In Celebration of All Things Beautiful

Welcome Sydney Kamea Griffiths. Born October 28th.
Beautiful, perfect daughter of Kimberly and Brian Griffiths (many of you saw Kim and proud Daddy Brian glowing at our engagement party).

Take a moment to think about all things beautiful and pure in your own lives.

Priceless Wedding Advice

I have gotten ALOT of advice about weddings as of late...and most of it is pretty mundane - but I got some tonight that was just TOO RICH not to pass on. Soda came flying out of my mouth and my nose...as all I could do was imagine having to find out how deadly well-intentioned and innocent "quick fixes" can be.

All identifying information has been changed to protect the innocent. .

Allow me to set the scene: the discussion is about heat in April in Phoenix, and the fact that it CAN get quite warm in April in Phoenix. My (nameless) friend asked: "is your dress strapless?" and I innocently said "yes, why?" We talked for a minute about why its MUCH better to have sleeveless as opposed to the showcase for sweat stains that a long sleeve dress in heat could be..and then she said... I never saw this coming..I swear:

"well, you'll be fine. Just don't put powder on - as I did - and make gravy."

Excellent advice. Most excellent I have had all day.

There is nothing I could possibly add that would make that any funnier to me.

Football Weekend Through a Woman's Eyes

Having a steady man in your life has a nice perk, rediscovered this weekend: Football.

I genuinely like football, but I fiercely hate the Cardinals, which made it all the sweeter when Jeff's team, the Raiders (I know, bunch of THUGS), (0-5) beat the AZ Cardinals(1-4), making both teams 1-5. Stellar records there for both teams. Not the NFL football highlight for anyone. Anyway, all of us in Arizona are SO glad that we got that brand new stadium in the middle of a corn field, with dirt parking lots for this FANTASTIC team (and thier FANTASIC owner). And if you don't know...the AZ Cardinals used to play in Sun Devil Stadium..they(Bidwell clan) HATED that - they felt it was beneath them...never mind its hosted more championships (with the Fiesta Bowl AND the Superbowl) than the AZ Cardinals have ever even played in during thier long boring history. For the record, the tax payers helped pay for the new stadium....so the Bidwells got a sponsor for the stadium...who? PHOENIX (insert expletive here) COLLEGE! Yah! They had to get away from the miserable embarassment of playing in a college stadium..so they could rename one (that WE paid for) the name of ANOTHER (for-profit) college. Ah, yes. It's mighty rich indeed. I hate the Cardinals.

HOWEVER....Jeff ALSO attended ASU...so we go to ASU games and I get my football fix. Jeff is more of a fan than I, in the sense that he can actually name the past 4 quarterbacks...and my commentary is usually limited to the fact that the ASU dance team appears to have different songs in thier own heads..leaving me to wonder if they even have a future in stripping...ANYWAY...Football, we are talking about FOOTBALL. WELL - ASU(4-3) WON THIS WEEKEND. Exciting it was - even though it was against lowly Stanford (0-5), who are last place in the Pac-10..but sweet it was because it was also homecoming (how many homecoming games get scheduled around the Stanford schedule??). It was exciting because it was the first winning game that Jeff and I have been to in sometime...also made even better by the fact that it was NOT 100+ degrees outside.

Several games last year we sat in the nosebleeds (read: row 800), sitting in the sun the entire game; at one game I got a tan that literally lasted 2 months so deep it was. Last year's last straw was when we ran out of water (as in the entire stadium) before the 2nd quarter was over...leaving me to scream "WHO IS RUNNING THIS OPERATION? FEMA?!!!!) Kind of brutal in Phoenix (still not sure why we can't catch a break and get some night games..). We had to leave the stadium to go get water and HUGE cups of ice. ANYway, this year we didn't go all out for season tickets, but I did buy tickets to all the PAC-10 games...and I was SO TOTALLY jazzed. And here is why:
1) our seats get shade by the 2nd half: this is highly prized, as only about 1/8th of the entire stadium gets shade at all!
2) our seats are in row 24
3) our seats are across from the student section (read: fun to watch, but not sit near).
4) our seats are VERY close to a large variety of concessions (including water!!)
5) our seats are close to the bathrooms!!! (WEEEEEEEEEEEEE)
6) our seats are close to the entrance (and exit!!)
7) the sun is at our BACK the entire game (as opposed to facing it for 4 quarters)
Here is why Jeff doesn't like our seats:
1) they aren't on the 50 yard line
2) they aren't in loge seating

I mean, people...do NOT accuse ME of being high maintenence! I buy all these tickets, and give it some thought and everything...and he doesn't like our seats. Next year, I am buying him 50 yardline tickets...TO THE CARDINALS. Actually, I think I will save the money and just buy 1 - no one will go with him anyway.

I FEEL LIKE ESCAPING - thank god for AVATARS!!

Wedding Scratching Post "Part Un"

OK - I swore this wasn't going to be the scratching post for my wedding...unfortunately for all of you (or the one of you) who read this particular post and possibly for all others that follow...I have GOT to vent. For the record: I also SWORE I didn't want any drama attached to my wedding...and that possibility has been eliminated as well...so I say "what the hell...throw caution to the wind!!"

Remember last post that said life has taken over my life? What I neglected to tell you, was that the way I have chosen to deal with this is to be very, VERY disciplined with my time (thus, lack of blogging)...in other words, to work when I need to work, to schedule meetings so I miss very little work, to plan ahead and make sure I can be where I need to be, or not do it at all. What this means is that when things change in my schedule, I find it VERY hard to be gracious...as I am working VERY hard to make sure everything gets done..for work, for wedding...for workouts (see posting re: time sucks) including my real life...which includes friends (or those I will have left after planning a wedding).

SO...in between the wedding planning chaos...I have decided that I could really use a wedding planner for the day-of and to possibly get me through the stress of that last week when details seem to be piling up (as if they aren't already)....and a particular planner came highly recommended, and described to be as approachable in cost and personality. Sounds like MY KIND of girl...I was trying to limit the phone tag, so I thought that I would spend some time with her, and if she wasn't in the budget or I didn't like her, I would go elsewhere. Please allow me to preface... I really didn't want to hire a wedding planner so that I could complicate my life even further with phone tag and canceled appointments... Well...wedding season in AZ is pretty much October and April...suffice to say..she is a little busy..none the less..we played phone tag for well over a week....when we finally connected, we agreed to meet - 2 weeks later (that would be tomorrow). TODAY - she left me a message with a long message about how she would like to reschedule, blah, blah blah....UGH...this came 5 minutes after Jeff canceled the regularly scheduled Thursday night date (which is in a couple of hours). LET ME CLARIFY: Anyone who tells a bride that during this time it is "all about her" really means that its about her as long as it fits into everyone else's timeframe and conveience. No one cuts any slack. Its like "what's the big deal? I'm busy too!" THIS IS WHY BRIDEZILLA WAS BORN, people..this is IT.

Regarding the wedding planner...I am meeting with another....I...I'm not sure what to do about the fiance.

Colbert, Steinem and Fonda

HILARIOUS! Hysterical irony.

I'm BAAAAAAAACK!

bAnd only ONE person!! ONE person missed me. To that one person, let me say this: your daughter is perfect and she has AMAZING parents..

On to ME! I haven't been here in sometime due to several constraints on my time...they are, in order of time-suck:
1) Work
2) Wedding
3) Working Out
A word about each in the order of appearance above:
1) nutty...busiest time of year and nutty, nutty, nutty. FREAKING NUTTY
2) Do you REALIZE how time consuming it is to plan a wedding!? WHOLLY WHITE WEDDING batman! I bet I spend 20 hours a MONTH doing this.
3) Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME?! You want me to do WHAT?! This nut case (in this context my trainer) wants me to work out twice a day..yah. He suggested that..OUTLOUD. I didn't even TRY and promise him THAT would happen.

What I am getting at here people, is that life has taken over my life. There is not as much time for Project Runway (this season's brainless TV favorite from the view of MY couch)..and I am not seeing NEAR enough of the people who don't read this blog (aka friends) and really..I mean....its NUTS.

Anyway - I wanted to share some interesting things I have come across recently:
www.jimhjelm.com
www.billlevkoff.com
www.barijay.com

Fascinating. Aren't they?

See why my mind is mush? Did someone say something about North Korea? What was it that I heard?
Anyway....of to plan the wedding. The honeymoon isn't in North Korea, although I hear its BEAUTIFUL in May.