I finally succumbed and wrote up my “25 things” note in Facebook. Seemed like a few of you might enjoy the list (and by enjoy, obviously I mean ridicule me endlessly):
1. My first concert was Huey Lewis and the News.
2. I’ve lived at 23 addresses in 7 states and 2 countries. I’ve lived in California on four separate occasions.
3. My first kiss was on a boat. With a French girl. On the Seine. At night. At the base of the Eiffel Tower.
4. I played clarinet for 10 years, and played in a concert orchestra, marching band, jazz band, and a pit orchestra for two school musicals.
5. Barack Obama came to our house in Illinois.
6. I was a law clerk for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in 1994.
7. I was the runner-up for the job of first White House webmaster. Thank God I didn’t get it – the other guy did a much better job than I would have.
8. I once worked for a CEO who told me at lunch that he was relieved the day our stock lost 90% of its value. I quit later that afternoon.
9. Robin and I resisted meeting each other for almost 3 months, and were finally tricked into meeting. I asked her out the night we met.
10. The morning after our first date, I was supposed to drive to see an old girlfriend. I called that morning to cancel the trip – I knew I was going to marry Robin.
11. My first job was washing dishes at Chez Claude, a French restaurant in Acton, MA. 10 years later I proposed to Robin in that same restaurant. It’s closed now.
12. My 20th high school reunion is this year.
13. I was fired from a job I loved.
14. In high school I looked so much like Robert Sean Leonard (at the time, in Dead Poets Society) that I actually gave autographs as him to get a group of girls to leave me alone. (Can think of at least two ways I could have handled that smarter, come to think of it.)
15. I’ve had braces twice – once as a junior high student and once as an adult.
16. I love the way my oldest son yawns the same way at the same point as he says his prayers every night.
17. I may be the only man in America married to a female Boy Scout.
18. I have always been able to justify buying any gadget.
19. I worked at The Nature Company on school breaks in college and law school. Famous customers: Laura San Giacomo, David Robinson, Steven Tyler.
20. My Nature Company manager in Minneapolis was engaged to Al Gore’s chief scheduler. One day in law school, I drove up to meet her at The White House, and he convinced me to help the staff prank their boss, Al Gore’s chief of staff. I was certain I’d never work in Washington as a result.
21. My name has been on two ballots – once as a delegate for Howard Dean in the 2004 primary, and once as a candidate for Township Trustee in 2005. I received the endorsement from the local paper when I ran for Naperville Trustee – the first Democrat to get that endorsement in decades. I lost.
22. The two best speeches I’ve ever given were as best man – once at my brother’s wedding, and once at Jim McNeal’s wedding. Neither is recorded.
23. I had never been to Las Vegas until 2006. I’ve now gone 6 times.
24. I founded the world’s first student-edited law journal to publish exclusively online (1995). We beat Harvard by 3 months.
25. All three of my children were born premature (either that, or Robin and I can’t count). Two were exactly the same weight/length (6 pounds 15 ounces and 19 inches) and the other was just an ounce and an inch difference.