Contributed by the O’Neills.

Mike

The details of my life are quite inconsequential … Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy… (apologies to Dr. Evil).

Seriously though, in 1991, I got a job with the Ohio Legislative Service Commission in Columbus. It’s the nonpartisan research and bill drafting arm of the Ohio General Assembly. Think of us as the shoemaker’s elves. While there, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of pretty interesting topics: tort reform, concealed carry, criminal sentencing, elections, labor, foreclosures, and payday lending. Obviously, I’ve moved around subject area-wise in the office, which keeps things fresh. I currently head up the Insurance, Commerce, Financial Institutions, and Real Estate division, or, as one of my group members likes to call it: the group of IC and FIRE. (Yes, we’re all pretty nerdy.) Although my pension vests in the next year or so, I have no current plans to retire.

On the personal side, I married a girl I met in law school. I’ll bring her to the reunion. We had two children, Kevin and Brian. Kevin got a degree in cognitive science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with a minor in computer science. He is now a grad student in Human Factors Psychology at Wright State University. Brian is in his last year at THE Ohio State University,™ where he is majoring in physics and math, with a minor in chemistry. I get the feeling both are rebelling against their parents’ liberal arts education (History and English Lit). But, as these fields seem to have jobs, I’m not arguing.

When the boys were, well, boys, we were involved in Boy sScouts. Since then, I’m still involved in Scouting a little, but have expanded my hobbies more into genealogy, hiking, and birdwatching. After bingeing The Great British Baking Show last fall, I tried my hand at baking. I am now on a diet.

With the kids largely out of school, we’ve begun to travel a little more widely. This last summer, we went to Ireland, where we visited some of the places my ancestors lived. The people were delightful and the scenery beautiful. Before that, we went to Italy and California’s Lake Tahoe.

Shari

After being an appellate law clerk, a staff attorney at a personal injury law firm, and counsel to a state commission that abruptly closed, I am back in the court system as a staff attorney/magistrate for the Delaware County Common Pleas Court General Division.  The job has the perfect mix of research, writing, and human interaction, so I am really enjoying it.

Still hanging out with classmate Mike O’Neill who keeps me laughing and always trying new things (homemade French patisserie, kayaking, living on a budget).  Having fun birdwatching, restoring dollhouses, and watching Netflix (does that count as a hobby?).  Very proud of our two sons who grew up way too fast.