I Ll Be There But I Ll Be Wearing Sweatpants

Is it just me? Am I the only one who’s lonely? Am I the only one without friends? If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, Amy Weatherly and Jess Johnston, founders of the widely popular “Sister, I Am with You,” are raising their hands to say, “Yeah, us too.” And they want to encourage, equip, and reassure you that you have what it takes to build the kind of friendships you want. I’ll Be There (But I’ll Be Wearing Sweatpants) provides you with the how of cultivating deep relationships in this messy, chaotic, beautiful life. Through Amy and Jess’s wisdom, humor, and confessional stories about the ups and downs of sisterhood, you’ll learn how to admit you need friends—then go out and find them, dismantle the lies you’ve believed about friendship, love yourself so you can find people who will love you for you, be a good friend even though you can’t be a perfect one, and heal from a friend breakup—and find the courage to try again. It’s time you felt completely accepted as you are—from the top of your messy bun to the tips of your unpedicured toes. Let’s start making friendships a priority—together.

This essential go-to guide reveals how women can enhance their lives by creating valuable friendships in today’s busy, mobile world, from nationally recognized friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com. Every woman is searching for a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life. Many realize the significant role that an intimate, tightly knit circle of friends plays in creating a more fulfilling life, but with hectic schedules, frequent moves, and life changes, it’s more important than ever for women to establish natural, meaningful friendships that will contribute to their overall wellbeing. In Friendships Don’t Just Happen!, Shasta Nelson, friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com, reveals the most important proven steps, processes, and secrets vital to establishing the five different levels of friendships, or Circles of Connectedness, that women—no matter their age or relationship status—are longing for in today’s stressful and mobile culture. This revolutionary, engaging guide will also benefit women who already feel rooted to fabulous friends, with insightful principles that will help them maintain and enhance their current friendships. Full of practical how-to tips, fun activities, guiding questions, and step-by-step instructions, Friendships Don’t Just Happen! highlights several areas of developing lasting friendships, teaching women how to: Evaluate their current circle of friends Recognize what types of friends they are seeking based on career, interests, location, and relationship status Create a prioritized friendship action plan Find extraordinary friends—where to look and how to approach them Take initiative to jumpstart friendships and face fears of rejection Establish “frientimacy,” trust, and happiness through conversation and activities Maintain meaningful friendships and determine which ones are worthwhile Excerpt from Friendships Don't Just Happen: There is a lie out there that real friendship just happens. When I was new to San Francisco eight years ago, I remember standing at a café window on Polk Street watching a group of women inside, huddled around a table laughing. Like the puppy dog at the pound, I looked through the glass, wishing someone would pick me to be theirs. I had a phone full of far-flung friends’ phone numbers, but I didn’t yet know anyone I could just sit and laugh with in a café. It hit me how very hard the friendship process is. I’m an outgoing, socially comfortable woman with a long line of good friendships behind me. And yet I stood there feeling very lonely. And insecure. And exhausted at just the idea of how far I was from that reality. I knew I couldn’t just walk in there and introduce myself to them. “Hi! You look like fun women, can I join you?” I would have been met with stares of pity. No one wants to seem desperate, even if we are. We don’t have platonic pick-up lines memorized. Flirting for friends seems creepy. Asking for her phone number like we’re going to call her up for a Saturday night date is just plain weird. All the batting of my eyelashes wasn’t going to send the right signals. And so I turned away from the scene of laughter and walked away. No, unfortunately, friendships don’t just happen. We Value Belonging Friendships may not happen automatically, but what we crave about them sure seems to! We all want to belong—that need to be connected to others is an inherent desire. We live our entire lives trying to fit in, be known, attract acceptance, and experience intimacy. We desperately want to have others care about us. This book is about that hunger. And more pointedly, it is about listening to it and learning how to fulfill it.

After a traumatic head injury, Eve questions every memory and motive in this mind-bending psychological thriller. Eve Gold’s birthdays are killers, and her twenty-seventh proves to be no different. But for the up-and-coming Vancouver artist, facing death isn’t the real shock — it’s what comes after. Recovering from a near-fatal accident, Eve is determined to return to the life she’s always wanted: a successful artistic career, marriage to the man who once broke her heart, and another chance at motherhood. But brain damage leaves her forgetful, confused, and tortured by repressed memories of a deeply troubled childhood, where her innocence was stolen one lie — and one suspicious death — at a time. As the dark, twisted pages unfold, Eve must choose between clinging to the lies that helped her survive her childhood and unearthing the secrets she buried long ago.

From mourning the finale of a beloved television series to accidentally attending a pole dancing class intended for professional strippers, this collection captures life's absurdities through the perspective of an every-woman. Alena Dillon invites readers to laugh along with her as she reflects on universal experiences including diet frustration (The devil is in the Doritos), as well as situations uniquely Dillon's own, such as pounding on the side of a moving Mister Softee truck. Her widely recognizable stories of love, rejection, body image, snarky baristas, bargain hunting, ill-timed snorting and, of course, public urination, will leave you reeling.

In this National Bestseller, Mary Katherine Backstrom shares heartbreaking and hilarious stories of how God uses each "mess" in our lives to bring us closer to Him. She shows us that it's okay to celebrate exactly where we are right now--holy, hot mess and all. A lot of people struggle with the concept of being holy. But the fact is, even the hottest of messes are being shaped--right now--into Jesus' likeness. In this book, Mary Katherine shares the sometimes-hidden evidence of God's work in her life and shows you that it's okay to embrace the hot messes. Mary Katherine will share both hilarious and vulnerable stories about faith, friendships, motherhood, marriage, and depression. She will cover the topics that plague our hearts every day with raw, honest truth and a side of laughter. Mary Katherine invites you into her story as a friend, encouraging you to embrace the hot messes in your life. Because we are all a work in progress, and as long as we are alive, we are under construction--and construction sites tend to be messy.

Women thrive on connection, and research studies continue to show that we are happier and healthier when we share close connections with other women. In this engaging combination of personal anecdotes, scientific research, and therapeutic advice, you'll learn why connection, communication, and intimacy are the three pillars of healthy friendships. how friendship between women leads to longevity, health, happiness, and well-being. why some friendships are only for a specific "season or reason." how the Olson Friendship Framework can help you understand the levels of all your friendships from casual to intimate. tips for nurturing your current friendships and creating new ones. Each chapter also includes a list of thought-provoking discussion questions that will help you further examine the heart and soul of your own friendships with women. The Healing Power of Girlfriends will help you avoid toxic friendships, understand the role expectations play in women's friendships, and learn how power dynamics can hurt or heal these special relationships.

The perfect "sister" to the long-awaited book, I'll Be There (But I'll Be Wearing Sweatpants) from Sister, I Am With You founders, Amy Weatherly and Jess Johnston—this official workbook addresses the value of authentic friendships and helps you develop them. Many women today feel trapped in an epidemic of loneliness. But it shouldn't feel like this...and it doesn't have to! You can stand beside those who encourage you, lift you up, see you, and remind you that you aren't alone in this crazy, messy, rollercoaster life (and you can do the same for others). This workbook provides the practical steps on how to get there. Inside these pages, you'll apply the thirteen most common obstacles to true connection and discover actionable steps to solve each one. With hilariously relatable vulnerability, Amy Weatherly and Jess Johnston offer an-easy-to-follow road map to reach the kind of lasting friendships we all desperately need. Amy and Jess show us how to: Break free from unhealthy habits and insecurities that distance us from others. Find the confidence to live freely without fear of rejection. Intentionally pursue friendships in everyday life and all sorts of situations. The I'll Be There (But I'll Be Wearing Sweatpants) Workbook is designed specifically to be used while reading the main book. It's structured to provide ample space for notetaking and jotting down your insights and ah-ha! moments.

We all long to do life together with people who really "get" us. Amy Weatherly and Jess Johnston, bestselling authors and founders of the wildly popular "Sister, I Am with You" online community, simplify some of the trickier aspects of friendship and give readers practical ways to deepen the friendships they already have. Making friends as an adult is hard! It's weird and it's tricky and it can feel overwhelming. Maintaining those friendships and taking them to a deeper level can be even harder. Just as Amy and Jess gave readers a road map for finding real, authentic relationships with I'll Be There (But I'll Be Wearing Sweatpants), they now provide a toolkit for building up and building on those friendships. Here For It (The Good, the Bad, and the Queso) will dig deeper into the hows and whys of doing life together in a culture that constantly tries to keep us separate. Readers will learn how to distinguish between different types of friendships and recognize when a seasonal relationship has run its course; understand the importance of self-awareness, healthy confrontation, and differing love languages in friendship; and maintain long-distance friendships, foster real relationships with your neighbors, and establish traditions that strengthen your connections. With this new book, Amy and Jess give readers the tools they need to continue laying a strong foundation and building relationships that are steady, secure, and made to withstand whatever life throws their way.