I usually do some preparation before I conduct interviews with the subjects of the monthly profiles, such as reading over their biography or googling them but this time; I was flying by the seat of my pants.  I had nothing to read and was told that I didn’t need to do anything prior to the interview.  Odd, I thought.  I was only told that Doug Meick was “a character.”  Being a so-called “character” can cut both ways, so I didn’t know what to expect as I drove to the Old Dominion Boat Club at the foot of King Street to interview Doug.  
I found Doug sitting at the bar, which was sparsely populated, looking very quiet.  I thought to myself, “He doesn’t LOOK like a character?” Looks can be deceiving.
Meick has been profiled in the Old Town Crier in 1995.  After initial introductions, he immediately handed over a copy of the previous profile with his hand-written edits. The last profile seems to have been conducted in the vein of a question and answer interview but lacking any real information about who the subject really is. There were the usual categories:  occupation (followed by a colon and the answer), born, hometown, marital status, etc.  While this is not the way that I like to write, I will keep some of this information in this profile because when asked about his answer to each category, an interesting story ensued.  I was determined to bring new life into this second-time around profile.
The old profile began with the category of occupation.    I decided to innocently ask what I thought was a simple question, “What do you do for a living?” I soon learned that asking Meick a direct question doesn’t yield a direct answer.  In response to the query about his occupation, he responded, “Caster of Spells, Shrubbusters, Commodore, Count de Money (pronounced Mo—Nay) and he added bullfighter this time around.  Later on, he revealed that he works in information technology on Capitol Hill.  I wondered what Meick would say when asked another seemingly simple question “Where are you from?”  Yet again, I got a listing of places, such as, Alexandria, Monte Carlo, Palm Beach and St. Raphael.  His explanation for this random assortment was that his father was a civilian who worked for the government and the family traveled quite a bit, and the other places are locations where he has recently spent some time.  
Another basic question, marital status.  This time, I got an easy answer, “Yes.”  Doug always smiles when he speaks of his wife, Donna, whom he calls the Portuguese Contessa and also calls her his greatest accomplishment.  He also said that it is hard for people to tell if he is married because his wedding band is his Scottish clan’s badge with the flag of St. Andrews on one side of the ring and the clan’s motto on the other side, Ne Oublie, which means “never forget.”  The ring was a gift from is wife.  He first met his wife when he was living in Germany as a child thirty years ago.  Their families were friends.  He was 15 and she was 13 and they later became reacquainted in the States and the rest is history.  
In the spirit of a true romantic, he has married his wife three times!  They were first married in Europe in 2003 and then twice in the States.  The second “marriage” occurred when his wife went to the Alexandria Social Security office to change her name and was told that she could not because it had been more than two years since they were married.  So for $65, Donna and Doug got married again on the same exact date as the first wedding in 2005 so she could change her name to Meick.  The last wedding, a renewal of the vows, was in Vegas, at the famous or infamous Elvis wedding chapel in 2008 complete with a fake Elvis singing “Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love.”  Fake Elvis even made an appearance on the couple’s holiday cards last year when they decided that the photo that they took in Vegas was ideal to send out to friends and family to send a bit of holiday cheer.  He also carries a copy of his wedding invitation in his wallet.  
I next tackled what could be a serious issue, greatest fear. Response--Running out of ice.  That’s a new one for me.  He equated a place with no ice or just a little ice to a place that would be desolate and uncivilized.  He spoke of the difficulty in obtaining ice in places like the England.  He said “when we need a drink, we just put a cube in, there is no issue.”  His statement did give me pause because I wondered what kinds of places don’t have readily accessible ice.  I may not want to be there for a long period either.  Ice is a civilizing force because as Meick says, “When its cocktail time, we can have a drink.”  Out of the mouths of bon vivants…..
Next, hobby.  He remarked “Bondathon.”  Meick owns around 12 tuxedos and was looking for a way to get some use out of them. He has white dinner jackets, multiple pairs of tails, morning coats and the like.  Last year around the holidays, he decided to have his own Bond-esque type of adventure, “Six Days with Bond.”  He wore a different tuxedo to a different venue each night marking a different James Bond movie. One night, he wore a tuxedo and matched it with a fur hat, and that was his ode to “To Russia with Love.” The night of the white dinner jacket was a throwback to “Goldfinger.”  He emailed his friends to apprise him of his location for each night so they could watch his Bond fantasies play out in Old Town.  “Six Days with Bond” also allowed Meick to go through his tuxedo wardrobe to assess what fit and what didn’t.   
Staying with the theme of dressing up, Meick also had a movie week recently.  He owns a plethora of costumes, many of which were obtained when a local costume shop went out of business.  He also donned a custom-made John Paul Jones outfit for the annual George Washington birthday parade.  Jones was the first well-known naval fighter in the Revolutionary War.  Next, he would like to do a bullfight—he already has the outfit!
After telling me these stories, Doug remarked that at this stage of his life that he prefers throwing his own parties instead of attending someone else’s.  This was exactly the reason why he threw his own Presidential Inaugural Ball at the Old Dominion Boat Club aptly titled “Zoo Ball, Screw Ball.”  He jokingly asked me “Did you get your ticket to the inauguration?” I said. “Why, no. Did you?”  The theme for his invitation was a Top 10 List to attend based on the David Letterman nightly Top 10.  Some of the reasons on his invitation were: “Were you screwed out of inaugural ball tickets? Do you have a ball gown/tuxedo that you haven’t used? Are you disenfranchised?”  In an interesting twist, he said that for reasons he still has yet to find out why, he was contacted by a teacher in Wasilla, Alaska, to ask if she and her student band could attend his fete.  In case Wasilla sounds familiar, this is the hometown of Sarah Palin.  This teacher did in fact travel from Alaska to Alexandria to attend the Meick Inaugural, but her students dined at the Fish Market because it wouldn’t have been appropriate for them to be at the ball because alcohol was being served.  
Here are a few other interesting Doug Meick facts:  Favorite Car—Daffodil Yellow Silver Shadow which he still owns. Vacation spot—Beaches or Montreal.  TV Program—Burn Notice.  
Doug is a social butterfly and this comes out if not immediately, very shortly after meeting him.  Everyone at the Old Dominion Boat Club knows Doug and we were stopped quite a few times by those that he knew or folks that he wanted to point out to me.  He recently threw a Cinco de Mayo party there and decorated the bar with about 80 shot glasses with little umbrellas.    
At first, the things that Doug was telling me seemed really random, such as his intense dislike for fake Rolexes.  He dislikes fake Rolexes because if someone isn’t having fun with an item that’s fake, then it just isn’t right in his opinion.  He decided to conduct a social experiment at Landini Brothers and placed a fake Rolex in the men’s bathroom.  Much to his surprise, no one turned in the watch.  The watch sat in the bathroom.  Meick summed it up to people knowing that the watch was fake and leaving it where it was.  However, after a while, I realized that the information that Meick was revealing about himself wasn’t random at all, but had the theme of friendship, good living, and not taking life too seriously.  He works hard and plays hard.  He believes that he belongs in Alcatraz but if fun is a crime, then most of us would be there right along with Doug.  Even in Alcatraz, I am sure that Doug would be the party planner.  Doug Meick best summarized himself when I first sad down to talk to him – “My thing is strictly fun!”

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