Ode to a Name

Mar27

Arianna Poland.

It’s a damn good name. And for 30 years, 9 months and 27 days it was my name. My full, legal name.

We had an awesome time. We did incredible (and not so incredible) things together, Name.

We were born. We moved around the country. We made friends. Graduated high school. College. Fell in love. Got engaged.

7 months ago we got married, Name. We got married to a new name. And while I wore you fiercely and proudly, today with that same fierce pride, I release you to wherever names go when they no longer exist.

As of 12:30 this afternoon I have a new name. Not because I dislike you, Old Name. Not in the least. I love you more than I can possibly express with mere words.

No, today I have a new name because I know that my name alone does not define who I am. Actions do that. And so, today I embrace my New Name.

Arianna Rose Suddreth.

New Name, let’s go change the world.

March Madness

Mar17

The brackets have been set!

If you haven’t seen the brackets yet, let me tell you, the Midwest is by far the hardest, especially if you are Wichita State, the number 1 seed in that region. In order for them to reach the title game in North Texas they have to (potentially) take this path:

– Cal Poly/Texas Southern

– Kentucky(or Kansas State)

– Louisville (unlikely that Louisville doesn’t make it past Manhattan and then St. Louis)

– Duke

– Arizona (the number 1 seed in the West Region) in the Final Four

– Florida/Virginia in the title game

Good luck, Shockers.

Perhaps an even bigger story is the fact the SMU was left out of the tournament completely.

Cool little stat pack – all of Kansas’ Division 1 men’s teams are in the tournament; Kansas, Kansas State, and Wichita State. Second cool stat pack – 7 out of 10 Big 12 teams are in the tournament! Final cool thing – Danny Manning and the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes also made it.

Here’s a link to a printable bracket if you are into that sort of thing.

Good luck to all you bracket players, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Rock Chalk!

Ringing in the positive

Jan3

While at dinner with my father and sister and brother in-law last night my husband leaned over to me and very quietly said ‘I would like the next three sentences out of your mouth to be positive.’

Naturally, my immediate reaction was to go on the offense and my husband knew I would and told me ‘I know you’re trying to be funny. I don’t think you realize it’s negative. I was just making you aware.’

Funny thing is, he was right. (Don’t tell him I said that). I was trying to be funny and I didn’t realize I was being so negative.

And like it or not, I think this is something that I do often without even realizing it. Another example?

During a recent conversation about movies and actors I stated that I do not like Jennifer Lawrence. Everyone asked me why and I don’t really have a good reason. She just bugs me. But while I was having the same conversation with my best friend via text message, I said the reason I don’t like her is because everyone praises her for lashing out at the Hollywood bullies and ridiculousness of the industry name calling and the meanness of it all but she’s doing the same thing. She’s just attacking the the attackers. Just because you’re being mean to the meanies doesn’t mean you’re not being mean.

And then my best friend said ‘btw that’s you!’

Man. I suck.

I don’t want to be mean. And I don’t want to be negative. I’m the kid who tattooed the phrase ‘kindness can change the world’ on her wrist. The person who brought home an entire litter of flea infested puppies that were dumped on the road because I was afraid they were going to get run over. Or eaten by coyotes. I’m the nice person.

But recently I’ve been made aware that I’m not. I’m the mean person. And Humanity, I owe you a giant apology.

So, in 2014 I’m going to focus on the positive, pay more attention to my attitude, and make each day a reason to be thankful. Having just come off my favorite season, I think I need to do a better job at giving thanks all year instead of from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Here’s to 2014 and positivity!

Post-Christmas; Pre-New Year

Dec30

Since I haven’t posted anything since right after wedding when I updated the site to reflect my new name I thought it would be a good idea to post something before 2013 ends.

The months since the wedding have been a combination of highs and lows for us.

In October Brett’s aunt Jeanne lost her battle with cancer. She fought bravely and we miss her dearly. The memorial service for her was as lovely as such an occasion can be and the fellowship of family afterward is a resounding testament to Jeanne’s spirit.

November brings Thanksgiving and my favorite time of the year! This was the first year that we’ve had Thanksgiving at the lake house now that the kitchen remodel has been completed. After dinner the guys headed out to the Tennessee/Carolina border and spent four days fly fishing; I went to Tulsa to spend a few days with my Dad and nieces.

December always brings craziness and stress, but I think we mostly managed it with poise and grace. At our company’s annual holiday party Brett was honored with the company award for Culture; for the third year in a row. I could not have been more proud of him.

With Jeanne’s death, the tradition of Christmas Eve Eve was passed on to Brett and me. We hosted the entire Suddreth family at our home on the 23rd (all 30 of us); it was a lot of work but I am so glad we were able to carry on the tradition. We had lots of food, tons of laughs, and overall made sure that the spirit of the tradition Jeanne started was intact. I think we accomplished that – I hope we did.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were wonderful; watching the nieces open their gifts on Christmas morning is always a joy. I look forward to experiencing that joy with my own children in the future and hope that the nieces will share in their excitement!

While I certainly received some lovely gifts, I think the best gift of all is truly the time I get to spend with family and friends during the holiday. It is the gift I treasure the most because I know that someday we won’t have that gift – so I cherish while I can.

For now, I am preparing the house for my Dad’s arrival. Christmas continues this week at Suddreth Manor. I am also hoping to have a family dinner to celebrate Epiphany. We will see how successful I am with that!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and that the new year brings you nothing but joy and happiness.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Aug31

If you have been following the other site I maintain, http://www.ariannaandbrett.com, then you know that for the last year I have been planning my wedding. Well, I am happy to say that the wedding has come and gone and it was simply perfect!

With the wedding two weeks behind me, I have started updating all of the 79034032 things that come along with a woman getting married and changing her name. One of those things is this site. I have updated the url to reflect my new name. Everything that I’ve ever written is still here, but if you have this saved as a favorite or a quick link, you will need to update the link, as the old link will give you the WordPress equivalent of a 404 error.

Basically, it will tell you that ariannapoland.wordpress.com no longer exists and that the author has deleted it; which is only partially true. I didn’t delete it, I just renamed it.

But, either way, that link will no longer work.

Now that the wedding has passed, I hope to be able to update this on a more regular basis – especially since we will spend the next year planning our first anniversary vacation! Stayed tuned for more details on that (the majority of that journey will be documented at the other site)

I hope you will continue to come back and check out what I have to say!