Overdue Crushable: My Wife
Since I’ve been talking about crushable women a bunch lately, I realize I’ve been remiss about writing about the most crushable of them all – my beautiful wife Stephanie. I know I talk about her occasionally and post photos, but I haven’t really gone all out very many times, have I? I know I’m probably being selfish because I don’t like to share. But in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I’ll be nice and let you see how cute Stephanie is. If only to make you jealous.
She a total bookworm, much like a real-life Hermione Granger. She figure skates, so she’s hot in those short skate dresses. She’s a bad-ass editor for a publishing company who is completely fearless about correcting chalkboard menu misspellings in public. And she’s totally into me – which is the most attractive quality a woman can have, in my opinion.
Check out these photos of her being awesome.
At a friend’s wedding
On the scooter
Talking on the phone about how awesome I am
Trying out for Wheel of Fortune with our pal Melissa because she’s a word nerd & WOF brainiac.
Popping into a phone booth to change to her super hero identity
Taming wild beasts
Taming more wild beasts
Winning one of many gold medals at skating competitions
Making cute faces at the camera
And of course, my favorite thing my wife has done: marry me
Now aren’t I the luckiest duck ever?
Not quite skate-able
But close – there’s enough ice to keep her above the surface, but it’s to rough to really skate. Stephanie in the backyard.
Stephanie with straight hair
Her hairdresser suggested it for fun.
365 project – Day 2
I remembered at the end of the day that I was trying to learn this new habit of taking a photo every day – so I quickly snapped a picture of Stephanie while she sat at her computer. I’ll do my best to avoid a lot of “quick take a photo” moments.
Stephanie’s birthday iPhone.
After much running back and forth between the Apple Store & the AT&T
Store, we got her new iPhone activated.
My lovely soon-to-be wife
Stephanie, getting her hair done for our wedding. Our hair was done by the lovely women at All About You Salon on 116th and Guildford. They’re great; I highly recommend them.
The name “Stephanie” on Babynamer.com
One of the blogs I read regularly pointed out the site babynamer.com in a blog post, because it’s a nicely-designed and interesting site on baby names. They include a long definition and origin of each name, a section on famous people with that name, a long list of related alternate names, and then a funny feature – “drawbacks” for any given name (all the mean things people will call your kid). The drawbacks page is definitely the selling point that sets this apart from other baby name sites.
Here’s what babynamer.com says about the name Stephanie:
Meaning: Its source is Stephanos, a Greek name meaning “Crown or garland.”
In French, this name is spelled with an accent — Stéphanie.
Languages: This girl’s name is used in German, English and French.
Nicknames: Fanny, Steffi, Steffie, Stefi, Stevey, Stevie and Stepha
Alternative Spellings: Stefaney, Stefani, Stefanie, Stefany, Steffanie, Steffany, Stepfanie, Stephaine, Stephaney, Stephani, Stephannie, Stephany, Stephenie, Stephyne and Stephney
Variant Forms: Estephanie, Stepanie, Stephane, Stephine, Stephnie and Stefne
Non-English Forms: Estefana, Estefania, Stefania, Estebana, Stefanida, Étiennette, Stefana, Stepána and Stepanida
Popularity: The name Stephanie ranked 41st in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of 2000-2003 Social Security Administration statistics, 41st in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1990 US Census and 10th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1994 US Census.
This name is highly rated both on the 1990 U.S. Census list and in state data recording the most popular baby names.
Narrative: According to Christian scripture, Stephen was the first martyr, and the influence of this saint accounts for the popularity of both male and female variations of his name in many Western languages.
The Bible describes Stephen as a righteous and compassionate person who refused to disguise his beliefs, even though his frankness cost him his life. (How apropo!)He was condemned to death by stoning, and the cloaks of those commissioned to do the bloody work were held by a fellow persecutor of the Christians, Saul of Tarsus.
In time, Saul became Paul the Apostle, shaper of Christian doctrine and Christian missionary to the entire ancient world.
That last two lines – where Paul the Apostle held the cloaks of the people who stoned Stephen to death, and then went on to become the most famous Christian missionary – so interesting.
And then, here are the drawbacks (with highlights of my favorites):
Phoney
Steppapee
Weffers
Stiffy
Stuffunny
Silly Steph
Schwefania
Neph
Stef-fanny (I got this one)
Stuffy Steffy (and this one, too.)
Stepper
Step on me
Steffe Weffe Waffle Face
Stetnie
Stuffy
Stay funny
Sneff
Stupid Stephanie (What? That’s not even creative.)
Stay Fine
Stepharoni
Steppy
Stephanopolis
Roani
Staphanie the Giraffanie
Epiphany
Steffers
Steffe Weffe (I got this one, too.)
Snephanie
Step
Stef-funny
Effnie
Stephanuffeluffagus
Steffie Stuff
Snephrod
Stephanovich
Stephanitis
None of these is the exact name my baby cousins used to say when they were too small to pronounce my name: “Nephne.”