Just Reminiscing

The following post is based on my own perception. Everyone has his or her own, and I would love to hear yours.

Veronica was my very best friend of all time. She is (was?) the most unique person I know. People tell me I'm unique pretty often--weird, eccentric, off-the-wall, you name it--but they have no idea what unique is until they meet Verny. They also have no idea how much of that uniqueness was gifted to me in knowing Veronica so closely.

Verny was an extraordinary person to know. Everything she did was always with her full effort and attention, and she didn't expect anything less than that of herself. It was like, if she was going to put her name on something she really wanted to show her true colors in it, and fully represent her capabilities. There was no "sort of" in Veronica's vocabulary. She didn't talk about doing things, she just did them. An example of this is when she decided to get a tattoo. I was surprised, because she'd never even mentioned the idea of a tattoo to me, and one day I check my email and find a picture of it! She loved it to bits and never regretted it for a moment. Of course like any young woman, she was also jittery about making sure her parents didn't see it, which they, of course, did. I find those moments cute about Verny, when she is caught doing something innocently rebellious. She might get super worked up about it, but an hour or two later it is all in good humor, and we get to laugh about it.

I will miss Veronica's presence, at least the sort that we are familiar with, until I take my last breath. I am sure that I will think about her in those last moments, and maybe I will even see her translucently standing beside me with a hitchhiker's thumb as we take our last hike into the next life.

What things do you see, experience, smell, think of, etc throughout your day, or even on occasion, that remind you of Veronica? I'll bet several of us, including myself, see Veronica in just about everything we encounter. But especially I am reminded of her when I see animals, or movies that we liked (especially Disney movies, as it wasn't uncommon for us to be belting the songs when riding in her car), and when I am in serene places near water. We loved exploring nature, as if we were on some Animal Planet show looking for the next new species.

That's all from the Ne. I hope everyone has had a charming Wednesday.

Protector of Creatures pt.2

That is a great tale, but unfortunately I also do not remember the name of the little mousey. Does anyone know if it was domestically born, or was it just some random mouse?

That reminds me of a little hampster Verny had as well, though again Verny has had so many pets that is truly is hard to keep up with the names. Anywho, this little guy managed to escape from his cage (how I don't know--do you?) and make his home in the wall. Over the years, anytime me and Verny have been in her room together we mentioned him, and the feeling about it was bittersweet because it was funny that he lived in the wall for a while, but sad that he wasn't retrieved.

There was a special place in Verny's heart for cats (and dogs, but I noticed that less since I don't like them!), but honestly Verny just loved all sorts of lifeforms, big and small. When she came to visit me in St. Louis in 2006, we took a day trip to the free zoo there, and it is a great zoo if you ever get the chance to visit. We had an absolute blast. Being around Vern in the company of animals was like a personal paradise for her that you just happened to sneak into. Waiting to hear more stories about this....

Veronica, Protector of Creatures

Does anyone remember the mouse Veronica rescued from the band room? I have tried and tried to remember the name she gave it, but I can't. I do remember that it met its demise when her cat Chandler knocked its home off Veronica's window ledge while she was in the shower.

Troublemakers

I guess it's my turn, life gets busy sometimes so it's been hard for me to collect my thoughts on this. I'll share my best story first...

Around this time 4 years ago, Veronica came back to Bristol from UT for a weekend. The weather was getting cool, leaves were turning, and Halloween was in the air. So she and I (and our boyfriends at the time) decided to go on a ghost hunt in the tri-cities. We left out of our houses after dark and headed to Kingsport to the Sensabaugh Tunnel. I don't think we found any ghosts, I'm sure we scared ourselves more than anything!

Since we weren't having much luck, we drove to Johnson City so Veronica could see my dorm on campus. At this point it was about 3 in the morning so we decided we better get back home and (sneak) in. We were all tired, if you can imagine Veronica lacking energy.. that night she did! So I drove us back in her Bravada. I must have been in a hurry to get home because soon there were flashing lights behind us. I believe I was going about 65 in a 45... When we got pulled over the cops thought we were drinking or something, which set Veronica off because we really weren't doing anything wrong! Soon the cops called all of our parents and had them come get us (even though Veronica was over 18). They wouldn't even let Veronica drive her car back, her parents had to take it home!

Of course this wasn't very funny at the time, and we all got in a bit of trouble, but I will always remember that night (and I know our parents will too!)

~Brittany Duckett

Verny and Moulin Rouge

Hehehe, alright, so back in the day at our sleepovers, anytime Verny was around, which was often, we would HAVE to watch Moulin Rouge. So for about a year straight, almost every weekend I would have to watch Moulin Rouge, which I didn't really like in the first place, but I surely enjoyed pretending like we could all sing, let alone know the words to the songs. Verny knew all the words, of course. And the thing is, with all of my acting, I could never keep character the way she could! She would go straight through it, with the perfect amount of detachment and effort to maintain the "seriousness" of the situation. Nothing could make me laugh the way Veronica could. I'd have endless fits of laughter with her, and my face would really hurt for a while.

That is all for today, just something short and sweet. I'm looking forward to hearing other stories... :)

NeNe and The Vern, Keepin It Real in 2007

Melinda, the School Ghoul

With my favorite holiday approaching (Halloween) I thought to share a story that took place long ago, in an alternate universe full of creeps that brought terror and nightmares to all: Vance Middle School.

In 7th grade, Veronica, Lori Gallimore and I were all on the "county" girl's basketball team. Don't ask me how fate planned this one out, as just the year before I had played for AAU girl's basketball in Tennessee, but I just see it as another nudge of divine intervention to allow me to further develop my relationship with what was then to be my new best friend, Veronica.

Verny, Lori and I were the cut-ups on the team. I think that part of why we were on that team in particular was that we couldn't take the game seriously. Where other girls would grit their teeth or stare intimidatingly, we would make funny faces or contain laughter until we exploded. It wasn't that we didn't put effort into it, of course we did, but we played for the fun of it and not for the competition.

I ever-so-faintly recall a rumor around Vance about some kid who died by falling off of the side where the upper basketball court was, which of course was probably a cheap rip-off of the legend of the chick who died in the Tennessee High bell tower, and we figured for sure we could one up that. We three thought it would be a novel idea to create a new legend, and we crafted a ghoul that went by the name of Melinda, who died in the girl's locker room by something really obnoxious, but unfortunately my memory fails me as to what that was. Was she allergic to participation? Did she drown in toilet water? No one knows, but we chose for her stomping grounds to be the showers, since they were dark and off to the corner, and no one used them anyways. Together, we came up with a theme that we would continue to recite for the rest of our time at Vance, and even occasionally thereafter:

Oh my Gosh! Melinda's right behind you!
Oh my Gosh! Melinda's gonna bite you! (repeat to no end)

Once in a blue moon we would tell our tale to a fellow locker roomer who would actually get spooked at our little theme song. Sometimes we even spooked ourselves a bit, but for the most part it was good fun and jolly nonsense, and always we would keep up the act when we were in the locker room. Did you hear that? I think it was her! Oh no, I just saw her face behind you! Where did my gym shorts go...Melinda stole them!

Many years have passed since that time, in fact it has been nearly a decade, but I kid you not that we never forgot Melinda, our School Ghoul, and even only this year Verny and I were driving in the car, discussing our ghost brain child and harassing the air around us with the bone-chilling lament of Melinda.

Thank you, Rene, for creating a blog for us to remember our Veronica. I hope everyone will fill this space with happy memories and pictures. Love to all, Veronica's mom Glenda