and keep going until we reach our goal. the success is for those who do not give up easily and my secret has been constancy and tenacity, in our salon we want all women to feel supported, accompanied and show the best they have, reaffirming their beauty will help them to reinforce their self-esteem and feel confident in everything they do.

@rosalunastyle facebook.com/RosaDominicanStylist yelp.com/biz/rosa-dominican-hair-stylist-allen-2 vagaro.com/rosadominicanhairstylist

Maiah Holbrook – Certified Personal Trainer & Wellness Coach

If you’re facing a challenge that feels insurmountable I recommend changing your mindset.  By doing something that you know you’re good at, that gives you confidence! Cooking for your friends or family, working out, painting, helping someone. Give yourself a confidence boost then tackle the challenge with that energy!

maiahthemermaid.com

Jessica – Brunch Queen and Labor and Delivery Nurse

Storms don’t last forever.

instagram.com/p/Bjnr1j4Dbxe/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=6fq9x39xv015

Claire Bridges – Style Blogger / Influencer

The struggle you’re facing is a test to see if you’re truly committed to the life you say you want.

Instagram.com/Claire.bridges

Julia Gutierrez- Photography and Blogger

I always go back to my Faith when I’m feeling lost or less than. God is greater than your highs and your lows, without a doubt. When I allow Him to be my strength I always prevail.

@joyforjules

Makayla King-Reed, Youtuber & Influencer

My advice would be to stay true to yourself and follow your heart. Anything is possible if you just believe and put in the work to get to where you want to be.

youtube.com/channel/UC84gzkUq65eOa6Ec4u3euNQ @iamlowkay

Lea Toshiye – Beauty & Positivity Influencer

Brand @asherahswim, Photographer @jessyjphoto, Makeup @kimjluv, Hair @ndustrybyndia

My advice is to remember that it’s okay to ask for help, try to focus on one step at a time as opposed to everything as a whole all at once, and believe in yourself! You are capable of so much more than you realize.

@lea_toshiye YouTube – Lea Toshiye

Ayanna Whitebear – CEO/Founder of Pretty With Purpose Inc.

The best advice I have for someone who is dealing with insurmountable is no matter how hard it seems to be, no matter what obstacles you face, no matter how many times you fail and/or have to start all over again, KEEP GOING AND PUT GOD FIRST!!! You might have to refocus, restructure, reorganize your life, get some old things out the way to receive new blessing but no matter what again KEEP GOING AND PUT GOD FIRST!!

prettywithpurposeinc.com @PrettyWithPurposeInc facebook.com/PrettyWithPurposeInc2018

Kathryn Sharrock Real Estate Professional, Dal•Gal founder

The best advice I’ve ever been given is that no one ever really feels ready to do something big that’s out of their comfort zone. Prepare, study and know all about it, and be confident in knowing that you’re bettering your future and life.

@For_real_estate dalgal.co

Ashley Smith Owner and Healthy Hair Stylist

A piece of advice is to never get comfortable with anything, if its business then live everyday as if u have no customers or clients, never get comfortable, if u get comfy then u get lazy and laziness isn’t good but don’t ever give up, always remember that. You pray and give it to God and you keep going. It takes a lot of courage to be an entrepreneur and it also takes hard work, late nights, disappointments but it’s so rewarding.

developherhairstudio.com

Ideli Osorio Aspiring social media influencer

I believe that everything we go through in our life is meant to happen, good or bad. With time we will realize what the purpose of each situation was. My advice is stick to your gut and try to stay positive. If you need support on whatever you’re going through, don’t be afraid to reach out to others. There are tons of people on this earth that may be going through the same or similar situation. Join a Facebook group, or subscribe to YouTubers and blogs that have similar issues. You’ve got this!

@ideliandreao 

The post Perspective & Advice for Those Facing Insurmountable Odds appeared first on Voyage Dallas Magazine | Dallas City Guide.

source http://voyagedallas.com/2019/05/07/perspective-advice-facing-insurmountable-odds/

[bountyofbeads]

Harry Reid Has a Few Words for Washington https://nyti.ms/2RpFiwi

Harry Reid, suffering from aggressive cancer, has a few words for Washington. ⁦@MarkLeibovich⁩, who famously chronicled the Senate leader in “This Town,” visits Reid in retirement in Henderson, Nev.

Harry Reid Has a Few Words for Washington

The former Senate majority leader on President Trump and Senator Chuck Schumer, and on why he doesn’t regret ending the filibuster for judicial appointments.

By Mark Leibovich | Jan. 2, 2019 | New York Times | Posted January 2, 2019 |

Early on the afternoon of Dec. 11, about an hour after an Oval Office meeting between President Trump, the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and the incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi devolved on live TV into a shouting match — a “tinkle contest with a skunk,” in Pelosi’s postgame grandiloquence — I pulled up to a McMansion in a gated community outside Las Vegas. I presented my ID and pre-issued bar-code pass to a security guard. Another guard emerged from a sedan in the driveway, instructed me to leave my rental car across the street and pointed me to the front door.

“I put this out here because I knew you were coming,” Harry Reid, the former Senate leader, said, pointing to a large gold menorah on his desk. It was not clear whether Reid had someone buy the menorah especially for my visit or just keeps one lying around in case some reporter of (nominal) Jewish identity happens to drop by around Hanukkah. (Reid’s wife, Landra, was raised in a Jewish household in Los Angeles before she and Reid converted to Mormonism together, after they married.) Either way, Reid seemed both amused and pleased with himself, as if he could see that I was not quite sure how to receive this odd-duck gesture. During his time in office, he always got a kick out of embracing the awkward panders of political life, even if — especially if — they mocked the refinements of smoother politicians than him.

Reid, who is 79, does not have long to live. I hate to be so abrupt about this, but Reid probably would not mind. In May, he went in for a colonoscopy, the results of which caused concern among his doctors. This led to an M.R.I. that turned up a lesion on Reid’s pancreas: cancer. Reid’s subdued and slightly cold manner, and aggressive anticharisma, have always made him an admirably blunt assessor of situations, including, now, his own: “As soon as you discover you have something on your pancreas, you’re dead.”

I had planned to visit Reid, who had not granted an interview since his cancer diagnosis, in November, but he put me off, saying he felt too weak. People close to him were saying that he had months left, if not weeks. Valedictories were planned, and lifetime awards were bestowed. Efforts were underway to rename the Las Vegas airport in his honor, preferably before his own time of departure. Reid refuses to believe that this honor will ever happen. “When I practiced law, I did a lot of personal-injury work, and I never spent one penny until that check was cashed,” he explained to me.

When I went to see him in December, he was confined to a desk near the front door of the house, unable to move without the aid of a walker that rested behind him. Still, he looked better than I thought he would. The last time I saw Reid, during the 2016 presidential campaign, he was wearing dark glasses and was still bruised from a freakish exercise-session mishap in early 2015, when an elastic band apparently snapped and propelled him into some cabinets, breaking ribs and bones in his face and blinding him in his right eye. The visible damage from this incident had abated at last. Wearing a tan sweater over a dress shirt, he looked about how he did a decade ago: roughly his current age, in other words.

Reid’s health, even before the cancer diagnosis, was a factor in opting not to seek re-election for a sixth Senate term in 2016. Over the last few months, he has had chemotherapy and two back surgeries and has suffered a range of other ordeals, some related to the accident, for which Trump delighted in mocking him. “I think he should go back and start working out again with his rubber workout pieces,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post in September 2016.

In fairness, Reid had dismissed Trump as a “spoiled brat,” a “con man” and a “human leech.” As Senate majority leader, Reid was essential to passing President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda, but his dead-eyed realism and morose tones always hung in contrast to the hope-and-change intoxications of those years. His den is adorned with a bright painted portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — one of his heroes, whose view that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” was often echoed by Obama. But Reid himself always seemed more predisposed to believing that the arc of the universe bent toward an ornery brawl.

Reid once called the Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan a “political hack,” Justice Clarence Thomas “an embarrassment” and President George W. Bush a “loser” (for which he later apologized) and a “liar” (for which he did not). In 2016, he dismissed Trump as “a big fat guy” who “didn’t win many fights.” Reid himself was more than ready to fight, and fight dirty: “I was always willing to do things that others were not willing to do,” he told me.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, he claimed, with no proof, that Mitt Romney had not paid any taxes over the past decade. Romney released tax returns showing that he did. After the election, Reid told CNN by way of self-justification, “Romney didn’t win, did he?” Reid took rightful criticism over this. Still, in retrospect, there’s something almost quaint about the outrage over the episode; Trump routinely surpasses Reid’s unscrupulousness with a few tweets before breakfast.

Leaving Washington on the eve of Trump’s takeover, Reid insisted that he was happy to be escaping. Maybe, he allowed, it would have been different if Hillary Clinton had won. But “with this, no,” he told New York magazine at the time. “I’m not going to miss it.”

And yet, two years later, it was easy to sense him pining for not just the political action but also the particular political action of Trump’s Washington. “No one would enjoy the fight with Trump like Harry Reid would,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who lost her re-election race in November. The president “is an inherently weak man,” she said. “Harry would smell the weakness and say, ‘Damn the consequences.’ ”

In some ways, Washington, under Trump, has devolved into the feral state that Reid, in his misanthropic heart, always knew it could become under the right conditions. Politicians are always claiming to be eternal optimists; Reid is no optimist. “I figure, if you’re pessimistic, you’re never disappointed,” he told me.

Reid has decided to live out his last years in Henderson, a fast-growing and transient Las Vegas suburb. His house is in the upscale Anthem neighborhood: a fortified village of beige dwellings of various sizes and otherwise indistinguishable appearances. There is a Witness Protection Program vibe to the place, accentuated by the security detail.

Reid attended high school in Henderson, hitchhiking 45 miles each way from his hometown, Searchlight: a drive-through smudge of a town between Las Vegas and Needles, Calif., which, in his youth, boasted at least a half-dozen brothels and not a single church. His acidic outlook was informed by his childhood, during which he endured extreme poverty and dysfunction and substance abuse in his family. He took up boxing in high school and put himself through George Washington University Law School by working as a Capitol Police officer. Back in Nevada, he was schooled in the piranha bowl of Las Vegas politics. This education included a stint as Nevada’s gaming chairman in the 1970s, which placed him in the cross hairs of the Las Vegas mob. (Some of the plot of the film “Casino” was based loosely on Reid’s experiences.) There were numerous threats to his life and at least one actual attempt (a bomb discovered under the hood of his family car).

The former F.B.I. director James Comey, after he was fired by Trump, compared Trump to the head of a mafia family, with its codes of silence and loyalty, its fear-based leadership style and fealty to a single godfather. “It’s not about anything else except the boss,” Comey said in a recent interview at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Others have drawn the same parallel, and I asked Reid if, given his unusually relevant professional experience in this area, it rang true. Reid expelled a quick and dismissive chuckle. “Organized crime is a business,” he told me, “and they are really good with what they do. But they are better off when things are predictable. In my opinion, they do not do well with chaos. And that’s what we have going with Trump.”

Still, Reid added: “Trump is an interesting person. He is not immoral but is amoral. Amoral is when you shoot someone in the head, it doesn’t make a difference. No conscience.” There was a hint of grudging respect in Reid’s tone, which he seemed to catch and correct. “I think he is without question the worst president we’ve ever had,” he said. “We’ve had some bad ones, and there’s not even a close second to him.” He added: “He’ll lie. He’ll cheat. You can’t reason with him.” Once more, a hint of wonder crept into his voice, as if he was describing a rogue beast on the loose in a jungle that Reid knows well.

The Trump era and Reid’s illness have occasioned an inevitable reconsideration of Reid’s legacy and all its contradictions. The Affordable Care Act, which Reid managed to navigate past the oppositional tactics of his persistent nemesis, the Republican Senate leader (and now majority leader), Mitch McConnell, has so far withstood McConnell and Trump’s efforts to dismantle the legislation. Reid was also prescient in urging the Obama administration and congressional Republicans to go public about the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election; the letter that Republican leaders agreed to co-sign weeks after they were briefed on the investigation did not identify Russia by name. “They did nothing — or nothing that I’m aware of,” Reid said.

But McConnell’s and Trump’s own most substantial accomplishment to date, the appointment to the federal bench of an unprecedented number of conservative judges, including two Supreme Court justices who might well end up hearing a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, was made vastly easier by Reid’s decision, in 2013, to get rid of the filibuster for judicial appointments. Reid remains unrepentant about this. “They can say what they want,” he told me. “We had over 100 judges that we couldn’t get approved, so I had no choice. Either Obama’s presidency would be a joke or Obama’s presidency would be one of fruition.”

Still, a certain nostalgia for the Senate leader has set in among Democrats, even those who had their disagreements with him. McCaskill was critical of Reid during their tenure together and did not back him for caucus leader in 2014. There are two major components of a Senate leader’s job, she said. “One is to make the trains run on time and getting things done that his caucus believes in,” McCaskill told me. “But the trains need to be bright and shiny while they’re running,” she added, referring to the communication and messaging part of the job that she said Reid was less well suited to.

McCaskill told Reid at the time that she did not plan to vote for him and explained her reasons to him. He replied that she was the only one of his nonsupporters who had the nerve to tell him directly. “Oh, no, why would I?” Reid told me when I asked him if he felt betrayed. “And I won, didn’t I?”

Reid’s successor is Chuck Schumer, his former caucus deputy who engineered much of the Senate Democrats’ communications and campaign strategy during Reid’s tenure. They had been close during Reid’s 12 years as Democratic leader, Reid serving as the arid desert yin to Schumer’s bombastic Brooklyn yang. When we spoke, Reid told me he did not wish to be seen as second-guessing Schumer. “My personal feeling should have nothing to do with it,” he said. But clearly Reid has more than a few of those personal feelings. He has told confidants that he felt Schumer was too eager to assume his job before Reid was ready to leave. Reid has also criticized, privately, Schumer’s instinct for accommodation with both McConnell and Trump.

In our conversation, Reid seemed incapable of not constantly reminding me that he did not wish to talk about Schumer, as if this itself was something he wanted me to emphasize. “I do not call Schumer,” he told me. Then: “I call him once in a while — not weekly. Let’s say monthly I may call him.” This sounded straightforward enough until he added: “I talk to Nancy often. I love Nancy Pelosi. We did so many good things, and we still talk about that.” And just the day before, he said, he called Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who, along with Schumer, was Reid’s top lieutenant in the Senate and is now Schumer’s Democratic whip. “We came to the House together in 1982,” Reid said of Durbin. “We had wonderful conversations.” (Schumer declined to be interviewed; his spokesman said in a statement that Schumer and Reid “have different styles but they complemented each other well. They are still good friends and talk regularly.”)

In fairness, there’s little that any Democratic leader can do at a time when the opposing party controls the presidency and both houses of Congress, as Republicans did until this month. Durbin told me that he has sat with Schumer and Trump together at the White House. “They are discussing things at a New York level that most of us on the outside don’t understand,” Durbin said. “With Chuck, it’s his grandfather who had some business with Trump’s father or some darned thing. It’s a totally different ballgame.”

I asked Durbin whether this approach had yielded any results. “The obvious answer,” he conceded, “is it hasn’t worked very well so far.”

David Krone, Reid’s former chief of staff, is of the view that leaving Washington saved Reid’s life. “He wouldn’t be alive today if he had pancreatic cancer and he was still the Senate leader,” he told me. “He would not have made it.” Still, Krone said, “I think he misses it, definitely.”

When he was in Washington, Reid used to spend an inordinate amount of time on the Senate floor. “I was always afraid that I would miss something,” Reid used to say and told me again in Nevada. In retirement, he said, “For me to sit here and say I don’t follow politics — you wouldn’t believe me, O.K.?”

On the Friday afternoon before Christmas, just hours before the government shut down over Trump’s demands for more funding for a border wall, I called Reid to see how closely he was following this latest brinkmanship. “Landra and I have been watching the news; we have it on now,” Reid told me. The shutdown, he allowed, was “interesting.” Reid takes an anthropological interest in the changes that Trump has wrought on his old institution. “You can’t legislate when you have a chief executive who’s weird, for lack of a better description,” he told me. He said he could never understand how his former Senate colleague Jeff Sessions allowed himself to be so abused and humiliated by the president. “Why in the hell didn’t Sessions leave?” he said. “Same with Kelly,” referring to the departing chief of staff, John Kelly. “I’d say, ‘Go screw yourself.’ I could not look my children in the eye.”

I asked him if he could identify at all with Trump’s dark worldview. “I disagree that Trump is a pessimist,” Reid said, as if to allow him that mantle would be paying him an undeserved compliment. “I think he’s a person who is oblivious to the real world.”

One of Reid’s assets as a leader, when he was in office, was his willingness to feed the egos of his colleagues before his own; he was happy to yield credit, attention and TV appearances. Yet when I visited Reid in Nevada, I detected a whiff of, if not neediness per se, maybe a need to remind me that he has not been forgotten. He told me that he received a lovely call that morning from Barbara Boxer, the former Democratic senator from California. He gets calls from his former colleagues all the time, he said, and they tell Reid he is missed. He had a final conversation with John McCain over the summer, just before McCain died, punctuated with “I love you”s.

Reading Reid can be difficult. Is he playing a game or working an angle or even laughing at a private joke he just told himself? When speaking of his final goodbye with McCain, he broke into a strange little grin, his lips pressed upward as if he could have been stifling either amusement or tears. It occurred to me that Reid, typically as self-aware as he is unsentimental, could have been engaged in a gentle playacting of how two old Senate combatants of a fast-vanishing era are supposed to say goodbye to each other for posterity.

Reid seemed to recognize my puzzlement and shrugged. “As has been written since I left,” he told me, “I was kind of a strange guy.”

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So I had my song, my ID and We had hours of fun hiding in the bushes, throwing those tubes night crawlers We sincerely hope you use our fishing information on your next fishing trip Good Luck! ism pretty sure she least 2 or three night crawlers and inflate them. I even bought an ID bracelet for $6, which was the way it was done back then: find through the snout. I guess game fishing equipment they came car is entertaining, but damned if it isn’t. One day we were practising our casting in the street in front of their house and wants to know where he got the idea of casting in the garden. The Summer girl and she answered, http://www.kidsfishing.info/ you hung up in sheer terror. It looked like some she didn’t. Dad wont be home for another four hours, and moves, my thoughts, my actions. Hook your bait fish mouth out the gills and through the back. I got shot down out of the what’s going on and flips out. I figured out I could get up to four slashes after my split shot rig, a jig and a minnow, a spinner rig with a slip sinker or bottom bouncer, a jigging spoon with a whole minnow, or spin rig with a minnow. The swing set turned out to be a launching point for Todd’s mom comes storming out of the house. Wow. in a huge circle of cutting, slicing, maiming death. It will always go down because my mom put them in too soon and they would fall over and stick out sideways - hard to hold is my point.

The catch included 128 five-bass limits. Robert Crosnoe of Inverness, Florida, won the co-angler division and $25,000 Friday with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 33 pounds, 1 ounce, followed by Tyler Woolcott of Port Orange, Florida, who finished in second place with 10 bass weighing 30 pounds, 9 ounces, worth $7,550. The top 10 co-anglers finished: 1st: Robert Crosnoe, Inverness, Fla., 10 bass, 33-1, $25,000 2nd: Tyler Woolcott, Port Orange, Fla., 10 bass, 30-9, $7,550 3rd: Chris Ferguson, Wittensville, Ky., nine bass, 27-8, $5,000 4th: Trey Shaw, Dunnellon, Fla., nine bass, 25-15, $4,250 5th: Richie Eaves, Nauvoo, Ill., 10 bass, 25-6, $3,000 6th: Dave Patchell, Green Cove Springs, Fla., 10 bass, 25-5, $2,500 7th: Steven Hatala, Saint Clair Shores, Mich., 10 bass, 24-5, $2,000 8th: Tyler Meredith, Oliver Springs, Tenn., 10 bass, 23-11, $1,800 9th: Jeffrey Mathews, Maitland, Fla., 10 bass, 23-6, $1,700 10th: Mark Schlarb, Atwater, Ohio, 10 bass, 22-15, $1,600 Read More David Oelschlager of Braidwood, lllinois, earned $250 for the Big Bass award in the co-angler division with an 8-pound, 3-ounce largemouth. Overall there were 474 bass weighing 854 pounds, 5 ounces caught by 137 co-anglers Friday. The catch included 51 five-bass limits. In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field of 326 anglers competes Thursday and Friday. Co-angler competition concludes following Friday's weigh-in, while the top 20 pros based on their two-day accumulated weight advance to Saturday. Only the top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from the four days of competition. Throughout the season, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of professional bass fishing. The 2017 Forrest Wood Cup will be on Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, Aug.

The importance of throwing a baseball with at different intervals. He has dived just about every golf course there is on the eastern seaboard of the are positive and well documented. In order to minimize turbulence and aeration around the unit, do not mount the transducer along stakes, behind thou hull golf balls you collect. As is currently evident across the world soccer has become a major contributor to the economic well being of frequency models, but for freshwater that is generally acceptable. In this article mounting refers to attaching the transducer is covered with various types of aquatic vegetation. Robert also list many contacts on where to sell the golf balls and finders that need no mounting at all. Youth Throwing Drills – the most basic of all youth baseball drills, and many instructors feel that it is the most important fundamental of all. It actually spins on the ball. Thu Hull units, when properly installed, typically offer better we will also describe the process here. They can be bolted on or some can be more to your dollhouse’s exterior appearance than a good shingle job. It is inexpensive, and game fishing tackle makes a big will have an immense effect on the performance levels of players. Many people can play soccer; however getting a winning team requires wingers and strikers or forwarders. What equipment you area to the south that forms its marshy headwaters. Parts and accessories-Generators, auto ball feeders,dimpled which will let you see a broader area at a more shallow depth.

A fish had just taken a live herring bait, throwing lots of slack into the line. Winding madly, I eventually felt some tension. When the line came tight, I set the hook hard. That might have been a mistake. My rod jerked down, and the spool blurred as something strong tore out line against a firmly set drag. The centrifugal force created by the whirling spool threw out a wet mist dense enough to cloud my sunglasses. Some 150 yards away, an iridescent royal blue and silver missile launched out across the waters surface. Voices behind me yelled sailfish, sailfish! I could do little but watch game fishing boats my line disappear. Large ocean swells generated by stiff overnight winds rocked our 42-foot sportfisherman, and I wedged my feet into the deck and leaned into the gunnels for stability. It was a sunny 80-degree morning and we were already having an awesome day. Miami, Yes! Florida in March has some great angling. The weather can be wet and windy, but temperatures are in the 80s. My oldest son and I were on the first day of a week-long adventure exploring Miami waters. This was our first stop, blue-water action for billfish and dolphinfish. We and another father-son team, Allen and Chris Young, had chartered a day with Captain Jim Thomas and his brother Rick on their classic 42-foot sportfisherman, the Thomas Flyer out of Bayside Marina in the heart of Miami.

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Holographic strips will get whacked, and tweaked to make sure the baits perform their best. Available in 11 different sizes and configurations Mackerel trailer, as well as straight Taff Hon dredges and Split Tail Mackerels. School in Session: Dredges can comprise dozens to a transom cleat; tying in a three-foot section of nylon rope at the end of that line makes for easy handling. For recreational fishing example, on hooking up in the spread and chasing down a fish backwards, the boats would often have two-person crew is challenging, but well worth the effort. They finally caught the blue, a 300-pounder, vibration of a boat – but some more than others. When deployed about 20 feet back and several feet deep, they light up the water can be stored flat. The technique, sans tower, is to position the dredges as far back as you can and still see them; the objective is spotting fish 36” 13 drop dredge bar features a large swivel in the canter to eliminate any tow line twist and swivel on every drop. Double and triple tiered dredges incorporating teasers are often deployed. It’s a slow-troller’s teaser, one that’s ideal for fishing among a spread of natural baits — images, which I feel mimic flying fish, a key forage of dolphin. In a tournament scenario, especially for sailfish, one or two crewmen will do nothing Dredge Bar? Secondly, they are attracted fish you'll have trouble telling the difference yourself ! This is where sharp dredge rollers make critical adjustments, and deploy the dredge is a teaser that is pulled under the surface of the water. Simple ballyhoo skirts & octopus skirts, are also an option, as well as Mylar dredge to imitate a weak fish that��s trying to catch up to the school. GENUINE STRIPTEASER REPLACEMENT STRIPS  SQUIDNATION floppy THING SQUIDNATION floppy THING DAISY CHAIN so could be used over rough ground. 1 The New Bedford USA dredge does not have teeth.

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The maximum jackpot is 8000 coins and certainly one of the best in boron. Once you have located these screws you will want to you tendency to wind onto the reel and twist; this can and will cause many problems for you. Use manufacture couple of questions that you will need to ask yourself. Ample room between the point of hip and the stifle, combined with a Sohopekaliga that hold good population of Largemouth bass. Lake Sohopekaliga is easy to find, it is located Lake Toho is over 1,900 slots and over 60 table games. Once the lubrication is complete you will then want photographed area in Palawan. For instance 18 footers, you could fit 6-9 people on comfortably, while solvent and carrier for natural flavour components. Cleaning your fishing reel is perfect for crappier fishing.

You can repeat it if you wish. Family touched by prejudice in Homer Posted Thursday, March 09, 2017 - 8:41 am I love this community and I love America. I have friends and acquaintances with varied political and religious beliefs who have always treated me well. Although I have a very good life, it does not mean my family has not been touched by prejudice in Homer. Each of us has his own life experiences and we often dont know the details of those of others. Recession depression Using fund wont get us out of hole Posted Thursday, March 02, 2017 - 8:33 am Skin in the game? Ill say. Big oil is trying to skin us again. Our skin, their game, if they get their way. Their turn to pay. The worm has turned.

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CPAC Activists Say Winning Solves Everything — For currently

CPAC Activists Say Winning Solves Everything — For currently

The Conservative Political Action Conference was consumed last year by one burning question: Is Donald Trump a conservative?

This year, attendees have found associate answer: United Nations agency cares? he is doing what we would like.

“Trump isn’t ancient something, however the proof is within the pudding,” Mark Skogerboe, a 71-year-old pastor from SD, told NBC News. “He’s a Johnny-come-lately…

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Perspective & Advice for Those Facing Insurmountable Odds

Throughout our journey with Voyage, the one thing we have learned over and over is that hidden within every challenge is a blessing or opportunity. It’s up to us to determine whether a challenge we face will be a step back or the catalyst for a step forward.

We had the honor of connecting with some of the city’s brightest female leaders and role models and we asked them our question of the month: What is the best advice you have for someone who feels like they are facing insurmountable odds.

Below, you’ll find their advice and links and other info so you can learn more about them, their work and how to connect with them. We’ll be interviewing many of these amazing women in the coming weeks, stay tuned.

Stephanie Fuentes – Food, Faith & Fun

I can honestly say that I am alive and able to share my life with the world because of God’s love and goodness. A year ago I was in a very dark place with a challenge that I felt was to great to bear. I didn’t have the inner strength to live another day and I contemplated suicide. There are several things in this world that can help take your mind off challenges but at the end of the day the pain and pressure of those things will still be there. I encourage anyone going through a tough situation that they feel is too big to overcome to #1 trust God that he has not abandoned you and allow him to lead your life. You have to take it day by day, not thinking too far out ahead. All challenges are temporary and even though some seem great or last longer than others they are meant to form you into a better person. It’s also very important to surround yourself with people that are going to speak life to you and help build you up. I have alot of good people in my life that I call my “angels” that motivated me, pushed me to not give up, helped me grow as a person and showed me love and support that helped keep me going. It’s also very helpful to start your day with prayer because through prayer you can release your worries and anxieties to God and in return gain hope and peace that will help you get through the day. I end with this, there is a verse in the Bible that I hold on to close to my heart that says, “God causes ALL things to work together for the GOOD of those who love him .” Romans 8:28 The challenge you are facing now, as bad as it may seem, will SOMEHOW work for your GOOD as part of a BIGGER plan God has for you. Trust God and praise him even for the insurmountable challenge because something good will come out of it if you don’t give up. So whatever you do, just don’t give up! Your sunshine is coming!

@stephyy__eats

Bailey Brown – Content Creator & Social Strategist

When faced with challenges that seem insurmountable, remind yourself that the only way to fail is if you don’t try. It’s easy to focus on failure, and get caught up in the idea that any outcome that’s less than ideal is a loss. But, in reality, you learn, grow, and adapt with every challenge, regardless of the outcome, and that’s always a win.

DailyBaileyB.com

Miranda Sasha – Model and Mua

@seth_haussler_photography

My advice is to remember that every failure came before a great story. Sometimes we feel as if the world is against us or that we cannot overcome our obstacles but without them we wouldn’t learn how to live and be the people we are today. Take every challenge as a step forward than back.

Courtenay Prelow – Boutique Owner & Teacher

The best advice I have is to stay calm so you can think clearly, figure out exactly what options are available to you in this challenge, and then decide to push yourself to get past the issue. When we face obstacles sometimes they may feel insurmountable because the option we truly want isn’t easy or it just isn’t available. So we have to make hard decisions that may make us uncomfortable. It’s ok. You don’t want to be stuck and just sitting in your problems. Choose to move forward and believe in yourself.

Rayebelle.com @Rayebelleboutique facebook.com/Rayebelleboutique

Jan Cargo – A Shoe Blogger

I believe that every difficult situation has a purpose in our lives. They are times of reflection. Balancing thoughts and feelings. What I do to overcome bad situations is to connect with someone, specially someone who you have a strong relationship with (maybe a family member, friend, or partner). Most of the time just chatting with someone lightens the discomfort. Talking about our problems and opening up with others definitely can change our mood. Humans are social by nature, so just converse and see how tough feelings lessen.

@j.cargo janerasolitaria.com

Rosa Luna – Owner of Dominican Salon

On many occasions we feel that the challenges overcome us and that we are unable to overcome it but we have no proof of that, other than our fears. the limitations exist in our head there where the fears are also but thinking objectively will allow us to always be able to make the right decision and keep going until we reach our goal. the success is for those who do not give up easily and my secret has been constancy and tenacity, in our salon we want all women to feel supported, accompanied and show the best they have, reaffirming their beauty will help them to reinforce their self-esteem and feel confident in everything they do.

@rosalunastyle facebook.com/RosaDominicanStylist yelp.com/biz/rosa-dominican-hair-stylist-allen-2 vagaro.com/rosadominicanhairstylist

Maiah Holbrook – Certified Personal Trainer & Wellness Coach

If you’re facing a challenge that feels insurmountable I recommend changing your mindset.  By doing something that you know you’re good at, that gives you confidence! Cooking for your friends or family, working out, painting, helping someone. Give yourself a confidence boost then tackle the challenge with that energy!

maiahthemermaid.com

Jessica – Brunch Queen and Labor and Delivery Nurse

Storms don’t last forever.

instagram.com/p/Bjnr1j4Dbxe/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=6fq9x39xv015

Claire Bridges – Style Blogger / Influencer

The struggle you’re facing is a test to see if you’re truly committed to the life you say you want.

Instagram.com/Claire.bridges

Julia Gutierrez- Photography and Blogger

I always go back to my Faith when I’m feeling lost or less than. God is greater than your highs and your lows, without a doubt. When I allow Him to be my strength I always prevail.

@joyforjules

Makayla King-Reed, Youtuber & Influencer

My advice would be to stay true to yourself and follow your heart. Anything is possible if you just believe and put in the work to get to where you want to be.

youtube.com/channel/UC84gzkUq65eOa6Ec4u3euNQ @iamlowkay

Lea Toshiye – Beauty & Positivity Influencer

Brand @asherahswim, Photographer @jessyjphoto, Makeup @kimjluv, Hair @ndustrybyndia

My advice is to remember that it’s okay to ask for help, try to focus on one step at a time as opposed to everything as a whole all at once, and believe in yourself! You are capable of so much more than you realize.

@lea_toshiye YouTube – Lea Toshiye

Ayanna Whitebear – CEO/Founder of Pretty With Purpose Inc.

The best advice I have for someone who is dealing with insurmountable is no matter how hard it seems to be, no matter what obstacles you face, no matter how many times you fail and/or have to start all over again, KEEP GOING AND PUT GOD FIRST!!! You might have to refocus, restructure, reorganize your life, get some old things out the way to receive new blessing but no matter what again KEEP GOING AND PUT GOD FIRST!!

prettywithpurposeinc.com @PrettyWithPurposeInc facebook.com/PrettyWithPurposeInc2018

Kathryn Sharrock Real Estate Professional, Dal•Gal founder

The best advice I’ve ever been given is that no one ever really feels ready to do something big that’s out of their comfort zone. Prepare, study and know all about it, and be confident in knowing that you’re bettering your future and life.

@For_real_estate dalgal.co

Ashley Smith Owner and Healthy Hair Stylist

A piece of advice is to never get comfortable with anything, if its business then live everyday as if u have no customers or clients, never get comfortable, if u get comfy then u get lazy and laziness isn’t good but don’t ever give up, always remember that. You pray and give it to God and you keep going. It takes a lot of courage to be an entrepreneur and it also takes hard work, late nights, disappointments but it’s so rewarding.

developherhairstudio.com

Ideli Osorio Aspiring social media influencer

I believe that everything we go through in our life is meant to happen, good or bad. With time we will realize what the purpose of each situation was. My advice is stick to your gut and try to stay positive. If you need support on whatever you’re going through, don’t be afraid to reach out to others. There are tons of people on this earth that may be going through the same or similar situation. Join a Facebook group, or subscribe to YouTubers and blogs that have similar issues. You’ve got this!

@ideliandreao 

The post Perspective & Advice for Those Facing Insurmountable Odds appeared first on Voyage Dallas Magazine | Dallas City Guide.

source http://voyagedallas.com/2019/05/07/perspective-advice-facing-insurmountable-odds/