Friday, September 01, 2006

The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Part 2

Number 3 is also true, but unfairly crafty. After I was 35, I had a case in The United States Supreme Court (capital "S" capital "C"), but attention to the docket would reveal that I did not argue it. It was argued by Miguel Estrada. Before I was 35, I had a case in another supreme court (lower case "s" lowe case "c"), i.e. the Supreme Court of Texas, which I was fortunate enough to argue. Iron Pol, who has devined my real identity, found my resume online and had all the facts in front of him, but alas, the devil is in the details.

By elimination, number 2, which sounds true, is false. Mrs. Greyhound was not my high school sweetheart, nor did we go to the same college. And this is a story in itself.

When I was a kid, we visited Mrs. Greyhound's home town once each summer for a family reunion. I dissed that little town once, and my mother, the Baptist prophetess remarked, "You don't know, you might actually marry a girl from this town some day." Moms are scarry, because through an improbable turn of events, that statement came true.

Mrs. Greyhound and I were both high school, classical instrumentalists in the State of Oklahoma. Given that we did not play steel guitar and sing about prison, trains and life on the farm, that is a fairly small circle of folks, so it is highly unusual that we never crossed paths. I was in the Oklahoma City Junior Syphony, and the year after I left to join the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra, Mrs. Greyhound joined the Junior Symphony. I was in the All State Band or Orchestra for three years. My senior year, Mrs. Greyhound was also in the orchestra and we knew some of the same people, but we never met. After graduation we went to different schools. Mrs. Greyhound went to OU, I went to Wisconsin.

After years of passing like ships in the night, we finally met through a mutual friend at the Aspen Music Festival, where we were both student musicians. It was an instant love affair of the deepest and most meaningful level (i.e., she thought my tookus looked cute in those 1980s little black running shorts and I thought she was hawt--we were only 21 after all). Although you might like to think I'm all Alan-Alda-kind-of-sensitive, at age 21 I was hearing no wedding bells. I was only slightly less disgusting than the average 21 year old college kid. But the age of miracles is not yet passed. For one brief shining moment, this introvert had enough game to get this hawtty interested in me instead of her grad student boyfriend back home.
SUH-WEET!

We kept in touch, grew a relationship through correspondence, visited when I was home for hollidays and returned to Aspen the next summer. About 10 days after I graduated from UW Madison in May of 1989 we were married and have remained so ever since--mostly through her tolerance and longsuffering nature. In introverted type A perfectionist can be a prickly life partner. Add triathlon to the picture and you have extended absences, but at least I'm usually too tired to be mean.

Congrats to Danielle and Tri-Mama who nailed the answer. Contact me by e-mail and tell me where to send the schwag. (I can deliver yours, tri-mama, at IMWI if you like). 21st Century Mom picked the right statement for the wrong reason and Fe-Lady picked the right statement with no specification of the falsehood. If you contact me by e-mail, I'll send you some schwag anyway, because that's just the kind of guy I am.

And now you know . . . the rest . . . of the story.

11 comments:

tri-mama said...

Can't wait to meet ya!

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

Oh, I'm good. Even though my random guess was right, I am still in awe of Iron Pol's sleuthing skills...

Iron Pol said...

And there are still lots of guesses missing from my 2 truths and a lie.

Probably because I didn't promise all kinds of schwag. And now, there's the whole "Do I sign up for IM MOO '07" whether it's in the budget or not" thing.

And Danielle, there wasn't any real secret to the sleuthing. Greyhound posted about his anniversary. He also posted a race report where he provided his bib number. That provided his real name. As a lawyer, he is registered with the state bar, and given a name, the bar will provide full name, bar #, and employer. His employer had a listing of his major cases (and his phone number, which I almost called to attempt to interrogate him for further information).

Simple Internet data mining.

Iron Pol said...

And the whole "high school sweetheart" thing should have been a dead giveaway. Does anyone marry their high school sweetheart, anymore?

I didn't even marry in the same state. Though my father and father-in-law did serve on the same Navy ship before either of us was out of diapers.

TriBoomer a.k.a. Brian said...

Hmmmmmmm... I think the ladies used some kind of "feminine intuition" sort of power to come up with the right answer. No fair!

Joking aside, congrats Danielle and Tri-Mama. You MUST report what kind of G'hound swag you get.

Stay tuned...

21st Century Mom said...

Shucks! I got it right but got it wrong twice! Oh well. And now I have to tell my story.

Thanks for the game - that was fun.

21st Century Mom said...

ps to those who doubt that high school sweethearts ever marry. I know 2 couples who have been married for a long, long time, one of whom started going steady when he was 14 and she was 13 and the other when they were 17 and 16 (can't remember who has a couple of months on the other). So - it does happen. Not to me or to Greyhound, but to some people.

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

IP, you make it sound so simple! You must be an experienced internet stalker :-) And if this guess was right, I am sure that my guess that you were shot in a duel over Mrs. Pol is also correct :-)

Unknown said...

IP is totally an internet stalker. i myself have never done stalking IRL or on the internet. no sir. and her name was NOT angelina jolie.

Allez said...

I would have guessed #2. But I'm way too late! Go Badgers!

Papa Tweet said...

Thanks for the background Greyhound. When I read this, it makes me wonder why you call yourself a former band geek. Like you are ashamed of who you were. Not that I think that you were, but it seems to me that you have much to be proud of. Next time, you should call yourself a former musician gone. Alternatively, my background is the exact opposite. But my background has little relevance to the rest of my life. I didn't learn a skill or a talent that is worth anything to anyone, including myself. Anyway, thanks for sharing this with us. And remember, be proud. You've earned it.
Benny