Friday July 25th-Meeting Uncle Skip

Well my cousin got married today. And while any who know me, know that I am a romantic at heart. So I could tell a story about the power of love, of two souls finding each other, of the groom crying as he read his vows, or of how my cousin who never really seemed to care about anyone at all found the one person she could love forever.
But instead I am going to write about Uncle Skip.
Skip is the stuff of legend in my family. Although he is not related to me, he always seems to come up. He is the brother of my cousin's father. So their uncle, but an uncle to me in, well, not even in name only.
But oh how I have waited to meet Skip.
Let's see if I can do a brief history of Skip. He went to work one summer after graduating law school for a judge in Chicago. That judge happened by chance to move to DC that fall to serve on the most powerful court in the land. You and I know him as Justice Stevens from the Supreme Court. Yeah. That guy. After doing this, Skip could pretty much write his own ticket anywhere in the world. Where he eventually went was Atari. Remember them? He was there when they were the biggest thing in the world. Then he went to Universal. He was there when that company got sold and he made a ton of money. Skip now "freelances" as he calls it. Let's put it this way: I was talking to him today about Shanghai, as he used to live in China and knows it well. He starts the advice by saying "well last time I was there I was a guest of the government..." Yes, the government of China was tyring to wine and dine him to get him to open a factory outside of Hong Kong.
Yeah.
Skip used to give my cousin's $100 to be quiet in car rides. I would not be surprised at all if the card he gave my cousin today contained a check for over $100,000. Seriously, I would not even blink. Think of people who bought Snapple or IBM stock before they took off. He is probably that rich, tens of millions in the bank.
He is one of "those guys." Ever watch the news, and here them talk about big ticket democratic fund raisers, the ones who do the collecting from their friends and raise millions? Skip is one of those guys. Barack Obama was told that Skip is someone good to know if you want to be a national politician. So it was Obama who called Skip THE DAY AFTER his big speech at the 2004 Convention. Obama called him, wanted to get on Skip's good side. Skip was the chair of the Edwards 2008 and 2004 campaigns. He oversaw the WHOLE state. He knows Bill and Hillary Clinton personally. Again, he is a MASSIVE fundraiser for the democrats. He used to say hello to Madonna in the morning when she would drive by his house. He takes my cousins to movie premieres and to Sun Valley Idaho to ski with Bruce Willis.
And once again, if Obama wins, Skip will be thanked. If Obama wins, I will always remember Skip telling the story about how he saw the big speech in 2004, and checked his messages after ward to see that Obama had called him after the speech. The next day they went out to lunch, just Obama and Uncle Skip. I just missed hitting the "related through marriage" jackpot on this one.
He is of course, I must say, a wonderful person. If he gave my cousin a lot of money, it was certainly not to because it means so little to him. I am sure the thought of being able to give my cousin life changing money so that she and her husband can start their life together makes him feel great inside. He also just got married to his partner of 30 years last month. They wanted to get married before the same sex marriage ban proposal goes on the ballot in California. Seriously. Listening to him tell the story about getting married when they first offered them in San Fran, only to have his government take it away was sad. Even better, was the story of wonderful it felt to stand in line last month and get married again. As his partner Van put it, its a wonderful thing to be treated the same as everyone else in the world.
Uncle Skip...worth the girl puking of sure.